Basketball Zhongs?

I don’t usually don’t find cross-cultural nuggets on ESPN, but I couldn’t pass up this one. Let me set the stage for you: Sunday night Yao totally destroyed Shaq and then both were interviewed after the game. The game itself is a big story here in China, but I think the comments of the two men are even more interesting than the game. The full story is here.From the article:“Shaquille O'Neal was dominated, but he wasn't impressed. Yao Ming won his match-up with O'Neal, finishing with 34 points and 14 rebounds Sunday night to lead the Houston Rockets to their fourth straight victory, 94-72 over the Miami Heat."He's pretty much the same, just big, 7-6," O'Neal said. "He's just doing what he's supposed to do."Yao scored 20 points in the second half, when Houston outscored Miami by 25 points."My only chance against Shaq is to keep him on the run," Yao said. "Shaq is much stronger and bigger than me. My only chance on beating him is to keep running and running against him. Every time I score on him I was happy like a kid, like a kid getting candy on Halloween because it's really too hard to score on him, too hard. He's just great."I have to say that sometimes I’m embarrassed that those of us from the US culture find it so hard to complement the achievements of others, especially “foreigners.” It’s almost like success is a zero-sum game—other people’s victories translate into our losses.As the world becomes more and more international this is going to be a position that is harder and harder to defend. Rabid “made in the USA” supporters are going to find their base increasingly eroding as manufacturing of almost all goods shifts to international locations—as it should, in my opinion. There is nothing “wrong” with manufacturing jobs, but the US economy is much more an information economy than say, China, Mexico, Vietnam, India, etc. Why would we want to pay more to have the goods manufactured in the US? I understand the personal impact of job (even industry) loss and have, like most, experienced it first hand. But temporally saving a few thousand domestic manufacturing jobs that will eventually be lost due to overwhelming international economic forces flies in the face of reality and personal growth and economics.Like Shaq, who’s pride can’t allow him to give credit to Yao, there is often a mentality in the US that does not agree with the changing realities of international economy—whether it be sports or economy or military strength. The world, it is a changing and we need to be educated/experienced enough to deal with it rationally.By the way, if you don’t think that China is going to dominate the 2008 Olympics you’ve got another thing coming!