A leader is someone that is respected, not the highest scorer or the first one to get into a fight. Hakeem was a leader and let his attitude for the game and his play do most of the talking. If someone was messing up or not taking their shots he would let them know. IMO Yao will be the center piece of this team for years to come. It's all gonna start and end with him.
1. T-Mac has taken exception on hard-fouls on Yao on numerous occasion. I am not very clear on the Mason scenario but I remember Juwan being first in there to stick up for Yao, and Yao's teammates certainly weren't just standing around doing nothing. Also remember the Rockets are a team of Veterans who are more unlikely to get themselves suspended a la Knicks, Nuggets, Pacers. Your use of personal attack as a similie to support your arguement is in really bad taste. 2. Everyone in this world is prejudice in a way or another, that is why there is the FREEDOM of THOUGHT, (if you are interested in this subject read 1984 - George Orwell). If society arrested people for thinking a racist thoughts, almost everyone will be arrested immediately. It is only considered a "RACIAL OFFENSE" or otherwise tagged "Hate Crime" when people act on such prejudice, as a resulting causing harm and havoc that is a danger to the well being of society. 3. I have serious doubts about this quote, please state your source. Yao is a genuine and gentle personality and T-Mac is not exactly anyways unlikeable either, how is it that Yao would claim that "they can NEVER be friends". If this was during T-Mac's initial arrival in Houston I can understand because Yao was really cynical about T-Mac's arrival at that time the same way he gave Wesley the could shoulders after he was traded here for Boki. The debate here can really be answered by the definition of the word "friend". Seeing Yao and Tracy talk to each other and appearing on shows together joking with each other and at times reportedly hanging out with each other, there is no way you can say they are not friends. But if you meant "friends" like Yao's closest chinese buddies, maybe Yao may have said this as refering to this kind of "friend. In my personal opinion though, I really question the validity and sincerity of this claim. 4. Professional or not, atheletes are humans and sometimes are vulnerable for having their feelings exposed through the media, but I agree with you and DD that this is a sign of weakness, but even the dedicated KG eventually left Boston, how much can you expect of T-Mac. I do hope that T-Mac becomes a true leader for this team along with Yao. We have seen Yao being more vocal this season with his teammates and his coach, all in all, our Stars are growing mentally. By the way leadership is not one's capability of displaying emotions on camera. It is foolish to think we should name Francis captain for THAT reason. Kenyon Martin can scream and yell all he wants, he was never the leader for the Nets to the more humble and controlled Kidd. _ Blue
Yao is our centerpiece for the future, I agree. But it is kinda weird Yao hasn't ever been named captain before, or atleast co-captain. On a different note I checked the Miami Heats site, and not sure if its a typo or not, but apparently they don't have a designated captain on their roster. Rofl well that figures, they suck so bad that they don't even have a leader.
I knew one of you sad YOF's would turn this thread into a macgrady hating thread. you guys are so obvious. even pendantic. so sad.
You sound like I really care how you feel about me. Do I live for no-matter-what-Tmac-is-right guys' approval? Hilarious.
Yaoterminator, My last line wasn't accusing you, I never mentioned it as a rebuttle towards your post, I'm sorry for the miscommunication. Also you shouldn't play the Race card so much, it makes things much more sensitive then it already is. There will always be prejudism (thought), but we can always contain racism (actions). _ Blues
OMG.Are you a chinese?I'm a chinese fan,so I damn konw how popular this story is among YOF&TOH and KOF&TOH.They even spread around that he SMILIDE when Yao was bullied!!But acutrally the fact is:that game T-Mac was DNP for injured and not there.Are you really watch much rockets games or more from news and boards?
Thanks Blues. I think you are a nice person. I wouldn't have mentioned the race issue hadn't one of u people tagged me as a racist so easily. You are right. It's not proper to bring the sensitive and dark things into the spotlight. It heaps shame on some of you.
Yes,I kown that article in qq.com,rumor by some KOF&TOH hum?It also said that T-Mac has barely friends in nba(LOL),T-Mac is a bad person.This sort of articles about smearing T-Mac are so popular in china and so many people believe them.
I m so glad that this discussion can come to an end after Tmac screwed up the game vs the Raptors. Yes, he could sometimes score 50+ or get triple double. Nevertheless, he doesn't make a qualified leader. Period.
What if we started bashing yao threads evertiome he has a bad game?.he himself was getting dominated by a scrub like humphries. yao was'nt great either..
