ESPN's Michael Wilbon of PTI:For Many Teams, The NBA Draft Pool Is Clear as Mud

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38986-2002Jun24.html

For Many Teams, The NBA Draft Pool Is Clear as Mud

By Michael Wilbon
Tuesday, June 25, 2002; Page D01


Once upon a time the first pick in the NBA draft was somebody you knew with reasonable certainty could be productive, if not have impact, from his very first game in the league. If you saw Bill Walton or Magic Johnson or Isiah Thomas or James Worthy or Hakeem Olajuwon or David Robinson or Shaq or even Tim Duncan beat the best college players of the day, you drafted him. Sometimes it was less clear, when teams were trying to decide whether Brad Daugherty, Danny Manning or Derrick Coleman was worth the first pick.

Still, all of them produced immediately.

Now, for the second straight year, 99.9 percent of the basketball public has never seen the No. 1 overall pick play. The Wizards' Kwame Brown last year, Yao Ming this year. The Psychic Friends might as well be making these picks. It's all guesswork now. At best, it's projection. GMs are drafting entirely on potential, not on anything they have seen. This, of course, is how a four-year college player such as Utah's Andre Miller slips down into the teens on the draft board, because few teams seek immediate help.

The only reason I've seen Yao play is because I was in Australia for the 2000 Summer Olympics. I saw him play a couple of times, didn't think he was a stiff, and thought he had more potential than Shawn Bradley. Kevin Garnett and Alonzo Mourning told me they liked what they saw in him, which counts for more than what I think. But most NBA folks have never seen him play in person. Nobody has any real idea of how good Yao will be, just as they had no idea of how good Brown will be.

Sandwiched around the two Duke players expected to be chosen (Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy Jr.) could be another player we've never seen: Niloloz Tskitishvili, a 6-foot-11 forward from Georgia, the republic not the university. There are more Predrags and Arvydases in this draft than Jamals, which ought to tell you a lot about the quality of overseas players. Another guy expected to go high in the draft, some say to the Wizards, is Qyntel Woods, a junior college player. There's at least one more high school player, Amare Stoudamire, expected to go relatively early in the first round.

But as of late Monday night, it looked like Yao is going first, to Houston; Williams, who is already wearing Bulls gear, will go second, to Chicago; Dunleavy will go third, to Golden State. My friend Richard Justice, who now writes for the Houston Chronicle, says there have been so many Texans negotiating/recruiting/ shmoozing in China that Yao likely will land at Houston Intercontinental wearing cowboy boots and saying, "Hey, y'all."

As for Dunleavy and why he's going above Caron Butler, I don't get it. Okay, he's a very nice player. I'd love him at, say, No. 10 or 11. But isn't Butler better than Dunleavy at every single thing you can do on a basketball court, except shooting threes? Do the Warriors think they're getting the next Chris Mullin? What? I'd take Butler 100 times out of 100 before Dunleavy.

As for the Wizards, with the 11th pick in the first round, some mock drafts have them taking Dajuan Wagner, another precocious kid with much upside and nothing proven. I suppose this would be okay; one year of college experience now makes you look seasoned by comparison. Others have Northeast Mississippi Community College's Woods, a 6-9 small forward with alleged versatility, coming here. That's just what the Wizards need, right, two projects? It would be great if the season ticket holders could defer their seat payments for three years until Brown and Woods are ready, wouldn't it?

Whatever the Wizards do should not be a result of whether or not Michael Jordan, 39, plays or whether he starts or comes off the bench. Jordan has one more season, or at best, two, on the court. But his playing isn't the future of the franchise.

The Wizards need desperately to get a player of significance from this draft because the Jordan buzz eventually will fade. It's been four seasons since Jordan competed for a championship. Everybody has attention deficit disorder now. A 12-year-old kid has forgotten Jordan ever played. Nobody outside of Washington is going to hang on every word of Jordan's possible return as happened last summer. The Los Angeles Lakers are the national story in pro basketball. The Kings are interesting, too, as is Jason Kidd. If Jordan plays, I say fine, because Wizards games take on added meaning. But the Wizards had better have a lot bigger picture in mind than the snapshot of Jordan.

