[610] Which Houston Franchise will win a title first?

I completely and entirely disagree. It doesn't matter *how* he breaks, just that he *continues* to break. Over and over and over and over and over again. Ad nauseum. Repeatedly. Ad infinitum.

Before last season, I posted that I hoped Yao would prove me wrong, but I never expected him to ever carry the Rox through a season and playoffs. After the Round One victory, I giddily posted a "damn this crow is yummy!!!!" post, only to get another season-ending injury from Yao just a few days later.

Book it. Yao will either miss at least thirty games this year, or he will miss the end of the season and/or playoffs and spend the summer in surgery and recovery instead of resting and working out.

Until he proves otherwise, he's fragile. Great player, nice guy and all, but Peanut Brittle.

 

Close between Rockets and Texans. The best teams in the NBA are farther ahead of the Rockets than the best teams in the NFL are the Texans (even with Yao). However the Rockets have a better shot at landing the kind of player to allow them to make a quantum leap forward.

As people pointed out the Astros advantage is that the NL Central hasn't historically been exactly the AL East. New ownership might put them in the mix if the Texans or Rox don't get it done in the next 5 years.

I voted Rockets, but I can see a case for either of the other two.

 

Lot easier for a fluke team to win the super bowl in football. Just got to get hot at the right time.

 

That's pretty narrow minded and short sighted.

OK.

I hit you in the skull with a sledge hammer every year on your birthday.

Stay out of the hospital or you're fragile?

These aren't "Oh I tripped on something in the shower and shattered my spine" injuries.

I'd take that bet if you discounted fluke stuff. Cause, unlike you're willing to admit apparently, s*** happens.

I'd much more quickly put a player who has a chronic singular problem in the "fragile" category than someone who gets a series of unrelated injuries.

 

Funny thing is that when I was listening yesterday, they said the Rockets and Texans are in a dead heat at 46% of the vote each.

As of right now, those are the results we are seeing.

 

I completely agree with Donny's point about freak injuries vs. recurring/nagging stuff, but I'm not sure I would consider Yao's freak injuries, his body may just be fragile

 

Or perhaps I see his injuries differently than you do? No way, it can't be that. If I dare to disagree with you, it must be because something is wrong with my perception. Watch the ad hominem, sir, it weakens your argument.

No, but they *are* things that happen to people who play NBA basketball all the time. Everybody's on that court together. Everybody's taking elbows and rolling ankles. *Not* everybody gets stress fractures in his foot as often as I get a freaking headache. (hyperbole intended)

and it seems to happen more to some than to others. I would accuse of being "apparently unwilling to admit it", but I'll save it. Can we disagree cordially on this? I didn't intend any disrespect, I just don't agree with you on this. Settle down.

Those broken bones are *not* unrelated. It has been reported that foot injuries, especially stress fractures, are common for guys who are well over 7'.

People have pointed to ZI as a hope that Yao's career may pick back up strong following this procedure. I hope so, too. But I'm not holding my breath.

I'm with rhino here. I completely agree with Donny's point that freak injuries are different from recurring things. But it's not like Yao took cheap shots ala Schaub. He just breaks. During the Lakers series, he broke from like running and jumping. Are you kidding me? Those are kinda required in basketball.

 

Schaub is a good example, he took like 3 dirty hits that one season resulting in 3 injuries, he took not cheap shots this season and was fine. Yao's injuries usually do not even occur with contact from an opponent.

 

Considering that you give *NO* credence to the type of injury, or how it is sustained, I'd say calling that short sighted and narrow minded is pretty much spot on.

You do see them differently than I do... and I think this explains why.

Wasn't the injury diagnosed as a hairline/stress fracture? Which basically means an injury that sustained over a long period of time, due to overuse and lack of rest? Not a singular incident?

I think you see the injuries differently, and perhaps in this case, wrongly.

Even if it did occur from a singular incident, I really don't think it is fair to throw fragile labels around like that, especially for someone who plays as much basketball as Yao Ming does.

 

uummmmmm...

Yeah, it was a stress fracture. Precisely my point. Every other starting center in the league played starting minutes, many into the postseason, and *one* starting center broke a bone.

Again. And it wasn't a "bad luck injury". It was a durability injury. Which is the point.

