Long Jong Silver for the elder statesmen.
Long Jong Silver for the elder statesmen.
It's a funny one isn't it -- it's an understandable assumption, then you get Yao Ming, the frickin' tallest player in the NBA, which is like saying the biggest nerd at Google. It's not like the rest of the players in the NBA are short, yet somehow, from China, where people aren't of great height, comes this dude who's taller than every other basketballer in the NBA, a sport played by giants!
Reality has an ironic sense of humour.
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― Epicurus
Yeah GS, I knew this but left it out for a better story haha -- I think his parents were like a basketballer and a volleyball player? Just thought it was still ironic that of all the countries to produce a player bigger than all the giants in the NBA it would be one of the Asian countries.
Actually, I think it's actually MORE ironic (and funny) if you add in the fact that they actually freakin' genetically engineered this dude.
You'd think... but genetics really doesn't work that way (thus why there aren't no black Chinese people, although there are albinos in Africa...). I'm backing off from this train of discussion.. race can be a VERY touchy issue.
My point is (as GS has already mentioned), it wasn't really an 'exception' as such, but actual state-sanctioned arranged marriages between high-performance athletes... although one wonders then why they haven't produced more Yao Mings (actually, they did produce a couple more giants, but they were shit at basketball).