Several years ago, when NBA hopeful Yi Jianlian visited the US city of Las Vegas at the end of a training trip, an American mistook him for Yao Ming and called out, “Yao Ming, you’re a man!” It was the last thing the Chinese athlete wanted to hear. He gave a tight smile and then, as politely as he could, he recited one of the few English phrases he has committed to memory1: “I am not Yao Ming.”
Maybe not. But Yi Jianlian had better get used to the lofty2 expectations. A lot of people on both sides of the Pacific are hoping that the talented 7-ft. teenager will be the next Yao Ming. Yi wears size-18 shoes, just like Yao. But it is the glimmer3 of his vast potential4—the explosive slam dunks, the boyish good looks, even the mystery surrounding his age—that has catapulted5 Yi beyond where Yao stood at this point in his career. The attention is a bit overwhelming6 for a shy kid who started playing basketball only a few years ago.“I do feel a lot of pressure,” says Yi. “But what I need most is to learn and to practice—not to get distracted7 by being famous.”
Aside from Yao, two other Chinese players have already played in the NBA: Mengke Bateer, a muscle-bound8 6-ft. 11-in. reserve center with the Toronto Raptors, and Wang Zhizhi, a lithe9, 7-ft. 1-in. sharpshooter with the Los Angeles Clippers. Afterwards, the player-seekers transfer their attention to the much younger players, such as Tang Zhengdong and Chen Jianghua, whose dunks look like the behavior of the Kongfu superstar Jet Li.
Nevertheless, all these young players are inferior to Yi Jianlian as the talent rookie10 is the favorite of more insiders.
Yi Jianlian, from Shenzhen in Guangdong Province is the son of two former athletes—his 6-ft. 5-in. father and 5-ft. 8-in. mother were both handball players—Yi was discovered in 1999 on a playground in Shenzhen. Barely out of grade school, he was already 6 ft. 4 in. tall. Yi’s parents, however, were reluctant to let their only son play basketball.
“We had endured hardships ourselves,” says Yi’s mother, who like her husband works as a postal clerk.“We couldn’t get good jobs when we retired because we didn’t have a good education. We wanted more for our son.”
Dai Yixin, the school’s veteran11 coach, finally convinced the parents their son wouldn’t get lost because he had all the raw ingredients12 of a star: speed, flexibility, coordination, leaping ability, size. By measuring the gaps between the bones of his hand and tracking13 the growth of his genitals14, Dai predicted that the youngster would reach 6 ft. 8 in. or 6 ft. 9 in.
Still, Yi’s career almost ended before it began.Halfway through his first 400-m training run at the full-time sports school, Yi stopped abruptly, gasping for breath, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I wanted to quit,” Yi says. “I had never lived away from home before, and I had no idea if I could make it as an athlete.” But his body kept growing, and so did his determination to make the best of a difficult situation.
Yi still preferred watching cartoons to NBA games, but by the time he joined Guangdong Hongyuan team, he was 6 ft. 11 in.—and he could leap and touch a spot more than 11 ft. 6 in. off the ground. As Yi mastered new skills—the midrange jumper, the baby hook15, the reverse slam—he attracted the attention of Adidas. Eager to loosen Nike’s hold on Chinese basketball, the shoe company flew Yi to New Jersey for its ABCD Camp in the summer of 2002. He was the only Chinese player there.
“It was an eye-opening experience for him,” says Guangdong junior coach Zhang Zhenming.“He came back with a very clear vision of where he wanted to go: the NBA.” Yi Jianlian is the first to admit he’s not ready for prime time16.“I’m too young and skinny,” he says, his baggy denim17 shorts and triple-XL Nike shirt only reinforcing18 his point.
“He needs to understand that it’s not enough to be talented,” China team coach Jonas Kazlauskas said.“He needs to fight for every step, for every position, for every ball. He was like a‘good boy’. Everyone could push him, could kick him out of the three-second zone. And he was happy with everything going around him.”
So when might Yi Jianlian don19 an NBA uniform? That depends on the biggest mystery of all: his age. The national junior-team roster says Yi was born on Oct. 27, 1987—and not eligible20 to enter the NBA draft independently as an international player until 2009. Yi and his parents both say on the record that he was born in 1987. But when pressed on the issue, Yi turns away and fills the room with an uncomfortable silence, and his father smiles blankly21 without responding. Whatever the truth, it doesn’t seem to bother Nike. The company recently beat out the competition and signed Yi to a six-figure, multiyear deal worth far more than his actual salary—and indeed more than Yao Ming’s original Nike contract. Forget about that other guy for a minute. The klieg lights22 of stardom are already starting to shine on the kid from Shenzhen.
