I'll be back here during the next NBA playoffs when Yao takes charges or misses free throws late in games, or gets dunked on by a 6'6 guy. That's if they even make it into the playoffs. Ask any NBA pundits if Yao is a superstar. Yao may be an All-star, but definitely not a superstar in the likes of Duncan, D-Wade, Shaq or Kobe. He hasn't even gotten past the first round. Here are my NBA soft team: PG: Tony Parker SG: Cuttino Mobley SF: Pedrag Stojakavic PF: Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Webber C: Yao Ming, Z. Illguaskus These guys put up great numbers during the regular season, but when the game is on the line in the playoffs, they grow vaginas and settle for outside shots and play no defense. I live in Monterey Park where there are a lot of Asians. It has surpassed San Francisco as the city with the most Asians. And everytime I say that Yao will never LEAD a team to a championship, they get all sappy and angry, as if Yao is their Lord and Savior who will overturn the stereotypes (passive, soft, effiminate, etc.) that Whites in this country has forced upon Asians for the past 125 years. I just looked in the NBA dictionary of basketball terminology... soft (adj.) - doesn't post up smaller players, but settles for soft jumpshots; 7 footer who takes charges instead of blocking shots; chokes when the game is on the line; gets dunked on frequently by players eight inches shorter than they are. But he's the best center in the NBA, because the rest suck, even Shaq.
If the NBA ever has a team like that, then book a ticket to the NBA finals. Dirk, Parker and Yao? Those three alone are already worth the second round of the playoffs. Since when were centers smaller players? Yao Ming might be tall, but he doesn't have as much muscle as the other centers, especially shaq. And he makes those jumpshots. And you are telling me that Yao Ming should never get dunked on, even though Shaq was dunked on by players shorter than him too. Just face it, Yao Ming is still growing. Centers peak later than other players, so he will prove you dead wrong next season. One last thing: So you are saying that we are soft, passive and effiminate?
I don't think so. Heat kicked Dallas's tail because the Heat roughed them up defensively...and the refs' phantom calls for D-Wade. Dirk doesn't play any D. Parker doesn't play any D. Yao hasn't proven himself in the playoffs. And all three disappear in crunch situations. Honestly, I hope Yao proves me wrong next season, if the Rockets make it into the playoffs. And I expect Yao and T-Mac to win championships, not just make it into the playoffs. I have lived in L.A. my entire life and don't recall Shaq getting POSTERIZED by smaller players. If so, give me specific examples. But I've seen alot of Shaq dunking on Yao. And I don't mean players getting by him and dunking, I mean like Swift, Amare, Outlaw, Mason serving up a facial to Yao. Yao doesn't go to the hole that often because he's afraid to get roughed up in the paint. If he goes to the hole, his FG% will go up and he'll have more opportunities for And-1s. And Yao doesn't play defense, because he's afraid he'll get winded fast. When you're the tallest player in the NBA and you can't even crack the top 10 in BPG, you're soft. I hear this a lot. Give some examples of proven centers who took a while to come around? The great centers put up great numbers their first or two season. Nobody had doubts that they were Hall of Famers. Can you honestly say that about Yao? And don't give me this crap that he has to learn how to play American basketball. He's been to camps in the states before he was drafted and he's watch the NBA since he was 12. Name me a foreign player (aside of Steve Nash) who has changed their style of play? I can't believe I have to defense myself on this one. Did you read the sentence carefully? Soft, passive and effiminate are stereotypical traits given to Asians by Whites in this country. Honestly, I have Asian friends who are soft and those who are not. I guess you have never read stuff by Frank Chin or Shawn Wong. Every race, ethnicity, creed, nationality etc. has their stereotypes. I have Hispanic friends who dropped out of high school, and black friends who are drug addicts. Are they true? This is a basketball thread. Let's stick to basketball.
