Yao has delivered, now it’s China’s turn

Interesting article, I liked it and agree. I'm sure Yao views himself more as a Houston Rockets player than a Chinese National Team player (sorry, Chinese fans!).

 

Totally agree with that article. Yao has to learn how to say "NO".

 

that part of the article is played out. but you wonder with his physical gifts what other sports Yao could have excelled in if he had grown up in the US and had gotten to choose

considering his hand-eye coordination, muscle memory and soft hands Yao could have been an awesome pitcher, maybe a quarterback. basketball isn't actually something that Yao is perfectly suited for despite what the dude wrote. Yao's has basketball liabilities of reaction time and agility, and it's his shooting touch and vision that compensates... if he played a sport where agility was less important and skill was paramount he'd dominate

if you think Big Unit was intimidating, imagine 7'6" in cleats looking down at you from the mound. or how fun it would be trying to tackle 320 lbs of Yao as a 6'3" LB 230 LB

 

There are several in that article that made me wince, but the bottom line is Yao needs to do what he wants to do.

Fandom of any kind can't decide for him. I wish him well, period.

 

If China, meaning the people, support him wanting to rest more in non-olympic years ... It will much easier for him to stand up to the CNT. But something tells me a big deal will be made out of it by the Chinese media and call him selfish.

I hope he is able to do whatever he prefers.

 

sorry, i disagree

 

Paul on Yao's game opening 3.

 

A frog sitting at the bottom of a well.

 

I can't even imagine how much money Yao has made the NBA. Obviously, China would have eventually gotten hooked on basketball but Yao definitely accelerated it.

 

Pitching might have been a possibility, but still, there's a reason that most players are under 6"4. As a hitter, time has shown that the ideal body type is compact with short arms. Babe Ruth and Kirby Puckett were like that. The lanky players like Richie Sexson or John Olerud can still succeed but have to contend with bigger strike zones. I dunno the other reasons, but Bill James goes into depth on this discussion somewhere in his abstract. Same for pitching--more height will give you more leverage, but historically tall pitchers have not been as successful with the exception of Johnson, just because it's so hard to establish control coming from that height.

Now quarterbacking....if you thought Yao was injury-prone in this sport, he'd be a walking set of broken bones after one season in the NFL.

If I had to guess, I'd say that basketball is the only sport in existence where someone over 7"0 ft can thrive. It's just really hard for someone that big to have the quickness and reaction times of shorter humans. Even Yao for all his "hand-eye coordination" does not have the celerity to be a great defender. Kevin Garnett is pushing the envelope on the capabilities of the human body, but he is a freak of nature and still not 7"5.

 

I predict Yao will just retire early. I doubt he will ever be a half member of the National team.

 

great article. just play for china in olympics or games that must be played to qualify for the olympics. other than that, don't even bother with the chinese team.

if he wants to play longer than 40-50 games a yr for another 3 years, then he needs to monitor his playing time.

 

baseball players rely on fast-twitch muscle. it's all about how quick you are. yao is slow no way he could be a MLB pitcher.
his high center of gravity and lack of balance/coordination would be easy to tackle in the NFL.

 

I HIGHLY, HIGHLY doubt that

 

Yao needs to start his pursue for a championship. The Rockets are ready now and that should be his objective now!!
China is too far away to compete for championships so he should focus on getting an NBA championship.

 

tall pitchers are rare for the same reason why you dont see a guy over 7'3" with yao's skill set in basketball. the taller you get the harder it is for your body to be coordinated like an average sized man. but assuming you are already extremely coordinated and are tall like yao, height itself wouldn't exclude control. You're probably right Yao could never be a hitter but pitching is a different skillset. On the mound Yao's size would add leverage and his release would be up to a foot closer to the batter than a 6 foot pitcher

yao would never be mobile like John Elway but the idea he's brittle is false. yao's injuries are not from collisions from other players but from the longterm impact of his own body weight jumping on the parquet floor. if anything playing on turf would mitigate any injuries Yao would have suffered by now. taller is more liable to takedowns if you're built like shawn bradley but yao is built from the ground up with huge base. if shaq cant move yao, it's going to be that much harder for a man 50-90 lbs lighter than shaq to take him down.

most 7'0" are sitting at home not playing any sports. that's because it's simply hard to be over 7 feet and coordinated/conditioned. there's got to be a thousand guys over 7 feet and how many make it to the NBA. you have to be a genetic freak to be over 7 feet. you have to be a genetic freak within that subset of genetic freaks to be over 7 feet and coordinated to play any sport let alone basketball. Yao is beyond that, basically a 1 in 5 billion type of guy. the deal with Yao is that he's 7'5" but he's coordinated like an athletic, well-coordinated guy a foot shorter than he is. the guy writing the article makes it sound like Yao was born to play basketball but Yao is not Tmac, he's not playing a sport for which he is "built for." Yao is playing basketball with some sizable liabilities which are offset by similarly huge assets. As you mention he will always have some defensive liabilities in basketball. Why? Because he doesn't have the reaction time and explosiveness of other basketball players. If he was playing a sport where he could leverage his strengths and diminish his liabilities he might be even better.

And at 7'5" Yao could probably play middle blocker on any volleyball team in the world...

 

Good article and I think the scenario sounds right: Yao can beg out of future obligations to the national team until the next Olympics. He's got to know he needs some summers off. I'm sure his wife or parents will tell him, if he doesn't realize.

 

hitters need fast twitch and quick reactions. pitchers are about control, repetitive movements and leverage. why are pitchers terrible hitters as a rule? it's a totally different skillset. a blanket statement is like saying you need fast twitch muscles to play football. no. you need fast twitch to be a receiver, safety, running back, LB etc. you dont need almost any fast twitch to be a lineman or kicker. those positions are about balance and strength.

yao's size would make him both be easier to tackle and harder to take down

who says yao has poor balance? yao has to have very good balance to hold his ground in the paint and awesome coordination to for his soft shooting touch.

 

Typical Wajnarowski article.

That's not to say it's bad, and this time it really rings to something we're familiar with. And I agree with him.

If anything, China needs to up its talent level in terms of its national team. And the year-in-year-out training is ridiculous. You want your team to improve, let the players imrpove. They're only human, not machines. They need rest man, especially for freaks of nature like Yao who is already putting a great deal of stress on his base by playing intensive contact sports.