[chron] Rockets' McGrady leans on Yao after carrying load by himself with Magic

Rockets' McGrady leans on Yao after carrying load by himself with Magic

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

DENVER - Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming began planning days ago. Actually, McGrady planned and Yao answered with something between a laugh and a smile.

They do this a lot. Though the punch lines are never all that memorable, they enjoyed them. And sometimes, they never even get that far, but seem to know where they are heading so they chuckle quietly.

So when McGrady was talking about the All-Star game, about what he saw when Yao ran with Steve Francis last season and what he expected today, he and Yao made plans.

"I want to hook up in the All-Star game," McGrady told Yao. "I'll throw you an alley-oop, or you throw me an alley-oop. Yeah. Like last year to Steve. You throw me one. Throw me an alley-oop. We'll hook up."

Yao began to laugh, so McGrady came up with the idea he liked best.

"Or you can throw me one of those rookie passes," McGrady said, pantomiming the over-the-head, no-look of Yao's past. "Throw me one like you used to."

McGrady and Yao had spoken of the season that had been and the seasons to come. They spoke of championships planned when the season began with the Pistons' ring ceremony and still plotted.

But as McGrady talked about the passes he wanted to throw to Yao and receive from him, they didn't have to say what had become evident.

All their plans, all they do in the league, all that they can become will be as linked as the passes they plan to send one another tonight.

Sharing the burden

McGrady always planned to have a running mate. He had that with Vince Carter in Toronto where he was safe if unsatisfied in Carter's shadow. He moved home to Orlando to partner with Grant Hill, but Hill's four seasons sacrificed to ankle surgeries and rehabilitation left McGrady alone in the glare of expectations of judgments.

He had teammates, but other players could not share his pressures. They could not relate to his burdens. He was, in a way, alone.

When he was traded to the Rockets, McGrady spoke of finally playing with a big man. He talked about basketball, of a low-post option, of a finisher inside. But in the months since, he has learned it is about more than that.

Yao and McGrady are partners, likely through the prime of their careers. They will start the All-Star game together tonight, lining up with Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett as members of that most exclusive club.

But they are the only teammates starting together, bringing a reminder of the notion that for all they have done or could do, they can be better together.

"They can help each other," Carter said. "It's like a marriage. You look out for each other. You protect each other. In good and bad times, you're there for each other. I think if they do that, their play will rise to another level."

'A good base'

The Rockets, however, know better than most that their unusual status as a team with two All-Star starters guarantees nothing about the real season, particularly in the age of Internet fan voting. Yao beat Shaquille O'Neal in the voting his first two seasons to start with Francis, a three-time starter. Yao has yet to win a playoff series, never mind a championship.

"My first year, we had two All-Star starters," Yao said. "We didn't make the playoffs, but we made it the second year. I think now, that's a pressure for us. We have two All-Star starters. We're playing well right now. But there is only one way to go. We can play the game better than we ever played it before."

That is the idea, and has been since the trade for McGrady, the league's two-time scoring champion, gave the Rockets the inside-outside combination considered ideal in building a champion.

"We will work together a long time," Yao said. "We are both still very young. That's two good people for the team. I think that's good. A team needs a good base. After we got Tracy, I thought that was a good trade. After more than 50 games, I know it was a good trade. An inside player and an outside player, that's the way to build a team."

That model has worked through NBA history. Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal have made combining a dynamic guard with a dominant center the presumed most direct path to a championship.

He's no Shaq

But Yao has inspired harsh judgments for what he is not, particularly in comparison to his level of celebrity off the court and his combination of rare skills for a player so large on the court. The criticism has become so prevalent, that they have brought unsolicited criticism of the criticism.

"The man is getting the job done," McGrady said. "He's in his third year. He's young. He's still learning our game. Everybody expects because he's (7-6), to be the forceful guy like Shaq. That's not the type of guy he is. He's more finesse, a little bit of a Rik Smits.

"I'm not saying he's that (level) of player, but that's the style of play he plays. He's not a Shaq who just wants to take your heart out every night. That's not his personality. But he's getting the job done for us. We're happy with him, and that's all that matters. He's working out every day. He wants to be better. He's real determined, and I think he sees we have a chance to be a real special team."

Wins with finesse

Yao entered the NBA when rule changes diminished the role of the NBA's centers. He has been effective, but not dominant. But more than failing to dominate, he came into the league with O'Neal the standard at the position, forcing Yao into comparisons he could not win.

"Other than Shaq, he's as good as any center in the league," Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I don't understand the negative things being written about him. First of all, big guys, other than the absolute rarities like Shaquille, take longer than perimeter guys to develop. You have a very young guy getting 18, 19 points, eight or nine rebounds a night. Not too many teams in the league wouldn't want that.

"Because he's oversized, people want even more. There's always that expectation. Unfortunately, the only person people want to compare him to is Shaq. His game is not the same as Shaq's. No matter how good he gets, he's never going to play the game like Shaq.

"He's basically a finesse player. He's got great shooting touch. He has great hands. He's a great passer. I see a guy who plays the game extremely hard every night. I think he works at the defensive end of the court. I think he's a great player who is only going to get better. He will probably always have his detractors because he's not going to be Shaquille O'Neal. Look around. No one else is either.

"You want to know Yao's value, have Houston put him up for trade and watch 29 general managers who are saying he is not as good as he should be all jump at him."

Kindred spirits

McGrady has found Yao to be pretty much as he expected, with the exception of the absence of the sleight-of-hand passes of his rookie season.

Yao said McGrady is what he expected, except that he throws more passes.

"I think a scoring champion should never pass the ball," Yao said while McGrady laughed.

But they also have discovered something about one another they could not have known before. They are remarkably alike.

Yao became extremely close to Francis, with Francis' large, outgoing personality fitting nicely with Yao's taste for quiet introspection. He always appreciated the way Francis sought to protect Yao from the demands of his rookie year.

But McGrady and Yao have noticed that their personalities and priorities match in ways they said could work long term.

"Absolutely," McGrady said. "We're both laid-back. We don't talk much. We're both quiet, humble guys.

"I think it's better for us. The two of us are after one thing. We want to accomplish one thing. I think we're so humble, I don't think we'll ever have any problems fighting over who's team it is, or any ego problems getting in the way.

"We can look out for each other, protect each other, have each other's back on and off the court."

Title puzzle taking shape

As McGrady spoke, he seemed to have far more than tonight's game in mind, as if he and Yao knew that for better or worse they will be considered a pair measured by the most demanding of standards, and lifted or limited by the other.

The Rockets might have made the same assumption before last season's All-Star game about Francis and Yao. But whether unsure about that future together or more confident about putting Yao together with McGrady, the Rockets traded for McGrady, gave him a six-year extension to the two seasons left on his deal and began rebuilding around them.

"I think we're a pretty confident team," McGrady said. "We have a great nucleus here, a great coaching staff, great veterans. You got all the ingredients I think you need to win a championship. You got the big man. You got the wings. You got the shooters. If we keep building, I think we will realize, yeah, we can be a championship team.

"That is definitely a great start, when you have the two main pieces you need to win a championship."

Listening to this, Yao seemed to like the idea, but said he had nothing to add. He and McGrady did, however, offer something between a laugh and a smile.

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