Yao Ming emphasizes sport spirit as a factor for change

By Chen Boyuan
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 3, 2014
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Ex-NBA star Yao Ming emphasizes the role of spirit over muscles in making a change in China's sports development. [Photo/Sina]



Yao also helped establish the NBA Yao School in Beijing, a comprehensive program devoted to youth development on and off the basketball court.

In Yao's school, young players receive basketball instruction from experts in a positive environment. Sessions include training focused on topics such as sportsmanship, communication, teamwork, respect and creativity.

Yao's concept is still greeted with skepticism from some parents who care more about "quantitative results," such as how many centimeters in height their children can grow by playing basketball and whether credits gained in Yao's school would earn extra points on college entrance exams.

Yao said he had difficulty explaining how to measure the growth of his students' confidence, because "after all, one cannot measure it with a band tape."

Yao is convinced that "sport has the power to change the world," a motto of Nelson Mandela. Yao said sport is a mental power rather than a tool. It is spirit, rather than muscles, that will change the world.

Yao said the most important element in sports is that any player, no matter the skill level, has to follow the rules to achieve recognition. He added that rule of law in a country resembles fair play in sports. In practice, certain business regulators sometimes engage in profit-seeking activities that are not approved by the public.

Yao translated the phenomenon as "a referee becoming a player," which would be anything but fair. He said anyone who has played a sport would understand that fair play is what everyone expects.

Once hailed as "an ambassador in sneakers" during his NBA career, Yao brought novel ideas home to China after his retirement from professional basketball. He made clear the need to make sports mean more than "bringing honor to one's homeland." Yao said sportsmanship has great inspirational powers beyond those found in the quest for a gold medal, but they have to be experienced by one's own eyes and heart.

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