Sunday, April 20, 2008

   Yao Ming might be out for the rest of the season, but his footprints are all over the Toyota Center court in this first-round playoff series. Quite literally, in fact, if you look at the various brands of basketball shoes worn by his Houston Rockets teammates.

    Chuck Hayes is wearing a pair of black-and-red Li-Nings. Shane Battier has the only pair of Peaks in the U.S. Luis Scola is featured on billboards all over China thanks to the Antas on his feet. Steve Francis (injured) and Bonzi Wells (traded) have/had deals of their own.

    "While I would love to believe that it's because of my overwhelming charisma and personality," Battier said, "I think it has something to do with Yao."

    The irony is that while Yao has a deal to wear an American-brand of shoe (Reebok), a handful of his teammates are fattening their paychecks by wearing Chinese sneakers just because they play alongside him.

    "Every game," Hayes said, "I get millions of people over there in Asia, over there watching us and supporting me, and people, they see that I'm wearing Li-Ning, so I guess that even brings up my fan base even more."

    "If Yao wore a Chinese shoe," Battier added, "I don't think there'd be any deals for us over here, so we're happy with Yao and Reebok."

    Hayes proudly boasts, "I am a representative and client of Li-Ning" and said the shoes are comfortable. The company approached his agent last season and Hayes surprised Yao one day when he showed up to practice wearing them.

    He is asked if Li-Nings - - also worn by Shaquille O'Neal and Damon Jones - - are the equivalent of Chinese Nikes.

    "Yao can vouch for me," Hayes said. "Out of the three shoe companies, mine is the best one. Yao said mine was by far the best one. Over there, I have the best shoe. So I would like to say I'm wearing the Nikes of China."

    For all the recent news reports about lead contamination in Chinese products, Battier said his Peaks are as good as any shoe he has worn.

    "I toured the factory," Battier said, "and where my shoe was made, it was very well ventilated and well lit and labor practices seemed on the up and up."

    Battier said every NBA game broadcast in China goes to break with a Peak commercial starring himself and returns from break with the same commercial a second time.

    "I'm much more famous in China than I think I ever was in America, which is kind of cool," Battier said.

    Rockets forward Mike Harris, who played in China earlier this season before signing with Houston last month, can attest to how sick he grew of the Battier commercial.

    "The commercial plays over and over," Harris said. "It got kind of repetitive. I got tired of watching it, so I just stopped watching TV. I started watching movies."

    How is it that three Rockets players can have deals with three different Chinese shoe companies? "That's how big China is," Battier said. "Until you go over there, you can't understand how big China is. It's massive."

    --Ross Siler