What I got from the vids was, win and losses and on-court successes off to the side - The Yao-Francis period was WAY more FUN to watch than the Yao-Tmac era. When it got down to the Yao vs Duncan vid with Yao kicking a pass out to Shane Battier, my interest just plummeted downward.
Yao was strong as hell, people dont realize that. Watching those videos you see that Yao was as strong as Shaq (at least in the lower body) and is actually stronger than Dwight Howard. Overall though watching that stuff is just depressing. Not just losing Yao but remembering how awesome Francis and Tmac were back in the day.
I just find that I miss him so much... Please resign Yao...for 1-2 year with a small contract... I hate to see him leave the team....
Damn, it's easy to forget how much more athletic Yao was before his leg injuries. Even when he was last healthy against the Lakers, he could barely slam it unless right under the hoop.
Yao is probably one of the greatest Rockets of all time. He deserves a ring. Here's hoping he signs with the Celtics or Heat and gets himself a ring.
Nobody can stop Yao. Doesn't make Howard any less dominant. Just goes to show how his height makes it easy for him to just hook or shoot over everyone.
Interesting article I found on Bleacher Report about that... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/753824-miami-heat-yao-ming-theory-the-center-piece-to-lebron-wade-boshs-titles
T-Mac made some of the smoothest looking passes I've ever seen. same with his pull up jumper. Then of course Yao, who could pick and pop or pick and roll with his great jump shot and soft touch. Ah. We got to get a new one.
Yao v. Shaq Round 1 is definitely the best regular season game I've ever seen. If I remember correctly, it went to OT, and Francis had something like 44 points and 11 assists. Back then I was so high on Francis/Mobley/Griffin/Yao. I thought that was a championship core. But then I was young.
funny thing is except for Bradley, you'd probably want the other player in those videos over yao. in particular i didn't know pau gasol was that good offensively.
While Yao always feasted on traditional centers, he had a hard time defending quicker big men who could face up and operate out of the triple threat position. See Al Jefferson, Pau Gasol, and most notoriously Carlos Boozer. At the same time, however, he defended them 1-on-1. You never saw those guys attempt to guard Yao 1-on-1. When they did, they got destroyed. Double teams and fronting always gave Yao fits.
For a time we had a solid David Wesley, Mike James, Jon Barry, Bob Sura, Scott Padgett, a real defensive force in Mutombo and Ryan Bowen who actually played some solid minutes even though he could not shoot to save his life. Damn I miss those days ****in injuries
I actually had the same thought watching those first videos. He looked more agile, and it would've been a lot easier on the feet, but who knows. Great thread though. I had forgotten how promising he looked....
As a previous post showed, Yao broke his feet twice even as a teenager. He was just meant to have foot problems it seems. Probably unavoidable. Yao staying slim, then keeping his minutes at 30 MPG woulda resulted in 3 season ending injuries instead of 4. Maybe Yao woulda barely scraped by in the 2009 playoffs before the inevitable injury. Yao is a blueprint for "super big" I think. No matter how dominant they are and how much you want to squeeze out of them, too risky to play them over 30 MPG.
