Remember because... part 4

[by Mark Nilrad] - Six years ago, Wang ZhiZhi had a choice. He was about to enter the NBA. He was the first Chinese player in the NBA, and he had no precedent before him. He embarked on a road well traveled.

Four years ago, Yao Ming was at the same point as Wang. He was the number one pick in the draft, and his road was paved smoother than the Wang's. But he saw Wang's way, and he saw his deficiencies. He saw Wang rotting on the bench, and he saw him splitting from China. He took a narrow, uphill path.

Right now, Yi Jianlian is standing at the same crossroads that confronted Yao and Wang. Yi has two examples behind him, examples as different as light and dark. He's watched as Yao and Wang's paths have formed an angle of exactly 180 degrees - Yao going forward and upwards, beyond expectations, and Wang… going nowhere, doing nothing, and ending up right back where he started.

He wants to be Yao. He wants to be that 20 PPG game scorer. He wants to be the best player at his position. But he's not like Yao. He has the natural skill, the God-given package of athleticism, height, and speed that was given to Wang and himself…not Yao.

His career is like Wang. There've been the three championships in four years. He finally went down to Wang, of all people, this year, but his formative years as a player was just success after success - a child star, in essence, with nowhere to go but down, nothing to do but burn out.

But he's taken baby steps forward. He has worked on his game, and he's improved every year. The jumper he developed this past year has done more to make him a blue chip alongside Greg Oden and Kevin Durant than anything else.

But he's a split player, wavering between a rock and a hard place, as they say. At this very moment, he has not yet decided which path to take. But no one can have cold feet when they're facing the "ballas" of the NBA.

His shortcomings will be his own fault, and he can't blame someone else for a lack of opportunity. In his first year, Wang flew over on the redeye in the middle of the NBA season. Yao came to America only once or twice before the draft, was with the national team during the draft, and missed training camp because of the World Championships. Yi? He's been exempted from national team training, and is now living in an apartment in Los Angeles, receiving English lessons, personalized training, and home cooking from a personal chef.

When you see Yi on draft day, he'll be sitting there with a suit on, and when David Stern calls his name, he'll smile and hug his agent and family. Then he'll go up to the platform and tower over Stern, and shake his hand, and maybe say something through a translator. He'll celebrate, and instantly become a millionaire. Then he has to go to work.

Work. The one word that Wang never learned in Mandarin. He wasn't too good at English, so he never got it in English either. Yao learned the word from the first day of his basketball career. He didn't have to have his translator interpret the word for him in English. Yi is on the verge of understanding work…barely.

He has a choice, and it's his choice. No one else's choice. What will it be? Yao or Wang? Fame or ridicule? Millions watching, or 5,000 in a gym somewhere in rural China?

Remember Chinese basketball, because Yi will be the poster boy for it…for good, for bad…no one knows. Only him.