father promised gifts for every shot he converted, and his mother nourished him with special family recipes. Drawing on their own playing days, Fang and Zhiyuan also offered plenty of advice and analysis. They also tutored their son on the beauty of the game, especially from a center’s standpoint.

By his twelfth birthday, Ming had become serious about basketball. His parents sent him to Shanghai’s provincial sports academy, where he worked on his game several hours a day. He lived in a dorm, and pedaled around campus on a bicycle that was comically small for him.

Being away from home focused Ming even more intently on basketball. His hero was Arvydas Sabonis, the world-class center who rose to prominence for the Soviet national teams of the mid-1980s. At the time, the 7-3 Lithuanian was honing his game in Spain. Ming loved the way Sabonis—who later played with the Portland Trailblazers—handled the ball, found open teammates with dazzling passes and stepped away from the basket for outside jumpers. He emulated his idol whenever he took the floor.

Ming’s progress helped earn him a spot on his local youth team, the Shanghai Oriental Sharks. By this time he had also discovered the world of basketball on the other side of the Pacific. A limited schedule of NBA games was broadcast in China, and Ming followed the Houston Rockets closely. Led by Hakeem Olajuwon, another agile big man, the Rockets won back-to-back championships in 1994 and 1995. Ming was hooked.
ON THE RISE

China’s national basketball program was also on the rise during the mid-1990s. Though an eighth-place finish at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta didn’t suggest it, the country was developing a talent pipeline and filling it with youngsters like Ming. The national team boasted two seven-footers, Wang Zhi-Zhi and Menk Bateer, both of whom could run the floor, play tough defense and score near the basket. Hoops had become so popular in China that a professional league, the Chinese Basketball Association, had been launched. The focus of the sport, however, was much different than in other countries. In China, teamwork was valued over individual achievement. In fact, in the CBA’s first season, statistics weren’t even kept.

Ming, who was pushing seven feet himself, planned to join the hometown Shanghai Sharks of the CBA for the 1997-98 season. Several American sporting goods companies were also looking to latch on with the league. Nike was as aggressive as any, inking a deal to sponsor the Sharks. When corporate executives got their first look at the team’s 17-year-old center, their eyes lit up. Ming was invited to a Nike camp held in Paris in the summer of 1997. Matched up against players his own age, he wowed everyone in attendance, including Del Harris, at the time the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

From there Nike got permission to bring Ming and a Sharks teammate, Liu Wei, to the U.S. They played with an AAU junior elite team, then attended the Nike All-American camp in Indianapolis. Surrounded by 200 of America’s best teenage prospects, Ming again flourished. Coaches and recruiters ranked him as the camp’s second-best center.

On the strength of that performance, Ming was invited to be a counselor at Michael Jordan’s Flight School in Santa Barbara, California. Though his English was limited, he fit in perfectly. Highlighting the camp for him were the five-on-five scrimmages organized by Jordan each night. During one game, Michael drained a three-pointer, then challenged Ming to do the same. To Jordan’s amazement, Ming ambled down the court and nailed one from beyond the arc.

Before going home, Ming played for China in the FIBA 22-and-Under World Championship in Melbourne, Australia. It was a humbling experience. China failed to win any of its seven games and finished dead last among the 12 teams in the tournament.