Word: jianlian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Maybe not. But Yi Jianlian had better get used to the lofty expectations. A lot of people on both sides of the Pacific are hoping that the talented 6-ft. 11-in. teenager will be the next Yao Ming. Ever since Yao electrified the National Basketball Association last season as a rookie fresh out of Shanghai, a slew of agents, scouts and shoe-company reps have been looking for a Chinese player who can follow the large--and lucrative--footsteps of one of the league's biggest draws. Yi wears size-18 shoes, just like...
Nobody, though, seems a safer bet than Yi Jianlian. The son of two former athletes--his 6-ft. 5-in. father and 5-ft. 8-in. mother were both forcibly recruited by the state to play an obscure sport known as team handball--Yi was discovered in 1999 on a playground in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. Barely out of grade school, he was already 6 ft. 4 in. tall, a behemoth in a region known for its diminutive people. Yi's parents, however, were reluctant to let the Soviet-style sports school lay claim to their only...