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

"But I really feel tired with thinking of how great can you be. That's a very far goal. You think about 10 years, and it's very tiring. I want to think about today, what can I do today, tomorrow, and that's it."

　　A struggle to stay laid-back

The burdens would seem massive, but Yao, 25, has become a master at ignoring all that is expected of him. He lives on magazine covers and in television commercials. But even beyond all that, he represents so much to so many in a nation long obsessed with how it is perceived.

So Yao has trained himself to look past all that.

"I don't like to feel like somebody forced me to do something, so I like to think like those fans are our friends," Yao said. "It makes you better and them better."

But it would not matter if Yao preoccupied himself with the demands of others. As often as athletes say they put more pressure on themselves than anyone else can, that is Yao's strength and weakness.

"Yao is a very harsh critic of himself, and I think that can lead to good things when guys are very, very tough on themselves, and at times, he should worry less, have a shorter memory about mistakes," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said.

"Sometimes being a harsh critic of yourself serves a guy well. Most of those people are perfectionists, which I think Yao is.

"But if Yao plays 82 games, plays his minutes, he's going to have a heck of a lot more good times than bad."

Yao can be rough on himself. In a game in Dallas last season, he stopped running the court to literally beat himself up, punching his right hand into his left after a bad play.