Hoop dreams reach new heights

Based on height alone, the average adult male Chinese is not your typical National Basketball Association material.

So it's no wonder the NBA Houston Rockets' Yao Ming, the world's most famous Chinese basketball player, at 7 feet 6 inches tall, isn't the role model most Chinese-American parents look to for their sons and daughters.

First-generation immigrants are more likely to emphasize intellectual pursuits and to downplay the importance of sports in the development of their children, according to Richard Chin, director of community development for the Wang YMCA of Chinatown.

''Hang Time at the Wang" may bounce that perception.

The program was the inspiration of 33-year-old Harry Seeto, who combined a desire to make a difference in his community with a love of basketball to launch last Sunday's event at the YMCA. Several dozen children 14 and under from Chinatown and the surrounding area came together to learn how to shoot hoops.

Seeto's program, which he hopes will be an annual event, was sponsored by the Boston Knights, a Boston-based Chinese-American athletic organization.

Founded in 1961, the Knights organize basketball and volleyball tournaments for Chinese-Americans to play within their community. In the beginning, the group barely reached 30 people. Now, the organization has grown to more than 300 members and stretches to 10 cities in the United States and Canada. Seeto, who joined the Knights when he was 15, said the group changed his life.

After watching the Boston Celtics play on television, he began to dream about becoming a professional basketball player. But those dreams were crushed when he failed to make his high school basketball team. At 5-foot-1, he was shorter and less talented than his competitors at try-outs, he said.

''That was a reality for me, that it was a good chance that I wasn't going to make the NBA, if I wasn't able to make my own freshman team," Seeto said.

But he was able to keep some of his dreams alive through the Knights, where he participated in basketball tournaments and met Asian-American role models who inspired him to attend college.

Now he hopes to give back, through his work with the 46 children under age 14 who signed up to participate in basketball practice and shoot-out tournaments during ''Hang Time at the Wang." For many of the participants, it was their first time playing ball.

''It's hard, because [the ball] always goes to the top [of the basket] but it never gets in," said 7-year-old Adam Chin, as he hunched over his basketball.

A few Chinese have been highly visible in professional and amateur sports, such as Ming and champion skater Michelle Kwan, but the YMCA's Chin said most Asian immigrant parents don't push their children to become sports professionals unless they believe their child is a sports prodigy.

''I still think [with] all of them, it goes hand in hand with education," Chin said. ''You don't grow up becoming a hockey player without getting your master's [degree] first."

At the end of the ''Hang Time at the Wang" event, each participant received a basketball in an awards ceremony.

''If they were ever hesitant to participate in playgrounds or in schools," said Seeto, ''. . . now they can take the tools that they learned and practice so they can get themselves better for next year's events and for other leagues they might want to participate in the future."