CBS Sportsline: Yao has good, bad moments in showdown vs. U.S. team

I don't know if this article has been posted yet, but here it is:

Yao has good, bad moments in showdown vs. U.S. team
Aug. 23, 2002
SportsLine.com wire reports

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Yao Ming sold out the building, though it would be a stretch to say he brought down the house.

Yao had some good and bad moments Thursday night playing his first game in the United States, getting held to 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Chinese national team lost 84-54 to the U.S. team.

A crowd of 19,873, many of them cheering for China, watched Yao do a little of everything - positive and negative. Yao swatted away six shots and denied Antonio Davis the honor of being the first American to dunk on him, but he also blew a dunk of his own and struggled when he was defended by Ben Wallace.

"When you have pitiful moments, that makes the good moments more valuable," Yao said.

Yao finished 5-for-12 from the field, and he was unafraid to push back when the Americans tried to push him outside. He missed his only 3-point shot and committed five turnovers, but he also showed a silky touch and an 18-foot range on his turnaround jumper.

"To play against him was an eye-opening experience for me. He's a lot better than what I thought," Michael Finley said. "He earned our respect."

Yao injured his right hand in the second half banging it against the backboard, although he said it wasn't serious. He did manage to emerge unscathed after Wallace landed on top of him after Yao faked Wallace off his feet in the third quarter.

"I hope when he fell on me it didn't hurt him much," Yao deadpanned.

With just 8 seconds left in the game, Yao had an opportunity to challenge Jay Williams as the American player drove to the basket. Instead, he chose not to contest the shot and let Williams in for a dunk.

"Everybody's dream is to dunk on someone taller than you," Williams said. "I thought he was going to jump, but he didn't jump."

Finley led the U.S. team with 19 points, Shawn Marion scored 14, Jermaine O'Neal 12 and Reggie Miller 10.

The biggest surprise of the night might have been the size of the crowd.

Yao proved himself to be quite a gate attraction, and the Golden State Warriors flashed advertisements on the scoreboard offering a "Great Wall Plan" for regular-season tickets. "Get Yao Now" was the slogan.

Yao missed his first shot, a turnaround one-hander, but then made his next three -- a pair of mid-range jumpers and a follow dunk off a miss. He missed a 3-pointer and committed a double-dribble violation after showing some quick hands to intercept a pass, finishing the first quarter with six points and four rebounds.

"He blew away my expectations with the way he played," Williams said.

Yao had little success in the second quarter dealing with Wallace, who had vowed that the U.S. team would play rough with Yao to test his toughness.

Wallace twice poked the ball out of Yao's hands as he held it high over his head, turning one of the deflections into a breakaway dunk. Yao pumped his first after hitting a 15-footer over Wallace late in the quarter, but that was his only basket of the period.

Yao set a hard pick on Miller early in the third quarter that brought U.S. coach George Karl off the bench to complain. Later, he hit a long turnaround jumper over Antonio Davis and then blocked a dunk by Davis at the other end.

Finley eluded Yao's reach for a reverse layup that gave the United States a 69-40 lead early in the fourth, and Davis was especially physical in defending Yao to force him into a missed jumper moments later.

Yao had three of his blocks in the final few minutes.

U.S. forward Elton Brand did not play because of a mild sprain of his right knee.

China was without 7-footer Wang Zhizhi, who flew in from Los Angeles earlier in the day and met with team officials at the arena in an effort to be placed back on the active roster. Wang angered the Chinese federation earlier this summer by refusing to return home for national team training.

"I'm ready to go. It's just a matter of them saying yes, or not," said Wang, who said he would await word from Chinese sports officials in Beijing.

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I'm glad Yao got to show off his skills to these trash talking punks from the NBA. And this is just a preview....

 

I guess windandsea beat me to it...