What the locals need are two picks, one big and one small, with the determination and work ethic of Juan Dixon, who can't help a bad team but sure could make himself valuable to a good one. If the Maryland fans and alums love Dixon half as much as they say they do, they would stop whining about Dixon's draft position. In fact, they should hope he slides right to the final pick of the first round, to the Lakers, where everybody associated with the club would take to him right away. But Phil Jackson is loath to take small guards; instead think 6-9 Tayshaun Prince of Kentucky.

You think Duncan wouldn't welcome a kid with Dixon's jump shot and toughness to San Antonio? You think Dixon wouldn't be great coming off the bench in New Jersey to play with Kidd (temporarily, before replacing Kerry Kittles)? You think Jerry Sloan wouldn't figure out a way to immediately slip Dixon some playing time in Utah? You think Tracy McGrady wouldn't love a teammate with Dixon's spot-up shooting skills in Orlando?

The later Dixon goes Wednesday night, the better it is for him, for his immediate and long-term career. I hope he doesn't rise in the draft to some feeble team because this kid deserves a break.

 

sorry, here is another article but I dont want to start a new thread and be annoying about all of these different newsworthy articles from around the US:

http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/sportstoryA22584A.htm

Jun 24, 8:43 PM

Is he ready for the NBA?

Observers say Yao can play, but skeptics linger on draft eve

By John Denton
FLORIDA TODAY



ORLANDO -- Questions abound about just how good 7-foot-5, 296-pound Chinese center Yao Ming, the likely top pick in Wednesday's NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets, can be years from now.

Will he add the much-needed bulk that will not only allow him to survive in the paint, but also keep his enormous height from becoming trivialized? Will he develop a low-post game to complement his already impressive soft shooting touch? And, most importantly, will the Chinese government resist the notion to continually pull its star back for international competitions so that he can reach his full potential in the NBA?

Few, including the Rockets, know the answers to those questions even with the draft just a day away. But there is a consensus that has formed already in the NBA. And it goes something like this: Ming is no Shawn Bradley, and that's certainly a good thing. Bradley, you might remember, is the 7-6 center who was predicted to change the league forever back in 1993, only to become a laughingstock and a monumental bust.

"He's so much more skilled and stronger than Shawn Bradley ever was," said Orlando Magic director of player personnel Gary Brokaw, who has scouted Yao each of the past three years. "Bradley never had the lower body strength and was just really long. Yao doesn't have a great post-up game yet, and really he's just more of a pick-and-pop kind of player now. But the potential is there for him to be a great player."

Fresno State center Melvin Ely, a possibility for the Magic at the 18th pick of the first round, played against Yao in international competitions and came away quite impressed. He agreed this isn't another case of a player being tall and that's all.

"The Shawn Bradley comparison is not fair at all," Ely said. "He's not a 7-foot-6 stiff. He can really move and that surprised me. There is no myth about him. He's a legitimate presence, especially defensively."

The Rockets, surprise winners of the draft lottery in May, seem convinced as well that Yao is no Bradley. Earlier this month, the team's staff took a 20-hour trip from Houston to China to begin evaluations and arguably the most complicated negotiations in NBA history.

They had seen Yao on tape, and head coach Rudy Tomjanovich got a firsthand look at Yao during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. But the 3-hour workout he put on for the team in Shanghai convinced the Rockets he was worth the No. 1 pick.

"He was overpowering with his size in his shoulders, and his legs were very well developed," Houston general manager Carroll Dawson said in a conference call with reporters. "He runs like a 6-5 guy with quickness and agility, and he can put the ball on the floor with either hand. He made 3-pointers, and from what we saw in the Olympics, he's an excellent passer. The physical part, he's not used to, and it will be a big adjustment for him. But we think he's a player who is going to continue to develop as he gets experience."

But Dawson's views were just from an on-court perspective. If only this was solely a basketball decision, he said. The diplomatic wrangling has thrown a wrench into what would have otherwise been a slam-dunk of a decision for the Rockets.

