No Credit, No Purchase
The next thing happened after I went back to China for the Asian Games(亚运会). My mom came to Houston early to find a house. But the person selling the first one she found didn’t really own it. And then, because I signed with the Rockets only after I arrived in the U.S. in October, I didn’t have money yet to buy a house. And because I am Chinese and had no financial history in the U.S., the banks here didn’t want to lend me money.
Drinking on the Job
I know New Year’s Eve is a popular time for people in America to get into trouble drinking, but my first New Year’s Eve was different. After beating the Milwaukee Bucks on New Year’s Eve in Houston, I went straight to the airport to fly to Los Angeles to shoot my first commercial(拍摄我的第一支商业广告). We arrived in L.A. at two o’clock in the morning.
A limo(豪华轿车) took us to the studio. Team Yao also had me taking a lot of vitamins(维生素) to keep my strength up, but sometimes I’d forget. Bill Sanders asked if I had taken my vitamins that morning, and I said no. There had a glass container in the limo that looked like it had water in it. So I took out my vitamins and asked Colin to pour me a glass. “OK,” he said. He poured a big glass.
I was tired, so I drank it all at once. Straight down. No stopping. I thought, “That’s how water feels? The water in Houston and Los Angeles is different?” and then my face got hot. I was coughing. “Colin,” I said in a choked(梗塞的) voice, “that’s not water.”
I can remember all the times I’ve had too much to drink—maybe five or six times my whole life. Now, thanks to Hollywood and Colin, I can also put gin(杜松子酒) on my list.
I felt funny right away, and I was still red in the face when we arrived at the studio. “You need sleep?” someone asked. “I think so,” I said, “Colin can shoot the commercial for me, because it was his fault.”
But everything turned out OK. It was a couple of hours before we began shooting the commercial. It was for Apple computers, with me and Mini-Me. A lot of people saw it, but no one’s ever asked if I was drunk, maybe that means I’m a better actor than I think.