Are Yao Ming's shoes too big for Jeremy Lin to fill? Not necessarily, said NBA commissioner David Stern.

Lin has found himself in position to take Asian baton from Yao after signing a three-year, $25.1 million contract with the All-Star center's former team, the Houston Rockets. While their paths to the NBA were very different, Lin, who developed his game in the United States, could be a significant figure in the game's prosperity in China, but on a smaller scale.

"I think Lin's impact will be profound," Stern said.

"He has proven to smaller and shorter players that they have the ability to develop their skills and to play at the highest level of the sport.

"This is a very important statement. People have said you had to be so tall to play in the NBA. But that was never true. We have many great players who are not large. Jeremy Lin is going to enable young Chinese players to have a unique dream. That is a profound opportunity for Chinese basketball and the NBA to develop."

Despite the fact there will be no China-born players on NBA courts this coming season, Stern believes another Chinese star in the NBA is not far away.

"In two to maybe five years (you will see someone drafted from China again), but we are not going to identify them now," he said.

"It will put too much pressure on them and what they are doing. The Chinese basketball players and their families are becoming more sophisticated about the road to the NBA, whether it is going to high school, going to summer camps, college or through the Chinese system. We are going to see Chinese players and their families work out how to make a career in the NBA."

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)