I love how Yao is using his celebrity to make statements on various topics, like not eating sharks’ fin soup. In this story, he wants his fellow countrymen to show courtesy to visitors during the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

This is nothing new for people from host Olympic countries to ask their fellow citizens to be more welcoming of visitors for the Games. I remember during the 1984 Olympics in LA and 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, city leaders asked local residents to stay off the roads to prevent traffic jams. And during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Mormons were asked not to proselytize visitors to their religion.

There are countless other examples of these kinds of recommendations being made. So anyone who thinks Yao is overstepping his bounds needs to keep things in perspective. After all, these statements were part of a 2008 publication released by Olympic organizers.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.