I first thought I might be good enough to play in the NBA when I was eighteen years old and came back to China after two months of playing in the U.S. I never expected to play as well as I did. As a junior player, I had played against players in China who were two and three years older, and when I joined the Sharks senior team at seventeen, the players were as much as five and six years older than me. I struggled because they were so much stronger and had been playing much longer. In the U.S., I finally played against players around my age, and it made a big difference.
　　The other thing I learned in those two months was that you had to shoot as much as you could. “Look for your own shot”—I learned that fast. I had no choice. Nobody passed the ball. It wasn’t a very good team. We had good players, but we didn’t play together. The one really nice guy on that team was Teyo. They say he’s 6-6 and 260 pounds now, and I think he was close to that already then. Our rooms at the university were right next to the pool, so we spent a lot of time goofing around in the water. I really liked that because in China, once they knew I could be a good basketball player, they didn’t want me to swim. They thought it was too dangerous. They would’ve been really worried if they had seen Teyo body-slamming me in the pool.
　　那两个月我学到的另一件事，就是你得尽量投篮:“自己找投篮机会。”我很快就学会了这一点，我没有选择，没人传球。那不是个好的球队，我们有好球员，但大家不协作。队里只有一个人很好，名叫泰约·约翰逊。听说他现在6英尺6（1米98），260磅，我觉得他那时候的体型就很接近于那样。我们在大学的房间就在游泳池旁，我们可以在水里泡很长时间。
　　我这样很惬意，因为在国内，当他们知道我有望成为一名好篮球手时，就不让我游泳了，说太危险。如果他们看到泰约在游泳池里用身体将我撞来撞去，更会担心得要命。
　　TEYO JOHNSON: I played point forward on that team, and I’d get ten assists a game, eight of them throwing the ball to Yao. What he liked most, though, was just hanging out, because it was the one time in his life he was allowed to be just another teenager.
　　泰约·约翰逊（姚明训练营队友）:我在队里打前锋，一场比赛我有10次助攻，8次我传给姚明。但他最喜欢的是控制球，等待时机，因为这是他跟少年球员一起上场的一次宝贵的机会。
　　We couldn’t communicate, but we connected. We’ve been boys ever since. I didn’t see him again for years, but I’d call him every six months or so and set up a three-way conference call with a translator. He called me from China the day I was drafted by the Raiders to congratulate me, and when I saw him at his second All-Star Game, he gave me his jersey. The way I see it, we’re friends for life.
　　我们无法交流，但很要好。从那时我们成了朋友。几年没见到他了，但我大约半年给他打个电话，请一个翻译，和他开三边会议。我被招入突击者队的当天，他从中国打来电话祝贺。他在全明星队的第二场比赛我见到他时，他把球衣送给了我。在我看来，我们是一生的朋友。
　　After San Diego, I went to Jordan’s camp and worked as a counselor, but we played every night. In the trophy case in my home in Shanghai, I have two pictures of me with Jordan. One is the picture he took with everybody who worked or played at the camp. The other is of me walking off the court and Jordan patting me on the back. I’m smiling, but I look very skinny. One reason is that I had only $200 for the whole two-month trip. Liu Wei took something like $150 with him. The first two weeks, we didn’t need to pay for anything; Li Yaomin, the Sharks GM, took care of us. But after the Nike Camp in Indianapolis, he went back to China and took all his money with him. We were two young Chinese kids without any money, playing in places like Augusta, Georgia, and Orlando.
　　在圣地亚哥之后，我去了乔丹训练营，但我们还是每晚打球。我在上海家中的奖杯陈列柜中有两张我同乔丹的合影。一张是他同营地每个球员及工作人员的集体照，另一张中，我正往场外走，他拍了拍我的背，我在笑，但看上去很瘦。一个原因是整整2个月我只有200美元可用，刘炜大概带了150块。前两周，我们什么都不用付钱，大鲨鱼的总经理李耀民照顾我们。但在印第安纳波利斯的耐克训练营之后，他回国了，把他的钱都带走了。我们两个中国小孩没有钱，完全自己管自己，继续在奥古斯塔、乔治亚、奥兰多等地打球。
　　So for two weeks, Liu Wei and I ate nothing but 99-cent double cheeseburgers and the free breakfast they had in our motel lobby every morning. We made sure to get there very early.
