Yao Ming came to the NBA with high expectations while those of us who had not seen him held questions about his game.
Will he be another Shawn Bradley type 7-6 center... a player simply too tall to make a serious impact? Would his game be effective against the best players in the world night and night out rather than unknown chinese athletes who clearly are no where near par?
Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander had some idea of what kind of future his team had when they won the NBA lottery back in June, Leslie at the time said breathlessly in a phone call to the team president, "This is going to be the biggest individual sports story of all time."
After an early start, limited more by opportunities with options such as Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley on the court than his own abilities, Yao Ming has come into his own. He seems to record double digit points and rebounds with ease and currently leads the NBA in field goal percentage at 59 percent. But more importantantly the early season favorite for Rookie of the Year has impressed opponents with his skillful passing and defense.
According to Jere Longman of the New York Times Yao's early season success has altered the NBA's marketing approach in a fundamental way. Houston has become the centerpiece of the league's China strategy and its long effort to expand its business into the world's largest consumer market and fastest-growing economy, and other teams now look at other ethnic groups in a more desperate manner to 'get a piece of the pie' so to speak.
"It's the largest population base in the world by a fair amount; on top of that, we know there are a lot of basketball fans there," said Russ Granik, the N.B.A.'s deputy commissioner. "On any long-term basis, you've got to consider China about as important a market as can be."
The Rockets and other teams such as the Golden State Warriors, with an Asian population of 1.5 million in the Bay Area, have been taking advantage of Yao-mania.
The Warriors have offered ticket plans of three and seven games centered around visits by the Houston Rockets, with Ming even preparing a videotape for fans in the Bay Area thanking them for coming to see him. On November 27, according to Longman, public-address announcements were made in English and Mandarin.
The Rockets have employed similar strategies in Houston, the team hiring four Mandarin-speaking executives and building billboards that are written in Ming's native language.
China is set to view 30 Houston games this season, with some of these expected to reach audiences in the vacinity of 280 million households, roughly equal to the entire population of the United States. Through the use of advertising this gives corporate sponsors a chance to gain entry into a consumer market of 1.2 billion people.