When Yao Ming came to the NBA, a billion pairs of eyes watched his every move.

China's precarious position in the political world has brought extra intrigue to the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.  There are talks of boycotts and saturation of the sporting events with political messages. 

But the Olympic Games are too important to the world in these times to have politics stop them.  Protests are likely, as they should be based on the horrid nature of the genocide in Sudan.  But don't let them dominate the headlines.  Let sports dominate the headlines. 

That's my plea.  That's my hope. And Yao Ming helps us understand why.

Yao is not the center of these Games simply because he's the favorite athlete in the home country.  It's because he's at the cultural crossroads.  Only a man in his position can feel the weight of these Games on his shoulders.  He is in a unique position in history. 

He is the pride and joy of Chinese sports, possibly the best athlete in the country's history.  Yet he's a highly-respected star in America's NBA.  The cultural leap he took when he came here was unfathomable.  He went from a quiet boy in China to the nation's biggest star to the primary object of scrutiny and fascination in the United States of America. 

His arrival at the shores of this country was unlike anything we or he had ever known.  We were in awe of this quiet and serene 7'6" giant with a nervous smile and shy eyes.  He was not what Americans knew basketball players to be. We knew Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson (or at least that was the image).  The ruckus in Space City and all around the nation was unimaginable.

But we got used to him.  We began to understand him, and him us.  The entire country of China embraced the game of basketball, celebrating more than just their Chinese-born star. 

The jerseys they bought weren't just red 11.  They were gold 24, wine 23.  They accepted parts of our culture, just as we accepted a part of theirs.  Politically, there's an undeniable problem.  But an entire herd of sports fans in both countries were better than to let that get in the way of something as beautiful as cultural acceptance.

There's a little pseudo-equation I learned back in high school that applies to almost every facet of life:  Bewilderment + Exposure = Obvious.  We learned it in Computer Science. 

We were presented these strange series of abbreviations and symbols, and we were told they did something in the computer.  We were befuddled by it, lost in it, absolutely confused.  But the more we exposed ourselves to it, the more we'd come to understand it. 

And that's how culture works.  That's how accepting and understanding people works.  When Jackie Robinson first shined in Major League Baseball, people were not comfortable with it.  But look what time will do.  He just kept playing, and soon, the discomfort and hate turned into praise. 

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