DISQUS

People just conveniently ignored Yao Ming is the most recognizable sports icon of China, and rather I should say the face of 2008 Olympics.

It has nothing to do whether he has yet any successes in playoffs or championship in NBA. Making the NBA and becoming one of the most competitive and dominant centre in the best basketball league of the world is in itslef an achievement.

Well, I agreed that achievement wise, he should not be the final one that light the Olympic flame on the cauldron. There are many many other more worthy senior elders, the pionners and pathfinders in Chinese sports that should get this top honor.

But I don't think we should grudge Yao Ming the honor of being the national flag bearer for a second consecutive time.....No one is more worthy of him for that honor: He is the tallest athlete in the whole China delegation.....and he surely can get all the eye-ball attention from the audiences in the stadium and in front of televisions around the world.

Beside being the national flag bearer is not an easy job. The flag pole is long and heavy.....Surely you don't want any other shorter Chinese men or women hoisting the national flag, as it looks very awkward. Can you imagine the legendary 1.5M Deng Yaping, a 4-time Olympic/World Champion in table tennis, hoisting the national flag?

John

Thank you very much for that nicely written article from Mary Nicole Nazzaro on Sports Illustrated. I'm deeply impressed about what she wrote and the nice comments from every of the Rockets and Steve Nash about Yao Ming.

BTW, I guess you should say the original instead of the translated article. Most of the articles in Sports Illustrated China are either translated articles from Sports Illustrated or written by expat reporters that worked for Sports Illustrated China. I think Mary Nicole Nazzaro is one of those. And she is the lady that stood by Yao Ming in one of those photos that I posted in the thread.

Best regards
Raymond