The interpreter: UW–Madison student scores in NBA debut

Matt Beyer’s first job as a UW–Madison student involved preparing hamburgers at Union South.

His final one has brought him shoulder-to-shoulder with the 7-footers, titans and multimillionaires of the National Basketball Association, including one of the most famous men in China.

“This is definitely better than that was,” says the unassuming 22-year-old.

Beyer’s presence in the exact right place at the exact right time, combined with a unique set of skills, landed him the position as primary interpreter for Yi Jianlian, a promising Milwaukee Bucks rookie forward who also happens to be a superstar in the largest country in the world.

Despite a knee injury that recently ended his season, Yi’s addition to the Bucks was one bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for the team. He came to the team already speaking some limited English, but Beyer is credited with easing his transition to the league.

“It’s been great having Matt around,” says Bucks coach Larry Krystowiak. “I see those guys chumming around together all the time, and he’s invaluable making Yi’s adventure easier.”

High points for Beyer have included traveling to the NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, luxury air and hotel accommodations and trading jokes with China’s most famous man, Yao Ming, after a Bucks-Rockets game that coincided with the celebration of the Chinese New Year.

“I’m not a huge sports nut, but going to over 70 NBA games has been pretty cool,” he says. “Especially soaking up the atmosphere from courtside.”

So how does a 22-year-old from Elm Grove break into the field of sports translating? It helps to have a family connection.

When Beyer was 10, his family adopted a Chinese boy and girl from an orphanage there. His new brother and sister piqued his interest in the country and jumpstarted his work learning the language.

After his freshman year of college, he moved to Xi’an and Shanghai, where he taught English, studied and became fluent. He returned to UW–Madison in 2005, taking on a journalism, Chinese and East Asian Studies triple major.

Meanwhile, the Bucks used the No. 6 pick in the 2007 NBA draft on Yi, who was expressing some jitters about coming to relatively small-market Milwaukee.

While working for an influential Milwaukee public relations firm during the summer of 2007, Beyer translated Chinese news stories about the draft and Yi for the team, putting him on the radar of the front office staff. When the team began looking for a full-time interpreter, he was invited to interview. He did so well that he began work the same day, translating an interview between Yi and NBA Entertainment.

Since then, Beyer’s role with the team has been to directly translate questions and answers from American reporters to Yi. He also assists when visiting Chinese reporters conduct interviews with other players or staff.

Those duties involve attending all Bucks games and most practices to ensure that Yi has help with every media interview. The demands have been considerable, with regular coverage from several Chinese publications and occasional visits from higher-profile Chinese news and sports reporters.

To date, there have been no international incidents. “I love to do this work, interpret and help put Yi’s thoughts out there,” Beyer says.

“Matt’s Chinese is better than I thought it would be,” says Jun Yun Yuan, a correspondent from the Basketball Pioneers, who followed Yi around the U.S. for his rookie season. “He’s a talented man to learn the language. It is not easy. “

Despite several injuries and rookie fatigue, Yi wound up playing in 66 games, averaging 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds. Though he may not yet be widely known in the U.S., he made the league’s all-rookie team and commands an impressive following in Asia. His marquee matchup with Yao drew an estimated 250 to 300 million fans on Chinese television.

Even on a quiet practice day in March, Basketball Pioneers and Basketball News are on hand, along with a coach from the Chinese Olympic basketball team who was watching Yi’s rehab work.

Injury problems aside (he recently sprained his medial collateral ligament and will sit out the remainder of the season), Yi has said he is also pleased with his first year.

“I look at it as being a great year,” Yi told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through Beyer. “Coming all the way from China, and having all these new experiences, these games, and having a chance to learn, having a chance to improve. Right now I look at it, and maybe I didn’t play as well as I wanted to the whole season. But the most important thing, I learned a lot and I got a lot of great experience.”

If Beyer’s work of behalf of Yi has gone flawlessly, jet-setting in and out of NBA cities while also managing a UW–Madison class load has a less glamorous side.

He makes the journey to Milwaukee numerous times every week, tucking his modest Saturn in among a parking lot filled with Range Rovers, BMWs and Escalades. When the team arrives late from a road trip, sometimes at 3 or 4 a.m., he’ll stay at his family home.

Professors have been generally accommodating, but during the fall semester, Beyer kept a full course load while attending three to five games per week, many on the road. In retrospect, that was “nuts.” He pulled back from his journalism major (which he intends to complete during the summer) and has enrolled for only seven credits this semester.

For his trouble, Beyer has probably guaranteed his future career, says Robert Schwoch, lecturer and undergraduate adviser in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, who notes that many students are pairing a foreign language with journalism. Chinese is an especially in-demand language skill.

“Combining communication study with knowledge of a foreign language and culture is a powerful combination for getting a rocket start to a career,” he says. “Matt is a great example. Chinese is especially marketable in this day and age as ties between China and the west intensify.”

As for the future, Yi will return to China after the NBA season ends and is expected to be a key member of the Chinese Olympic basketball team. Beyer is actually hoping his services won’t be needed much longer.

“I hope Yi learns English as quickly as possible,” he says. “It’s a tool for him to be able to relate to people. I’m happy to see myself as a piece in the puzzle.

And for his future career, that too is undecided. It may not include basketball, but it will definitely be China-related.

“It’s great to have options.”