Rumors have persisted for months that the Chinese government would only allow Yao to play in the NBA if he was the top pick of the draft and they preferred he play in a city with a large Chinese population. There also is the issue of the Chinese government holding the right to recall Yao whenever it likes in order to play in international competitions such as the World Championships (August), the Asian Games (October) or the 2004 Olympics. Already, Ming is expected to miss training camp because of the Asian Games.

Then, there is the issue of compensation. Reportedly, Yao will need nine signatures on his NBA contract. And under new regulations, the Chinese Basketball Association mandates that athletes competing overseas must pay 30 percent of their earnings on the court and off. Twenty percent of that money will go to the China's communistic government. Yao also will have to use a portion of the $10.4 million he is guaranteed over the next three years to pay his former team, the Shanghai Sharks, for allowing his release to the NBA.

The Rockets did receive assurances last weekend that Yao won't be recalled during the upcoming NBA season. But he won't be in New York on Wednesday night for the draft along with the 16 other prospective players because the Chinese government refused to allow him to leave the training for the World Championships, which will be played in August in Indianapolis, Ind.

"I've already had many frustrations," Yao told the The Shanghai Morning Post. "A few more won't break me."

Yao, 21, is the product of basketball royalty in China. His mother, 6-3 Fang Fengdi, was an Olympic star. His father, 6-7 Yao Zhiyuan, played professionally in China.

NBA scouts have known of Yao for years, and have eagerly followed his progress. His first appearance in the United States came four years ago when he dominated a Nike camp in Indianapolis. He was a 7-3 17-year-old back then. Now, he is coming off a professional season in which he just averaged 32.4 points, 19 rebounds and 4.8 blocked shots. He led Shanghai to the Chinese title, averaging 41.3 points, 21 rebounds and 4.3 blocks in the finals.

"I saw him play three years ago, then last year and again this year in Chicago," Orlando's Brokaw said, "and he's improved quite a bit each time I saw him."

But the competition in China was hardly what he will see in the NBA on a nightly basis. He has a strong base, but he is woefully thin in his upper body and struggles against stronger players. In the Olympics, he fouled out in less than 20 minutes when he had to guard Alonzo Mourning and Antonio McDyess.

"He's the Shaquille O'Neal of China, but against Shaquille O'Neal he'd get beat around pretty good," said Memphis Grizzlies president Jerry West, who compared Yao to former Indiana Pacers' center Rik Smits.

But how would getting destroyed by 7-1, 375-pound O'Neal make Yao any different from the other 29 center already in the NBA? He just might be the only center on the horizon who can potentially dominate the game after O'Neal is gone.

Houston, near the bottom of the NBA in attendance the last two years, certainly needs the buzz Yao would bring. The team already has a dynamic core of young players in Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Eddie Griffin and their growth would be tied to Yao's maturation. Factor in the Rockets' history with taking centers with the top pick (re: Elvin Hayes, Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon) and choosing Yao looks to be a no-brainer.

Former Magic forward David Benoit, who played with Yao on the Shanghai Sharks this past season, is confident that Yao will develop into a star in the NBA.

"I've played with Shawn Bradley. I played against (Hakeem) Olajuwon when he was at his best," Benoit told the Houston Chronicle. "Yao Ming to me is way more to the Olajuwon side. And he's going to be better than Rik Smits. I'm not taking anything away from Rik. But this guy is right there with Rik at this time. And he's going to get better.

"Eventually, he will be an All-Star -- every year if he's injury-free. I believe Yao Ming will make (Houston) competitive just by him being on the floor. I've played with Mark Eaton, played with Shawn Bradley. I played against some of the biggest names of the NBA. I'm telling you, this guy can play."

 

http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=128&page=4066620

NBA Draft: Worldwide quest for size
Tuesday, June 25, 2002

By STEVE ADAMEK
Staff Writer


Yao Ming is one thing, all 7 feet, 5 inches of him and almost certainly headed for Houston with the first pick in Wednesday's NBA draft. By now, anyone with an ounce of interest in basketball knows him.

But what about Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Maybyner "Nene" Hilario? Come Wednesday, they should leave the ranks of the unfamiliar as Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki once did: as international lottery picks.

