Declaring himself "here on business," hometown boy Yao Ming joined Tracy McGrady and the rest of the Houston Rockets in preparations yesterday for the first NBA games ever played in China -- a pair of matchups against the Sacramento Kings in Shanghai and Beijing.
Yao and the team settled into their hotel after the long flight from the US, but scratched a scheduled practice session at the Shanghai city gymnasium after a baggage mixup.
The 2.26m Yao told reporters at a packed news conference at the gymnasium that he was happy to be home, but didn't consider his visit a social call.
"I'm here on business and I want to play well," said Yao, who was selected for Shanghai's youth team at age 14 and later played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese professional league.
Coach Jeff Van Gundy said he would likely play Yao between 22 and 28 minutes in tomorrow's game to give the Shanghai fans the thrill of seeing the hugely popular center on the court.
"Obviously I want to play him because he's in his hometown, but I don't want to overplay him given that it's only the second exhibition game and we have a long season ahead of us," Van Gundy said.
"I know he wants to play very, very well here and I want to give his fans the opportunity to see him play," he added.
Van Gundy said the team would workout in their hotel health club yesterday, then hit the court today.
"We don't want to make any excuses. We just want to play well and keep improving so I don't think that the long flight will have anything to do with how we play," Van Gundy said.
Van Gundy also said he expected Yao to mesh well with McGrady, the two-time league scoring champ who was acquired from the Orlando Magic to Houston in a seven-player deal.
"He's one of the special talents in the NBA. We feel that Yao and Tracy are both unselfish players who will share the ball not only with each other but also with their teammates," Van Gundy said.
Shanghai has heavily refur-bished the city gym that was built in the days of Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) 1966-'76 Cultural Revolution, putting in an NBA regulation floor, giant television screens and additional dressing room and office space.
The gymnasium seats about 10,000, but only about 3,000 tickets were available for fans and were snapped up in one afternoon.
The games are the NBA's latest attempts to harness basketball's surging popularity in China, 25 years after Wes Unseld and the former Washington Bullets visited Shanghai to play the Chinese national team.
Fourteen Chinese broadcasters already show up to six regular-season NBA games a week. NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant have visited to promote the league.
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