After seeing action in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Ma broke into the US circuit at Utah Valley State, a junior college. He averaged 17.9 points and five rebounds then transferred to the University of Utah, an NCAA Division I school, in 1993. Unfortunately, his junior college stats didn’t carry over to the Utes varsity.
In the first of two seasons at the University of Utah, Ma hit at an 8.2 clip and grabbed 3.7 rebounds an outing. He started in 27 of 28 games for coach Rick Majerus. A lack of communication led to Ma’s inability to understand Majerus’s system and in his second year, the muscular Tianjin forward started in only three games, averaging 3.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. Ma didn’t do badly in the shooting department, knocking in 55.3 percent from the field. But his attempts were too few to make an impact.
Despite his forgettable two years at Utah, Ma was determined to play in the NBA. He was eager to make history as the first Asian player in the majors.
In October 1995, Ma signed a no-guarantee contract to play for the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA preseason and saw action in a handful of exhibition games. He was the last cut before the regular season opened. Ma tried his luck as a free agent in the Clippers camp again the next year. The decision meant giving up his slot in the Chinese national squad at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics–a decision that would haunt Ma the rest of his life.
As it turned out, Ma was the Clippers’ last cut once more.
Without a team to play for, Ma thought of joining former Chinese national players Wang Libin and Song Ligang in the Taipei league. At first, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) closed its doors on Ma–clearly, to teach him a lesson even as he remained among the most popular cagers in the country.
Ma, meanwhile, settled in Salt Lake City with his Japanese-American wife Simiko Takahashi, a classmate at the University of Utah. In 1997, he was tapped by Chinese TV to do the color commentary for Game 5 of the Chicago-Utah series in the NBA Finals. Ma, however, wasn’t ready to hang up his sneakers for TV work.
Ma found himself drifting all over Asia, looking for playing opportunities and even suited up for Hapee Toothpaste in a Philippine Basketball League (PBL) conference. Ma, who’d been here thrice before wearing the Hapee colors, said he’s always found Manila a home away from home and listed Chito Loyzaga among his closest friends. He even brought his younger brother Ma Ming here to enroll at Ateneo. Ma Ming stayed for a year then quietly returned to Beijing, unable to cope with Ateneo’s lofty academic standards.
Ma was eventually allowed to play in the CBA again, probably because his father Ma Daichai is an influential figure in the league as the long-time Shanghai coach. But CBA officials refused to reinstate Ma as a national player. It was their way of driving home a point. Apparently, Wang Zhizhi missed it.
It was Wang, not Ma, who became the first Asian player in the NBA, playing for the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. Wang now plays for the Clippers, the same team that Ma unsuccessfully tried to join. Wang was followed in the NBA by Mengke Batere. The third Asian to break into the majors was Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets rookie this season.
Wang, like Ma six years ago, refused to report to the Chinese national camp last summer to prepare for the next NBA season. That led to his ejection from the Chinese national team and a boycott of Clippers games on TV in China.
So whatever happened to Ma?
Ma, 33, is playing in China and has a one-year contract with the Shanghai Sharks, now coached by Liu Qiuping. In the offseason, he lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his Japanese-American wife and their two sons. Although he’s getting on in years, Ma hopes he’ll still be able to play in the NBA before retiring. The problem is he may not be fit enough to even survive this CBA season-–Ma’s got a gimpy right knee. Curiously, Ma’s given name Jian means "healthy" which he’s far from being.
The NBA dream is what keeps Ma’s juices flowing. "Just one (NBA) game would resolve everything in my life," said Ma, quoted by Allen Abel in Sports Illustrated. "I would know that I could play with the best. It would make my dream come true."
How long Ma will entertain visions of joining Wang, Mengke and Yao in the NBA is a big question mark. When the dream turns into a nightmare and Ma wakes up to reality, he’ll head back to Nevada for sure because living in Mainland China isn’t a long-term option. Ma, after all, is holding on to a precious US green card. That’s the sad part of the story.
Ironically, the American dream is keeping Ma in Shanghai for the moment.
In the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), you wonder if Fil-foreigners are living life just like Ma.