It's a small world after all, the basketball world, and Wednesday's draft will reinforce the scope of NBA's vast international reach. Maybe there's a 7-footer in Antarctica scouts have yet to find, but now they've found a whole new market: Asia, where in China alone they can tap a population of more than one BILLION.

Imagine if one in a million of those people stand 7 feet or taller. That would mean more than 1,000 potential NBA centers.

That may be an NBA executive's pipe dream, yet Wednesday, Yao, Tskitishvili, Hilario, and others will join a league that at the end of this past season featured 51 players from 30 countries outside the United States on its 29 rosters, including those who spent time at American colleges. Twenty-five such players were selected in the past two drafts, 12 in the first round, including 2002 Rookie of the Year Gasol, who was chosen higher than any foreign player without U.S. college ties when the Grizzlies drafted him third overall a year ago.

Ming should top that and become figuratively and literally the largest symbol of the league's entry into Asia, even though fellow Chinese 7-footers Wang Zhi-Zhi and Mengke Bateer preceded him last season. Adding Hilario, a 6-foot-11 Brazilian, and Tskitishvili, a 7-footer from the Republic of Georgia, to that mix symbolizes not only where the league is reaching in its quest to find talent but how high.

"There aren't that many players that are coming up on the horizon in America that have size," Pacers president Donnie Walsh said. "At the same time, there are a lot of players in Europe with size, skill, and athleticism. And it looks like they keep coming."

"If you look at their big players, if you're a European player, and you come up through the system, you have to learn skill," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "You're not just somebody who's going to try to just turn around and try to dunk every ball. You learn how to handle [the ball], you learn how to shoot, you learn how to pass. So fundamentally, their bigger players are, by and large, better fundamentally than our players."

And whether it's by stationing a full-time scout in Europe, which the Nets, Knicks, and several other teams do, or using a network of contacts and moles, teams are finding those players. There's an old college recruiting story that now applies to the NBA of a coach walking into a gym to watch a player he believes only he knows, but instead finds several of his peers watching the player.

"There are fewer secrets now," Knicks general manager Scott Layden said.

"You'd like to think that you may know somebody that somebody else doesn't, but if he's good at all, because of all the competitions, I don't know how you miss anybody," Thorn said.

"That has a lot more to do with communications in our society, in our world," Denver assistant general manager David Fredman said. "You get on the Internet, you can get box scores from last night's games in Europe. Every once in awhile you come across a name [you don't know], but then you call your film guy and you just order a tape."

Or, you get on a plane. Layden made two trips to China and one to Europe this past season. Thorn's scouting director, Ed Stefanski, spent two weeks in Europe. Walsh spent 10 days in "four or five countries" last year. Toronto general manager Glen Grunwald traveled twice to Europe and although he doesn't employ a full-time scout overseas, his scouting director Jim Kelly once coached in the Philippines, Germany, England, and Greece.

There and throughout the rest of the world, Thorn and former Nets coach Chuck Daly believe, basketball has undergone a transformation over the past decade because of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team. Daly, who coached that team, says he thinks it not only piqued overseas interest in basketball, but produced a higher level of play from athletes in countries that hoped to compete with the Americans.

"A hundred and eighty countries or more saw that team play," Daly said. "I'm confident that there were 10- or 11-year-old kids out there saying, 'I want to be like Mike,' or whomever."

Last season, some of those grown-up kids got to play against Michael Jordan and more may next season - players who NBA executives say come from a far different training ground than those who now come out of what used to be the league's one and only talent pool: colleges. No longer does it apply that a teen-ager at Duke faces tougher competition than a teenager such as Tskitishvili playing for Benetton Treviso in Italy because the Duke teenager is playing against a talent pool in which the top players leave for the NBA after one or two years - if those players go to college at all.

"Take a typical American, a big player, who's either going to come [to the NBA] out of high school or maybe one year [of college at] 18, 19 years old," Thorn said. "The quality of competition he's played against is not nearly as good as the quality of competition a guy like Pau Gasol played in the last two years he was in Europe. [There] you're playing against men, you're playing against big guys that are men, versus playing against guys you can just overpower. So they're getting better competition than kids here are."

