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The riveting story behind NBA giant Yao Ming, the ruthless Chinese sports machine that created him, and the East-West struggle over China?s most famous son.
The Chinese Sports Empire, American Big Business, and the Ma
Gotham
November 2005
352 pages
ISBN: 1592400787
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
The NBA’s 7‘6" All-Star Yao Ming has changed the face of
basketball, revitalizing a league desperate for a new hero
while becoming a multimillionaire pitchman for Reebok and
McDonald’s. But his journey to America—like that of his
forgotten foil, 7‘1" Wang Zhizhi—began long before he set
foot on the world’s brightest athletic stage. Operation Yao Ming opens with the story of the two boys’
parents, basketball players brought together by Chinese
officials intent on creating a generation of athletes who
could bring glory to their resurgent motherland. Their
children would have no more freedom to choose their fates.
By age thirteen, Yao was pulled out of sports school to
join the Shanghai Sharks pro team, following in the
footsteps of Wang, then the star of the People’s Liberation
Army team. Rumors of the pair of Chinese giants soon
attracted the NBA and American sports companies, all eager
to tap a market of 1.3 billion consumers. In suspenseful scenes, journalist Brook Larmer details the
backroom maneuverings that brought China’s first players to
the NBA. Drawing on years of firsthand reporting, Larmer
uncovers the disturbing truth behind China’s drive to
produce Olympic champions, while also taking readers behind
the scenes of America’s multibillion-dollar sports empire.
Caught in the middle are two young men—one will become a
mega-rich superstar and hero to millions, the other a
struggling athlete rejected by his homeland yet lost in
America.
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