You can think I'm wrong and I'm totally fine with that. I'm not expecting you to agree, just stating my viewpoint. Not trying to pick a fight or lob any disrespect your way. [/disclaimer ]

 

Awesome. I responded to you before this nice little edit.

You win, Donny. I didn't want to pick a fight, so you win. I'm narrow minded and short sighted, because I dare to see something different from you.

(generally, limiting oneself to his own viewpoint and refusing to entertain that of others... bah, nevermind.)

 

Rockets, texans can't even make it to the playoffs and the astros can't beat the yanks, sox, or phillies

 

Yeah.

I'm saying that not all of his injuries *are* durability injuries, but some of them are.

But, once again, you have to take into account who he is and what he does.

Can we reasonably expect a 7'6" 300lbs+ person to play that much basketball (minutes in the NBA, summer in China, etc) and not develop these types of injuries?

I'd say no. And if you think otherwise, I'd say that is inviting injuries like this, and not exactly Yao's fault.

 

Sorry, but your opinion that all injuries are equal when judging the durability of a player is pretty much by definition narrow minded. No other real way to put it. I wish things were as simple as you seem to think they are, then maybe I could be the next Morey

 

Thanks for misrepresenting my opinion. Did you misrepresent on purpose, or did you misunderstand? Perhaps I wasn't clear. I will take the blame -- for however you came up with "all injuries are equal in my opinion when judging the durability of a player", I'm sorry. That's not what I said. I and another poster said that while there *are* freak injuries, Yao's simply don't fit into this category. In my view, at least. But go ahead. Call me narrow-minded again, I want to see another excuse for your ad hominem.

Sure there are. You could clarify. You could make sure you get what someone is saying before belittling his take or his intelligence. But that requires more effort than assuming someone's logical capacities are lesser than your own based on your appraisal of his opinion.

so sometimes he's fragile. ok.

so fragility is to be expected? that was my point when I mentioned pretty much the same thing five minutes ago.

on this we agree. Yao plays too much -- the demands placed on his body are too high.

His fault? "maybe maybe no". But the end result, whether one thinks it's his fault are not, is "durability issues".

Like I said, Yao's a great guy. But he has durability issues. (he's fragile.)

 

OK msn, since you're taking this so personally... Which, by the way, I haven't said anything towards your person just towards your argument (see "that is narrow minded", in this discussion, "that" being your argument), so dropping this "ad hominem" stuff would be a good call.

How am I supposed to read this without thinking that you don't care what type of injury it is?

Or this, for that matter.

You seem to not differentiate, or care about differentiating, in either one of these statements.

 

How DonnyMost doesn't see that Yao is fragile is beyond me.

 

The injuries which seem to be recurring/fatigue related for Yao (foot, etc) seem to be fairly commonplace for someone of his body type who has to undergo that much physical activity in that amount of time.

So does that make him fragile? Or does that make him normal?

If you're measuring him against the average NBA point guard, he probably seems fragile.

But, that would be a faulty measuring stick, IMO.

 

It's hard not to, when you leave out half the argument to support this accusation:

Donny, why didn't you quote this?
[rquoter]I completely agree with Donny's point that freak injuries are different from recurring things. But it's not like Yao took cheap shots ala Schaub. He just breaks.[/rquoter]
or this?
[rquoter]I and another poster said that while there *are* freak injuries, Yao's simply don't fit into this category.[/rquoter]
I seem to differentiate in those statements.

Ultimately, if there are a series of "freak" injuries, unless one is career-ending, the luck evens out and the victim of the "freak" injuries puts together a solid season or two. See: Schaub, Matt.

With Yao, there is an excuse every year. And an injury every year. Forgive me if I look back over the last eight years, see a guy who's missed about 40% of games, and come to the conclusion that he has durability issues.

Nobody's luck is that bad.

But wait a minute -- doesn't this logic imply that fragile is normal for this body type and size?

Agreed! So, let's compare him to the other starting NBA centers.... yeah, he's injured more than those guys, too.

 

For his size, he is normal, among his peers, he is incredibly fragile. Other NBA players is what he should be measured against, I don't understand your line of thinking. Why is that a faulty measuring stick?