"You're looking at different styles of play, different levels of play, different competitions," Grunwald said. "I watched both Final Fours [this year], the NCAA and the European final four, and I thought the competition was better in Europe."

Then there was the NBA "final four," in which Sacramento came within a game of the Finals with Turkey's Hedo Turkoglu, plus Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic, both from the former Yugoslavia. No team has come so far so fast with players from so far away - assuming Shaquille O'Neal isn't truly from another planet.

But if there is another Shaq on Mars, maybe the NBA, having already shrunk the world, could make it a small universe after all, too.

BEST

Dirk Nowitzki: The ninth pick in 1998, the Dallas Mavericks' forward from Germany has developed into an All-Star. Milwaukee traded him to the Mavericks for Tractor Traylor. Bad move, Bucks.

Predrag Stojakovic: A star in Greece as a teenager. The Sacramento Kings made the guard-forward from Yugoslavia the 14th pick in 1996. Averaged 21.2 points last season and was a first-time All-Star.

Pau Gasol: The Grizzlies traded All-Star forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim to Atlanta so they could select Gasol with last year's third pick. The 7-foot-forward from Spain justified the move with his Rookie of the Year award.

WORST

Chris Anstey: Portland used the 18th pick in 1997 on the center from Australia. He was no Luc Longley, averaging 5.2 points in three years with two teams. Hasn't played in the NBA since 2000.

Frederic Weis: The Knicks' French pastry. They drafted the center from France with the 15th pick in 1999, but he decided to stay home. Judging by his ineffective play in the 2000 Olympics, he did the right thing.

Mirsad Turkcan: The Rockets selected the forward from Turkey with the 18th pick in 1998. They then traded his rights to the Knicks, where he played all of 90 career minutes. The Knicks might want to stick with U.S. players.

4066620

 

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/basketball/article/0,1426,MCA_466_1228405,00.html

Yao the center of attention among big-man prospects
Pool thin after likely top pick

By Ronald Tillery
tillery@gomemphis.com
June 25, 2002

NBA teams routinely have several minutes to draft a player when their pick comes around.

By all accounts, the Houston Rockets need only a second to fill in the blank with the No. 1 overall pick on Wednesday.

But the clock is ticking on Chinese 7-5 center Yao Ming.

Yao's availability remained a tall order as of Monday night.

Although the China Basketball Association gave Yao permission to play in the NBA, a monetary deal with the association still is pending.

John Huizinga, Yao's United States-based agent, is optimistic he can reach an agreement in time for the draft Wednesday. A deal with the CBA is the final obstacle blocking Yao from joining the NBA.

Reportedly, the CBA and government sports authorities are entitled to claim half of what Yao earns from his salary and endorsements. The negotiations, though, are focused on Yao's availability to play for China's national team.

This red tape has not deterred the Rockets, who behind extensive research and a concise courtship are prepared to make Yao the first non-U.S. born player taken with the top pick.

Last week the Rockets brass visited Shanghai to meet with Yao and the Chinese government.

"How many chances do you have to draft a guy (7-5)?" Grizzlies director of player personnel Tony Barone wondered aloud. "When you turn that down, you better have good reasons."

Said Melvin Ely, a fifth-year senior out of Fresno State: "He's not a (7-5) stiff. He can move and that surprised me."

Not only are there no centers in the draft like Yao, finding a true center is a formidable task at best.

Yao is the most coordinated and talented center available. He's also the tallest.

After Yao, teams prepare for a crapshoot when selecting a center.

Among the 14 players likely to be drafted who are projected to play center, six didn't play college basketball.

There are numerous reasons why players aren't drawn to the position. Near the top is the dwindling glamor associated with playing center unless a prospect has Shaquille O'Neal-like attributes.

Once Yao is taken, Stanford's Curtis Borchardt is the only other center expected to go in the lottery. The 7-footer averaged 16.9 points and 11.4 rebounds last season.