几年前，希望打入NBA的易建联在一次训练之旅结束之际去拉斯维加斯观光，一位美国人误以为他是姚明，对他叫道：“姚明，你真棒！”这是这位中国运动员最忌讳听到的话。他尴尬地笑笑，尽可能礼貌地从他学到的为数不多的几句英文中大声丢出一句：“我不是姚明。”
就算不是，但是易建联最好还是适应人们对他的极高期望。实际上，太平洋两岸的很多人已经将这个极富天赋、身高7英尺的少年视为下一个姚明了。易建联的球鞋为18号，和姚明的一样，但他的潜能更加不可限量，极具爆发力的扣篮、英俊少年的脸庞、关于其真实年龄的谜团——这一切使得易建联的“起点”已经超越了当年的姚明。对一个几年前才刚开始篮球生涯的腼腆小子来说，这种关注确实有点让人招架不住。“我的确感觉到了很大的压力，”易建联说，“但我现在最需要的是学习和训练，而不是为名声所累。”
除了姚明，王治郅和巴特尔也在NBA球队中效力过。巴特尔身强体壮，身高6英尺11寸，是多伦多猛龙队的替补中锋；王治郅柔韧性好，身高7英尺1英寸，是洛杉矶快船队的神射手。此外，球探和经纪人们将目光投向了年纪更小的球员，譬如唐正东以及陈江华——他的转身扣篮让人不禁联想起功夫巨星李连杰的身手。
然而，这些年轻球员中没有人比易建联更被看好，天赋极高的篮球新秀易建联才是业内人士的最爱。
1999年易建联在广东深圳的一个运动场上被“发现”，他的父母曾经都是手球运动员，父亲身高6英尺5英寸，母亲5英尺8英寸。刚刚中学毕业，易建联就已经长到6英尺4英寸。然而最初，他的父母并不赞成他们的独生子打篮球。
“我们已经吃过不少苦头，”和她丈夫同样是邮局职员的易母说，“我们退役时没有找到好工作，因为我们没有接受过良好的教育，所以我们希望儿子能受到更好的教育。”
最后还是时任深圳市体校篮球教练的戴忆新说服了他们，使他们确信易建联不会失败，因为易建联具有成为球星的一切条件：速度、灵活性、协调性、弹跳和身高，此外通过测量他手骨之间的间隙以及记录他生殖器发育情况，戴教练预测他可以长到6英尺8英寸甚至6英尺9英寸。
然而，易建联的篮球生涯似乎还没开始就差点断送。当时他在这所全日制的体校中接受正规训练，在一次400米跑途中，易建联突然气喘吁吁、泪流满面地停下来了。“我想放弃，”他说，“这是我第一次离开家，我真的不知道我能不能成为一名优秀的运动员。”但是随着他身高的增长，他克服一切困难的决心也日益坚定了。
和看NBA球赛相比，易建联仍然更偏爱看动画片。当他加盟广东宏远队时，他的身高已经达到惊人的6英尺11英寸，摸高达到11英尺6英寸。易建联掌握了很多新技术——中投、小勾手和转身扣篮，因此吸引了阿迪达斯的注意。为了同与中国篮球队紧密合作的耐克公司展开竞争，2002年夏天阿迪达斯邀请易建联前往新泽西参加在那里举行的ABCD训练营，他也是那里的惟一一名中国球员。
“这次经历的确让他大开眼界，”原广东宏远青年队主教练张镇民说，“回来时，他已经明确了自己的目标：到NBA打球。”
易建联是第一个承认自己还没有作好准备的。他说：“我还太年轻、太瘦了。”他那宽松的牛仔布短裤和加大号的耐克衬衫恰恰证明了这一点。
“他必须懂得光有天赋是远远不够的，”中国国家队教练尤纳斯·卡斯劳斯卡斯说，“他应该一步一个脚印，为每一个位置，每一个进球而努力。他过去表现得像个‘乖孩子’，谁都可以推他，谁都可以把他挤出三秒区之外，此外他似乎有点安于现状。”
那么易建联什么时候能披上NBA战袍呢？关键还要看一个最神秘的因素：他的真实年龄。中国国家青年队的名册上说易建联出生于1987年10月27日。按照NBA的规定，作为国际球员，他必须等到2009年才能参加选秀。易建联自己和他的父母都公开说他出生于1987年，但如果进一步就此追问，他会转过脸去，一声不吭，让在座的人感到有些难堪，他的父亲也只是笑而不答。不管事实如何，这似乎都不会让耐克公司感到烦恼。该公司最近击败了竞争对手，和易建联签订了一份价值6位数的长期合同，远远超过了他的年薪，实际上这一数字也超过了当初耐克同姚明签约时的价码。先暂且不提姚明了。这个深圳男孩已经崭露头角，一颗耀眼的明星正在冉冉升起。
1. commit to memory 牢记
2. lofty adj. 崇高的
3. glimmer n. 迹象；轻微的表露
4. potential n. 潜能
5. catapult v. 突然把…捧出名
6. overwhelming adj. 压倒的; 势不可挡的
7. distract v. 分散注意力，使分神
8. muscle-bound 肌肉发达的
9. lithe adj. 柔软的
10. rookie n. 新人、新手
11. veteran n. 富有经验的人，老手
12. ingredient n. 成分
13. track v. 跟踪、记录
14. genitals n. 生殖器
15. baby hook 小勾手
16. prime time 黄金时期
17. denim n. 牛仔布
18. reinforce v. 增强；加强
19. don v. 穿上
20. eligible adv. 符合条件的
21. blankly adv. 面无表情地
22. klieg light 强弧光灯