Can someone tell me who “Yao” is in that “yo, can I write a check” commercial? IIRC, someone told me he’s a golfer? They mean basketball player, don’t they? 
- Jinx
You’re kidding, right?
Uh, yeah. Basketball player. He’s over seven feet tall. 
Yao Ming plays for the Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association. He was the best player in China’s own basketball league, and prior to this season the Rockets selected him with the first pick of the amateur draft.
Yao’s gotten some endorsements that play on his lack of English-langugage skills and other culture-clash characteristics. He seems to have a great sense of humor, and it comes across in the ad.
I didn’t know either.
For some reason I always assumed he was a skier.
I’d never heard of him either—I assumed he was some kind of sports figure. Nice guy (I heard about his SARS benefit), but jeez, that poor fellow has such an ugly mug on him!
In this particular ad, Yao speaks better English than the store personnel, whose vocubulary apparently consists of the word “Yo”. It’s a tribute to the patience and persistence of resident aliens (and also a stinging indictment of the abysmal state of customer service in sports-memorabilia stores).
Yao also did a funny ad with Verne Troyer, the extremely small man who plays Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies.
I thought he was a jockey.
Oh the one with Verne Troyer was for Apple - iMac, maybe? It was hilarious, and it didn’t depend on either of them saying a word.
He doesn’t figureskate?
At 7’6", that would be something
The Apple ad was for Powerbook. Yao had the little one, Verne had the big one.
Yao Ming was the #1 pick in the NBA draft last year, and got a LOT of press attention. Also a certain amount of skepticism.
After his first year, I’d say both the skeptics AND the boosters had a point. He was a LOT better than I expected (like many people, I thought there was a decent chance he’d turn out to be a big stiff like Shawn Bradley). He’ll never be able to outmuscle the Shaqs of the league, but he was a very solid performer, and showed substantial improvement as the season went on.
On the other hand, there’s no way he deserved to be ON the West’s all-star team, let alone starting! He’s pretty good now, and MAY be great one day, but he’s not great yet.
But the NBA has been pushing him hard, because they want to appeal to the huge potential viewing market in China. And since Yao is a very likeable, personable guy, he seems an ideal person to represent the NBA to China (and vice versa).
{URL=http://www.apple.com/hardware/video/powerbookg4bigandsmall.html]Available here. Requires Quicktime.
And IIRC, Yao Ming won’t endorse products he doesn’t personally uses. So I guess he’s got a Powerbook and a Visa on him somewhere…
Dang, mungled the code… Mutter mutter. Try this link.
rjung: heard same thing about his endorsement philsophy. How very Brady of him! (remeber their detergent commercial?)
The Shaqs of the league? You mean like Shaq and, um, who else? There are very few players I’d rather have in the paint than him. Only really Divac (and only for the next season or two) and Duncan (I think the Spurs should move him to center and grab Jermaine O’Neal for PF). He’s a top 5 rookie with plenty of time to put on some muscle in the upper body. Even right now, the only person who can move him out of the low block is Shaq. He would have scored more if he didn’t have two ball-hogs in the backcourt not passing to him.
Both parents were on the China Olympic team. Pops is 6’8", moms is 6’4"