Although Yao Ming's name had been all over the papers since the draft, he came from China, from the Chinese Jia A League—a league many people had never even heard of. He hadn't played in the Summer League, though he had participated in the World Championship. However, that tournament had received surprisingly little attention. Most Americans only knew that the Dream Team had finished an unprecedented sixth; they certainly hadn't been following the China Team's performance.
At the end of October, Yao Ming had just arrived in Los Angeles to join the Lakers, having missed training camp and the entire preseason.
In everyone's mind, he was a bust of a first-round pick who had scored zero points in his debut, played abysmally, and completely failed to live up to the hype.
He wasn't showing up on any highlight reels, and no team was going to waste time scouting him.
So, very few players knew what his game was like.
All they knew, at most, was that he was tall.
