Yao has grown into one of NBA's biggest stars
By JONATHAN FEIGEN (CRI/Houston Chronicle)
Updated: 2005-10-07 14:11

The possibilities have long since grown into expectations that tower like his face peering down from billboards from Shanghai to the Southwest Freeway.

Houston Rockets' Yao Ming, left, poses for his portrait as Tracy McGrady (1) looks on during the team's media day Monday, Oct. 3, 2005, in Houston. [AP]

The shoulders are broader, the back stronger, but the weight on Yao Ming has increased, too.

There is a strange irony in that he is measured by, of all things, how much he must grow.

For Yao, it always has seemed not enough for him to be the player he is but to become the player he can be. Because he is 7-6 with powerful legs and soft hands, he has somehow managed to overshadow himself.

This is his blessing and his burden. So when he is asked how great he can be, the topic is, like him, enormous.

Five seconds pass in silence.

Ten seconds.

Yao lets out a long, almost pained sigh. He looks away, toward the ceiling, as if trying to avoid distraction to his search for the answer somewhere within him.

Fifteen seconds. Twenty.

Finally he gives up.

"Ahhhh. I don't know," he said, his voice more hushed than in any other answer. "I don't know."

He never has enjoyed talking of himself and his potential for greatness. The entire topic is too immodest for him and the culture he has often said he must represent.

"The team goal is always the championship," Yao said. "That's everything. There's nothing else with that.