Change of Heart: Yeah we need to make the playoffs

Ok, I've always said being the 8th best team in your conference gets you nowhere. It's good for the owners and the casual fan but I'll never understand why the 5-8 seeds in the East are going to ever mention they were ever there.

I almost posted this in the "Don't underestimate JVG in the playoffs" thread but it's been so depressing around here lately (and if you're not depressed you don't have much of a shot at being taken seriously) that I have a realistic optimistic slant I want to throw into the air.

SF never being in the playoffs is a shame, he has deserved better, I wish him well period and who knows maybe he's like Horry (a perennial all-star in the playoffs 'til last year) but I really will only find that mildly interesting.

But I want to see Yao in the playoffs now.

The game that defined Dream for me was game 1 of the '86 WC finals against the Lakers, but that Celtics series Dream showed me more. A 2nd year player on an incredibly talented and young team that just kept fighting and shoving and well...losing. That guy was far removed from the '94 MVP model, but not as much as you think.

I knew Dream was going to win championships. Then the team imploded and I thought Dream would win championships somewhere else ala Moses.

So far with Yao there's had to be a lot of understanding and a great deal of frustration and wherever that fine line is between understanding/excusing is the most divisive topic on this bbs now (sorry Steve).

But we'll know more soon. With all due respect A-Train. we'll squeak into the playoffs. And...

Yao's going to get beaten up by the same three guys for (hopefully) a week on international TV. Think about the dynamics at work here. Yao's performance is almost a subplot.

But he never experienced this with the Sharks, or in international competition. Truth to tell, the NBA hasn't either. A couple of hundred million extra viewers on hand and their guy's getting killed by well-coached drones.

That's not the real fun though - Stern, Thorn et al can wig out all they want - I don't care. It does apply a little subtle pressure to the refs though.

But for Rockets fans the show is Yao. What's in him now? I think we're going to be surprised. I want him beaten up bad - flagrant fouls you name it. Then I want him screaming at referees and his teammates, ignoring his coaches and telling opposing players after the series he wants them on his team.

And then I want JVG to remind him to mean ****ng SOB and then have Yao get him fired.

Ok, the JVG thing was just for humor. But everything else I can see happening, except Yao will undoubtedly do it in a far more polite manner than we're used to.

I believe greatness is born out of huge frustration. I think Yao's getting more than his share of it but hasn't seen anything yet. When Dream started fairly regularly dumping 30 on people I remember him saying "No it's not tough, they beat you up and you have to ignore it". Moses would not have approved.

If JVG tells Yao to get ejected in the 4th qtr of game one, he'll get my attention, but that's not his style and I don't think he's that smart. Hmm, Les is, anybody have his e-mail address?

It might cost us the game but unless we're playing the Laker's I think it's good basketball/international marketing/commissioner pee in his pants strategy.

Unless we play the Lakers I don't give us a prayer in the first round and I don't care. But I want to see how Yao responds to it all. I want to see it hurt him badly, I want him to take it all personally, I want every slight of him we've ever read to show on his face.

I think I will. Really. He'll say he's tired, he'll go home, but the look in his eyes will tell me everthing I need to know.

Arguably this franchise looks disastrous and that's why I love A-Train's posts, but the history of this franchise is a little weird - especially about centers.

We bought local, we really did purchased Moses I guess, kid from Nigeria makes a lot of noise and we tank a season to get him. And Yao, well that's been really different.

But I haven't sniffed a ring since '96. The only thing that's even relevant to me now about this franchise is Yao. Not because he is or not the best player on the team and nor that he's currently the 5th best center we've had in 30+ years (isn't that really odd?).

But the playoffs I think are important this year. I think it's ridiculous in a way to throw the keys of this franchise to Yao. And revisionist history be damned Chicago threw them to Jordan way too early and he used to admit that.

But in the here and now in the off-seaon we throw the keys too early to Yao also - the best case scenario is Franchise is here to do it.

This is my optimistic thread here folks. Yeah I'm home sick with a fever and squinty eyes. Yao don't seek me out and beat me up, please.

 

Thanks for the kind words. But I went "Howard Dean" here when I was trying to be optimistic? I don't get it. I don't care what you think about "Dubbya" and I was talking about basketball.

jumpshooter, thanks and I do agree with you, but the Laker's are only team I think we have a chance of beating in the first round.