 Colin Pine was always ready to translate during the heat of the battle. |
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Colin Pine was always ready to translate during the heat of the battle. |
| Colin Pine is sitting next to Yao Ming in yet another post-game news conference, trying to process the questions coming to him at a rapid-fire pace, and translating it into Chinese for his new 7'6" friend. This is clutch time for Pine, the man responsible for giving sportswriters the quotes they need from Yao for their next-day columns. These remarks from Yao will quench the thirst of hundreds of thousands of readers tracking Yao's every move. This scene was duplicated dozens (if not hundreds) of times as Yao made his first tour of duty through the NBA as a rookie for the Houston Rockets.
With the Rockets' season coming to an abrupt end on April 17th and Pine's schedule suddenly opening up for the first time, YaoMingMania.com had a chance to sit down and get his thoughts on a whirlwind season as Yao's interpreter and confidant. When we met a few days after the regular season ended, the disappointment of the Rockets missing the playoffs by just one game still hurt. Although he had not had any free time since Christmas and was enjoying the break after a crazy six-month NBA grind, Pine wished the Rockets were still playing--just as any Rocket fan would want. Our meeting also occurred a few days before the voting results were announced for the NBA Rookie of the Year award, which was a very close race between Yao and Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire. He asked what I thought Yao's chances were for winning the award. I responded "not very good" based on Stoudemire's Suns beating out the Rockets for the final Western Conference playoff spot. Colin's face revealed genuine disappointment on the prospect that his friend may not get the reward he richly deserved. Although the season was over and he was looking forward to getting his life back over the summer, Colin still cared--just as any Yao fan would. An avid Maryland Terrapin basketball fan (but alum of James Madison University) and former resident of Washington D.C., Pine could not help but become a Rocket fan when he found out in early September 2002 he had won the job to be Yao Ming's interpreter. Pine interviewed for the job over the phone with Yao's American-based cousin, Erik Zhang, after hearing about the gig through a friend. At the time, Pine was working at the State Department doing contract translation work. Zhang chose Pine to be Yao's interpreter for several reasons. Sincerity and trustworthiness were key since it was predicted whoever won the job would most likely become Yao's friend. Blabbing to the press or friends about Yao's private thoughts was obviously off-limits. Another reason Pine won the job, which upset some Chinese and Chinese-Americans, was because he was not Chinese. "One of the main reasons [Erik hired me] was to help create an English environment." It is ironic that the one disadvantage Pine seemingly had before the interview turned out to be one of his strengths. Zhang wanted Yao to have the best opportunity to get exposed to the American way of life with someone who had grown up in a non-Asian household. What better way for Yao to get a crash course in Americana than to have a guy who could "bridge the gap," as Pine states, between Yao's world and the new one in which he would be living. Although he received some grief from skeptics who thought he would not be able to handle the translation work, Pine states, "For the most part, I got very positive feedback." Day 1 His first assignment came on October 20th when Yao arrived in Houston at Bush Intercontinental Airport. He had never met or spoken to Yao, and within minutes of Yao's stepping off the plane, Pine was translating at an impromptu press conference held in the terminal. "It was pretty intense," Pine recalls. Afterwards, they quickly made a beeline to Houston's Compaq Center where the Rockets were preparing to play a pre-season game against the Orlando Magic. At Compaq, Pine and Yao held their first formal press conference. On a podium with dozens of reporters in attendance, Pine later ranks this translation episode as being the most intense news conference of the season. Things calmed down somewhat for Pine. He got to know Yao very quickly. In addition to being by his side most of the time when he was in public, Pine also lived in one of the rooms in Yao's new house on Houston's west side. Shortly after Yao arrived, his parents moved from China to Houston and joined him in the house, providing Yao a sense of normalcy. Pine helped ease the transition at first by handling some of the little things, like paying utility bills. Asked when he thought he was accepted by Yao and his family, Pine answers, "There wasn't really a defining moment...I hit if off pretty gradually." Although they became good friends and lived in the same house, Pine respected Yao's privacy; there is much that Pine does not know about Yao and his thoughts. He does know that Yao does not read much of what is being said about him in the sports section of American newspapers. Instead, when he is surfing the Internet, Yao prefers to read Chinese publications. Because of the language barrier, Yao's preference to read Chinese over English publications turned out to be an advantage. At the beginning of the season when Yao was being bashed by writers across the country (see our 'Expert' Hall of Shame) for not racking up big statistics, Yao did not pay attention to it. Pine says Yao knew it was a big discussion topic, but he did not seek out the details nor let the criticism get to him. On the other hand, Yao felt bad that he was not able to live up to expectations even though many fans and insiders knew it was a function of the limited minutes he was allowed to play. The Rockets coaching staff wanted to bring Yao along slowly. Out of his first 10 games, he played less than 18 minutes per game in eight of those games, and averaged 5.9 points during that stretch. Although he did not listen to the unwarranted criticism, and had no control over how many minutes he got to play in a game, Yao felt like he was letting people down. Click here for page 2 of the Colin Pine interview |