　　因此，在两个星期里，我和刘炜只能吃99美分一个的双层干酪汉堡包，刘炜每天吃一个，我吃两个，以及旅馆里每天供应的免费早餐，我们每天都要很早跑去吃。
　　Liu Wei and Yao lived off of cheeseburgers and hotel breakfasts during their stay in the U.S.
　　(Rocky Widner/NBAE/Getty Images)
　　When another coach from China came over to check on us, he said, “You look skinny.”
　　“Of course,” I said.
　　另一位教练从中国过来看我们的时候，对我说:“你看上去皮包骨头。”“当然了。”我说。
　　LIU WEI: Actually, Yao Ming ate two cheeseburgers every day while I had one. Since I was injured and couldn’t play, we decided he needed more food than I did.
　　刘炜（国家队队员）:其实，姚明每天吃2只干酪汉堡包，我只吃1个。我受伤了不能打球，所以我们决定，让他多吃一点。
　　I guess Li Yaomin didn’t know that in America a player has to pay for his own food. Maybe he thought it was like in China, where there’s always a free buffet for the players at every hotel or the team pays for everything. I’m hoping that’s what he thought. The High Five coach, Rle Nichols, lent us each $100 after we used up our own money. Rle is 5-6 and I couldn’t speak English then, so we called him “Little Coach” in Chinese. I don’t know where he is now, but I still owe him $100.
　　我猜李耀民不知道在美国球员自己付饭钱，也许他以为像中国一样，每个酒店都有免费自助餐给球员，或者球队会包揽所有费用。我希望他是那样想的。我们的钱用完后，HighFive的教练里尔·尼克斯借给我们每人100元。里尔只有5英尺6（1米68），那时我不会英文，就叫他“小教练”。我不知道他现在在哪里，我得还给他100元。
　　After Jordan’s camp in Santa Barbara, Nike took me to Portland to relax. They let Liu Wei come with me. We went to a batting cage and I tried to hit a baseball. Out of ten swings, I hit the ball maybe once. Maybe. They also took us to Jet Ski on the Willamette River. I liked it, but that was pretty scary—maybe the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
　　到圣塔巴巴拉的乔丹营后，我去波特兰跟耐克签合同，并休息一下，他们让刘炜和我一起去。我们去击球练习场打棒球，10次挥杆我只打着1次。他们还带我们去威拉米特河玩水上摩托，我很喜欢，但很惊险———也许是我做过的最惊险的事情。
　　TEYO JOHNSON: He had me flown up to Portland, too, to hang out with him. Nike was going after him hard then already. He showed no fear Jet Skiing that I could see. When I was riding on the back he’d gun it, take a sharp turn, and fling me off the back. He got a kick out of doing that.
　　泰约·约翰逊（姚明训练营队友）:姚明让我也一起飞到了波特兰，去跟他一块玩。耐克那时就很看重他。他玩起水上摩托来毫无惧色，在我看来是这样———当我紧追其后时，他加大油门，来个急拐弯，一下把我甩得远远的。他这样做得到了极大的乐趣。
　　LIU WEI: When we went to the batting cage, he took more than ten swings and didn’t come close to hitting the ball, not even once. The best part of the Jet Skiing was when Yao Ming fell off and couldn’t climb back on. He finally had to grab the back of my machine, and I towed him back to the dock.
　　刘炜（国家队队员）:我们去棒球练习场，他打了十几杆，1杆都没打着，差得远。水上摩托最好玩的乐子，就是当姚明从自己的摩托上摔下爬不回去的时候。最后他抓住我的摩托后部，我把他拖回码头。
　　When we finally flew back to Shanghai, there was a lot of media waiting at the gate. I’d been away two months, and I hadn’t had a haircut the whole time. My hair was so long, I thought I looked like Dr. J or Ben Wallace. And even though we ate better in San Diego and Portland, I was still really skinny. Big hair, skinny body. When I saw myself on TV, I thought, “That’s me?”
　　终于回到上海，许多记者等在机场的出口。出去两个月，我没理过一次发，头发很长。
　　虽然我在圣地亚哥和波特兰吃得不错，但还是很瘦。长头发加上皮包骨头，在电视上看到自己时，我想，“这真是我吗?”