Dude, Just because Yao is 7'5" that does'nt mean he should automatically dominate in all kinds of ways. It's like Shaq saying "The guy is 8 feet tall (some exaggeration like that), that's what he's supposed to do" after Yao had some good games against him. Basically not giving proper appreciation of how different and better he is compared to anyone else around his height who has ever played in the NBA. All those other past players at his height were stiffs. Being half a foot taller than the average center of course makes him slower and less agile but he has the height advantage and actually has better shooting touch than those smaller guys. Would you seriously compare a normal 7 foot center versus a 6'6" shooting guard in terms of quickness and overall athletic ability? So why knock Yao because of his athletic limitations compared to guys half a foot shorter than him. He's actually kind of agile for his size if you compare him to other players in the past at his height. As for the great centers of the past developing early, they all actually played in the US for at least a few years before entering the NBA. Usually both high school and at least a year or two of college. You're comparing that against a few short camps and watching TV from China? I'd rather have a few years playing against your future peers in elite high school and college competition vs playing against weak Chinese pros as preparation for the NBA, both from a physical and mental standpoint. Yao basically started off a few years mentally and physically behind where he would have been if he had developed in the US and is now starting to dominate. Shaq did'nt win until his eighth season, at the age of 28. He's a great player, self-titled "MDE", but he could never win if he only had role players surrounding him. He needed a pair of future HOF guards to give him his championships. They also needed him. He was great at carrying the load for most of the game but he can't finish a game for you, especially because of his free throw shooting. Yao can carry a large load as well as long as his teammates are good enough to make their open shots so that it's not a one man team. And Yao would be an asset rather than a liability late in games because of his 85% FT percentage vs. <50% for Shaq. As for getting dunked on, Shaq would rather let you have the dunk and not contest it if looked like he would be late getting there. He has been dunked on before but he usually avoids those situations more often now that he's gotten slower. Yao gets dunked on mostly because he gets there too late after a teammate lets his assignment get past him and still tries to block it, unlike Shaq. Duncan had Robinson for the first two titles. He had Ginobili and Parker for the 2nd and 3rd titles. Even though he was the best player on his team he still had a lot of help in order to win his championships. Look at what happened against Dallas. Duncan played probably his best playoff series ever but they still lost because Ginobili and Parker did'nt show up and do their part. Ginobili probably because he was rusty from nagging injuries. Parker, well he's known to have some great games and then disappear in others just like in previous playoffs. The point is a great player is'nt enough without adequate contributions from your teammates. Kobe and Wade. Great players but let's see if they can win a championship without Shaq. Even Jordan took 7 years or so to win his first. Guess what, he needed Pippen who is one of the best small forwards ever. Before they won, they were tagged as soft and not tough enough to stand up to Detroit. That disappeared when they finally won. My point is that you can't expect Yao to lead the team to a championship unless McGrady stays healthy and plays at least close to his abilities, along with decent help from the supporting cast. Same formula as with the established superstars. Otherwise, if he wins with just the role players that would mean he manages to outdo Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, Kobe, Wade, etc. which is just unrealistic. Will Yao grow enough as a player? I believe so. He has made improvements every year and is still a few years from his peak. Last season saw him handle double and triple teams aggressively and successfully, something that many critics whined about in previous seasons. Unfortunately, no McGrady and lack of decent shooters meant that Yao was the only one who could consistently score. His rebounding averaged 10+ for the first time in his career last season and should probably reach 11 next season if he stays healthy. His FG % should start heading up again without as many double-triple teams. He averaged less fouls after his toe surgery so that is yet another often criticized category he has managed to improve upon. After that toe surgery I think he would have shown more improvement defensively if he had'nt had to expend so much energy on offense against double-triple teams because T-Mac was out and the scrubs could'nt shoot. With T-Mac hopefully healthy and shooting help from Novak and Head(he hit the rookie wall) Yao will get easier points on offense and have more energy to spend on defense. Finally, if you have been watching since Yao's first season, he has become much more aggressive and confident in his game since then. He figures what he needs to improve and makes adjustments. Some impatient critics may think the progress is too slow but he still continues to improve steadily. I don't expect that progress to stop and expect the next step he will take will be to become more assertive on the floor.