"Jason Jennings is a guy who will filter into the draft," Barone said. "With most of the centers, you're looking at them two or three years down the line. You're not looking at them to come in and start for your team and be contributors for 25-30 minutes."

Jennings, a 7-0 shot-blocker from Arkansas State, is projected as an early second-round pick, but he could slip into the first round, thanks to his recent private workouts.

"You keep looking year in and year out and you want to say who are the centers?" Barone said. "I don't know if it's weak. But is it a position where not a lot of guys are playing? Yeah, that's the case."

 

http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...id=979061475221&call_pagepath=Raptors/Raptors

Time for Yao is now at top of NBA draft

Jun. 25, 2002. 01:00 AM

Chinese star seems certain to be No.1 pick
Doug Smith-SPORTS REPORTER

Yao Ming is a question mark, a 7-foot-5 question mark, a nimble-footed, 280-pound question mark.

Tomorrow night, at least one answer about the mystery man will be provided when Yao makes basketball history.

Barring a last-minute snag, a possibility that will exist until the big moment, the Houston Rockets will make Yao the first Chinese-born to be chosen No. 1 in the NBA draft; the first basketball player trained outside of the U.S. to be selected first and the poster boy for the dawning of a new era in league recruitment.

So, who is this guy?

Is he the next great big man? Or is he Shawn Bradley?

Does he have the unique combination of passing and shooting skills that will make him an inside-outside threat? Or is he Manute Bol?

Is he the best first overall draft pick to come down the pike since Tim Duncan? Or is he Joe Barry Carroll?

"He's legitimate," Raptors assistant GM Bob Zuffelato said. "Is he going to be a superstar the minute he walks in? No. It's going to take some time, but he's a legitimate player, no doubt."

The Rockets have exhausted much money and even more time in assuring themselves that Yao will in fact be available to play in the NBA next season. But after protracted negotiations with his team, the Shanghai Sharks, and officials of the China Basketball Association, Houston officials are sure he will be in uniform in November and able to stay for the entire regular season and into the playoffs should the Rockets get that far.

At issue was how much it would cost Yao to buy out his contract (NBA teams are limited to only $300,000) and how much the Chinese basketball federation would take of the three-year, $10.3 million (U.S.) contract he would get as the No. 1 selection.

Those issues were resolved through long and tense negotiations, although nothing can be absolutely guaranteed until NBA commissioner David Stern calls Yao's name.

It is Yao's overall package that has general managers excited. In a workout in Chicago last month attended by every NBA team, he showed a deft shooting touch to about 15 feet, good footwork around the basket and an ability to pass that should make teammates better.

"Skills and size, that's a lethal combination," Indiana Pacers president Donnie Walsh said. "Skills and size make (Yao) a special player. It may take him one or two years to acclimate himself and to get to where he understands his position in the NBA and the challenge of the players he's playing every day. I think that once he goes through that period, which almost every rookie — even the great ones — must go through, I think he'll be a great player."

Yao's certainty as the No. 1 pick seems to have provided some clarity at the top of the draft. The Chicago Bulls, despite some second thoughts they planted on the weekend, are fully expected to draft Duke point guard Jay Williams with the second selection and the Golden State Warriors are a deadbolt cinch to take Duke forward Mike Dunleavy third.

 

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=212&xlc=741359&xld=212

Rockets hoping Yao will be a dream come true
By Brent Zwerneman
San Antonio Express-News
bzwerneman@express-news.net

Web Posted : 06/25/2002 12:00 AM

HOUSTON — The general manager of the New Jersey Nets figured it was a no-brainer to take the big man with the first pick of the draft, even with the uncertainty of when he might actually play in the NBA.


The Houston Rockets are one step closer to using the first pick in the NBA draft on Yao Ming.
Associated Press


"Getting him would make a big difference in the future of that franchise," the GM said.

Harry Weltman, then-Nets general manager, uttered that prophetic assertion in 1987, about David Robinson and the Spurs.

Robinson, of course, proved well worth a two-year wait while he served a U.S. Navy stint — he went on to win the league's Most Valuable Player trophy in 1995 and help lead San Antonio to the NBA championship four years later.

