Rocketmania result of Yao, endorsements

Shane Battier will rarely leave his hotel room, and when he does, he will need protection from the Rockets' security detail. His popularity in China does not allow him to move freely.

Battier, like many Rockets players, has endorsed Chinese shoes and apparel, made promotional visits to China and has been Yao Ming's teammate for five years. In China, Battier and other Rockets players have shined by orbiting in Yao's star power. If Yao's return to China is Beatlemania, Battier is at least Ringo.

"I walk through China with security guards and there are people grabbing at my shirt and ripping at my clothes," said Battier, who endorses Peak products and is on his eighth trip to China. "People find that hard to believe. I know I'm a good-looking guy, but even that story is a little bit unbelievable.

"It's mayhem, it really is. But it's funny. The people that go with me, we sit and laugh. The video footage every year, we sit back every year and think, 'This is crazy.' "

"It's all because of Yao," said Luis Scola, who endorses Anta products. "It's crazy. Until I came to the Rockets, I never thought about it. It was so out of my mind. I never thought it could be like that, but it happened."

"I was surprised the first couple of years," Scola said. "Now, I'm a little more used to it and I like it. I think it's a great opportunity to go there and interact with a lot of people, get a chance to know a lot of fans from a completely different world from us. It's been a lot of fun."

The popularity of NBA players, and particularly Rockets players, is so great that even during the Olympics when thousands of world-class athletes shared the Olympic village, Scola stood out to the fans and volunteers.

"The Olympics were the weird thing," he said. "They were just crazy for basketball players, especially the Rockets players. We could barely walk through the Olympic village. The other athletes were saying, 'Who the hell are these guys? Why are people rioting?' Nobody understands why they knew me. At the beginning, I didn't understand why they knew me. I found out."