I appreciate your response. Some of these bloggers have black-balled me. Yes, Yao is quite agile for a guy his size, but he doesn't use his advantages. He doesn't establish himself in the low post because he's a finesse player. Just think about it, if he goes to the hole often, three things would happen 1)Yao makes the basket 2) He gets fouled 3) He makes the basket and gets fouled. Even fat Shaq manages to have over 60% FG because he knows nobody can stop him when he gets downlow. Yao FG% is ranked 56th. Nowitzki's stat in his 3rd year: 21.8, 9.2, .474 FG% (C/F) Gasol's first year stat:17.6, 8.9, 2.06 BPG (C/F) Arvydas Sabonis 3rd year stat: 16.0, 10.00, 4.93 FG% (and he played internationally for over 10 years, and started playing in the NBA in his 30s) I was responding to somebody who said that it takes centers longer to develop. I want to know the names of those centers. Dominate? 19th in BPG for a guy 7'6, 27th in collective rebounds? Yao's stats were almost identical to Chris Webber, which means C-Web was dominating too? You can't say a guy dominates until he makes the first team All-Defensive team. Even Shaq isn't the most dominant; Shaq may be offensively, but not defensively. Everybody knew Shaq was a Hall of Famer during his rookie season. I can only go by what I have seen from the two. Yao misses four critical free throws against Dallas in game 5. Shaq makes two critical free throws in game five against Dallas. My point exactly. Yao can't be your number #1 guy. Can he be a #2 guy? He hasn't shown me that he can eve be a #2. We'll see. I'll give you this. His numbers in year 3 have gone down from year 2, but still he's improved, but he'll never dominant until he gets into better condition, plays D, and goes to the hole 80% of the time. Yao is a very good NBA player, a bonafide all-star, but people on this blogs go overboard when they say he's a superstar or dominant. Even Rik Smits was an all-star. Duncan is the MDE in the league right now.
How difficult is it for you to understand that an average NBA player with decent jumping ability can easily make up the few inches difference in height? Now the dunks. Know what? It's extremely difficult to posterize someone if he doesn't attempt to block the shots above the rim. When was the last time you saw Shaq try to meet someone above the basket when his man has elevated and is ready to put the ball into the hole with both hands? If so, give me specific examples. How many games has Yao played in the NBA? Like 300 games and more than 10,000 minutes? How difficult is it to name a few players who has dunked on him? As a Rocket fan I am truly glad that Yao has the heart to try to block every shot. The same thing cannot be said about all the other players who have been mentioned in your post. I have never seen any Phoneix fans diss Amare by digging up the facials served on him. Do you honestly believe that the Suns fans can't name a list of players who has dunked on Amare in his NBA career? (Just in that 'Apocalypse Yao' video there are two facials served by Yao on him already.) I may not be able to name everyone who has dunked on Amare off my head because I don't really follow his team and seldom watch the Suns games. But I am sure every Suns fan can compile a list of players who have served Amare facials before. The thing is that none of them will do it nor even talk about it because they actually love their players and are somewhat biased. I don't really blame them because I know I am biased as a Rockets fan too. If someone asks me who the best player in the history of NBA is, I would say Hakeem "the Dream" Olajuwon without second thought. But I am sure the Lakers fans have other names in their minds, like Chamberlain, Magic, Kareem, etc. The Celtics fans would try to make their case for Larry Bird. And even the grandma of my buddy knows the Bulls fans would argue for Michael Jordan until the sky turns green. Fans are always biased to the players on their own teams, just to different degrees. But one thing I know is that a true 'die hard Rockets fan' wouldn't use the 'facials' to diss a player on the team which he claims to love.