Now, the Houston Rockets are faced with their own questions about a big man toting his own bit of baggage. Will Yao Ming, all 7 feet, 5 inches of him in his bare feet, be worth the legal maneuvering involved in getting him over the Pacific Ocean from China, and then keeping him here?

Better yet, if they do — and the Rockets appear set on making Yao the top pick of Wednesday's draft — can he even play? Hardly anyone blames Houston for taking the chance, because if the Rockets miss, at least they'll miss big.

"For his size he's got a very good touch," NBC analyst P.J. Carlesimo told reporters after running a pre-lottery Yao workout in Chicago. "I was even more impressed with his ability to pick things up and his understanding of basketball. He has a lot of things you can't teach. Now, the toughness, the intensity and the experience of playing in the league is another thing. No telling how long that will take."

Many wonder whether the struggling Rockets, seemingly in a fit of bad decisions (including those awful uniforms) since winning NBA titles in 1994 and '95, can afford to wait a couple of years for Yao to develop. Why not, considering the Spurs did completely without Robinson for two years, and Yao, 21, may already be ready to make a decent contribution in his first couple of years in the league?

"If this kid was playing at the University of Houston or anywhere in the states, it would be like a Patrick Ewing in the draft," Pistons scout Tony Ronzone said. "He's that good. And forget all of that stuff people are saying about it taking one, two or three years for him to get acclimated to the NBA.

"He'll be successful right away."

The Rockets believe as much about Yao. That's why they haven't dealt the top pick, which they had only an 8.9 percent chance of winning at the May lottery, and have every intention of drafting Yao. Even if a recent ESPN poll showed that 63.4 percent of respondents didn't believe Houston should take a chance on the Chinese mystery.

"He's close to 300 pounds, so he's probably going to fill out and be well over 300 in a couple of years, if he's on a regimented program like most NBA players," Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said. "He's overpowering with his size, and he's already got a little bit of bulk with his shoulders and legs being developed.

"This guy runs like a 6-5 guy. He's got quickness, size and agility. He can put the ball on the floor from the post with either hand. ... The physical part of the NBA, he's not used to it, nor is anybody before they get into the NBA."

That certainly sounds more like a description of former Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, who paved the way for Africans in the league, than Chuck Nevitt, who, at 7-5, averaged 1.6 points per game. The wisecracking Nevitt also killed any idea that all you have to be is really tall to be successful in the NBA.

"With what the Rockets have, guards like Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, those guys are going to be loving Yao," Ronzone said.

"He can pass from the post and has great skills. Another big thing is that this is a kid who wasn't forced to play basketball because of his size. He's a kid who wanted to play basketball."

Yao's ethnicity is another good reason for the Rockets to choose him, if only for marketing. Asia has about 4 billion people — and how many of them will buy a Rockets "Yao" jersey? — and Houston has an Asian population of more than 250,000.

In that sense Yao must look like a big, tasty piece of leafy, green lettuce to salivating Rockets owner Les Alexander (who's a vegetarian).

Yao's early success (or lack of) with the Rockets aside, he can't be much worse than what Houston already has in the middle offensively. Oft-moody Kelvin Cato averaged more rebounds (7.0) than points (6.6) for the Rockets last year.

And since point guard Jay Williams of Duke is the second-best player in the draft, and the Rockets are stocked at guard, picking Yao seems the right thing to do.

Remember who was selected behind David Robinson in 1987? Armon Gilliam. It's safe to say Gilliam, who played for six teams over 13 seasons in the NBA, wouldn't have just finished his 13th season with the Spurs (even without a two-year Navy hitch).

It's also safe to say San Antonio wouldn't have a championship without David Robinson.

 

NBA: 2002 Draft -- Centers

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/102499621356270.xml

SPORTS: The Star-Ledger

Tuesday, June 25, 2002
-BY DAVE D'ALESSANDRO


Only once since 1996 were the first two centers chosen in the NBA Draft of American origin: Chris Mihm and Joel Przybilla in 2000. That illustrates the dearth of domestic big men. This shortage, however, never has been more obvious than tomorrow's draft, as an Asian and an Eastern European will be the first two centers selected. But if Yao Ming and Nikoloz Tskitishvili are everything the scouts claim them to be, that will be enough for one year.


1. Yao Ming, Shanghai Sharks (China):


He's 7-5, and he shoots 3-pointers. No, really. That's not the whole story, of course. Some believe he will revolutionize the sport as we know it, with an agility and athleticism that no one has ever seen in such a large package. Others see a 7-5 guy who shoots 3-pointers. Take the middle ground: If he is allowed to work in the off-season with Houston coaches, who are sold on taking him with the top pick, he will undoubtedly refine his post game and develop a signature move that may rival Kareem's sky hook. If he is given the latitude by his government to be a full-time NBA player in practices, summer leagues and the weight room, he could turn the league upside down. Until then, it's all educated guesswork.

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/main_story.asp?intID=3743232

If Yao lasts to second pick, Bulls likely to bite

By Mike McGraw Daily Herald Sports Writer
Posted on June 25, 2002

With time running out before Wednesday's NBA draft, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Houston Rockets are having second thoughts about drafting Chinese center Yao Ming with the No. 1 pick.

That should mean the Bulls will get their man - Duke guard Jay Williams - with the second selection.

But what if the Rockets surprise the basketball world and choose Williams, most likely with the intention of trading him? In that scenario, should the Bulls go ahead and take Yao, even though they are already fortified in the post with 19-year-olds Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry?

"The rule in the draft is you take the best player," said Miami Heat general manager Randy Pfund. "If the best player is at a position where you have some talent, you still take the best player."

Most likely, Bulls general manager Jerry Krause would select the 7-foot-5 Chinese center. It's conceivable the Bulls could field one of the tallest front lines in basketball history, with the 7-1 Chandler playing small forward, the 6-11 Curry at power forward and Yao in the middle.

Trading Yao might be a bit of a stretch. Rockets officials made a lengthy visit to Asia this month to secure the blessings of Chinese officials. Krause, who spent a week in China last season, is confident that Yao would play for the Bulls.

But would he play in Memphis if the Bulls tried to work a trade? Who knows? A team like the Grizzlies would probably be reluctant to take that chance.

This much is clear: Yao desperately wants to play in the NBA and is comfortable with the idea of joining the Rockets. On Saturday, University of Chicago professor John Huizenga completed a compensation deal with the Shanghai Sharks, Yao's former team.

"He was a little overwhelmed this was finally completed," Huizinga said in the Houston Chronicle. "It's been a long time. He was very, very happy but also relieved that it was behind him. He is excited to get that final, big step to get clearance."

Huizenga and Erick Zhang, a University of Chicago student and distant cousin of Yao, were confident that an agreement with the Chinese Basketball Association will be reached before the draft. Yao will not be present in New York on draft night, but that is not seen as an obstacle.

The Rockets have had a clear need for a big man ever since Hakeem Olajuwon began showing his age. Yao, who averaged 32.4 points and 19.0 rebounds for Shanghai last season, figures to be the most skilled player of his size to enter the NBA.

"He's a very intriguing player," Pfund said. "The intrigue, first of all, is with his size and second with his shooting touch. He also has a feel for the game. He could become a guy who makes good decisions out of double teams."

The first two picks of Wednesday's draft seem virtually set in stone. After that, anything is possible. Recent rumors have Golden State considering 7-foot Georgian Nikoloz Tskitishvili at No. 3, along with Duke's Mike Dunleavy.

Memphis might be willing to swap the No. 4 pick for a veteran. The Clippers have the No. 8 and 12 selections and would like to move up. Cleveland, which owns the No. 6 pick, is thought to be interested in dumping some salaries and may not be adverse to sinking in the standings next year, because it would increase the Cavs' chances of drafting local hero LeBron James.

Overall, this draft should be the biggest yet for foreign players. Yao, Tskitishvili and Brazillian power forward Maybyner Hilario are expected to go in the top 10. Slovenia's Bostjan Nachbar and the Czech Republic's Jiri Welsch should be chosen before the 20th pick, while at least a half dozen more foreign players could go before the first round is finished.