OMG another Yao Ming article/thread..Damn can the Rockets worry about the Lakers and trying to advance to the Western Conference 1st then worry about the future later. Unbelievable.
Regardless of Yao's actions on (or off the court), he makes the Rockets literally a GLOBAL team and makes Les Alexander a ton of money. So I don't see Les letting Yao go anywhere regardless of his injury problems. However, everyone seems to assume that he will demand the MAX contract when he comes up. Nobody considers that maybe Yao will accept a lesser contract to stay here in Houston. 1) Yao is a loyal guy and knows that he will always be dealing with injury problems and not getting any younger. 2) Yao is the ultimate TEAM player and desperately wants to WIN a NBA championship before his career is over. So I could also see him taking a bit less to give the Rockets more cap room to surround him with better talent. 3) I really don't think he's the type of guy who would want to hit the market to get max money. He loves Houston, Houston (and Les) love him. I think he'll re-sign quietly just as he did the first time he came due for a new contract.
Having seen so many Yao threads after his injury, I start to wonder whether the Rockets fans would/should start a "Beat LA, Trade Yao, Beat LA, Trade Yao" chant in game 6.
Some of these Chinese fans need to realize that YAO MING IS JUST NOT THAT GOOD. His drawbacks don't make up for his talent. Yes, he can score over anyone who is guarding him from behind. But does anyone do it anymore? He is a defensive liability and injury prone to the point where it's almost inevitable he will be gone with a season ending injury. And yet all his fans go up in arms when the bring the notion of trading or releasing a player that's had the same injury for the past 4 years. Yao will never win an NBA championship. Book it and feel free to stick it in your signatures.
From a basketball standpoint, I really can't see the argument for giving Yao a max deal at age 30. I never thought he was a player who'd have a long career in this league, and what's happened in recent years hasn't alleviated the concern. But beyond that, the league is going in a different direction. It's more perimeter oriented. It's about versatility and athleticism. I don't know if it makes sense anymore for your corner-stone to be a slow-moving center. I'm probably just rehashing points others have made in this thread. Yao will get a max deal, in all probability from the Rockets, because of the business side of things. I just hope the Rockets are able to fit good enough players around him with the money left over.
First, Yao is the best center in the game. He is unstoppable. Second, Yao would not get injured if he just stays at home without playing his ass out for Rockets. he got all heart. Third, guys like Tyronn Lue,Mike James,Brent Barry,Glen Rice,James Posey,James White all won championship. why cannot Yao?
This is where it gets "greasy". Owners, shouldn't ever consider off court stuff activities when determining whether to keep or trade a player or not. Anyone that know anything about the cba and revenue sharing know that yao generates money directly to the nba in whole. Yao generates associations for les because he's from china. The rockets profitability is determined from local tv and radio deals more so than the partnerships that les can form by employing Yao. Now if anta or any of those other companies where blowing the doors off les with sponsorship dollars, then that's different, and since sponsorship dollars are in direct correlation with how many eyes and ears in a 75 miles radius can access it, the rockets are limited in that capacity no matter what yao brings. Within a 75 mile radius, the clippers can charge advertisers more money for their broadcast than the rockets and its not even close. The high revenue teams are the big media markets like La,boston,ny,was,gs/oakland area, philly area also. Those teams in their cities generate more revenue than the rockets because of the tv sets. In terms of tv sets, houston is like 14th or so. That's why I've said a billion times that the cash cow thing is highly overrated. Now I ask anyone who would like to answer, do you keep and pay a player even if he might cripple your team in the future because of the value he brings to your outside business? Then I want to know, would buss,holt,davidson,cuban or any of those owners do that?
Honestly, how much money does Yao make Alexander? Doesn't he have to split most of that kind of income with the league? In my opinion, Yao's greatest benefit is if Les decides he wants to sell the team sometime in the next 2-3 years. I think Yao's presence increases the team's perceived value by millions. That's not looking at it from a basketball perspective.
Yao isn't going anywhere unless he wants to leave. Notice how the Lakers didn't trade Kobe even when he wanted to leave. Le$ is not dumb. I like Yao, he should stay. If we do well in the draft and sign good free agents after Tmac's salary is dumped, we'll be in good shape.
The Rockets should have offered Yao the extension he wants right after the news came out about his broken foot. It shows the big guy you have your back because he has yours. On the court, sure he has his flaws and he may be unreliable because of his injuries, but you have to roll the dice on him because he is a top 2 center in the league and he opens up so many things offensively. Off the court, he is worth his weight in gold.
I've said a bazillion times before that Lance Z. reminds me of the guys I grew up with. I've been saying what he's saying in this article for quite some time now. double rods!!!
This what I know from reading the revenue sharing a few yrs ago. I wish I had the link for u, but I guess you're going to have to trust me on this one. The only money that's not thrown in the money pot for equal distribution is luxury boxes, concessions,parking, and local tv and cable money from advertisers. Any overseas money and that generated outside a 75 mile radius goes into the money pot. Houston in that 75 mile radius only have like 5m tv sets. The toyota center only have like 100 suites or so. Compare that to La which has over 20 m tv's and over 200 suites. Lets just say u can charge $1k per tv and la charges 200k per suite vs 100k in houston. Who generates more revenue? Exactly. If u use a team like NY that has their own sports network and over 400 suites at 200k, with 30m tv's, get the point. That's why I've said Yao is really beneficial to the nba. If the rockets didn't have to share the overseas money, that's a different story.
Actually, most fans in China watch Kobe more than Yao. They may identify with Yao more, but they know who's the better player. If you ask me, the Rockets should keep Yao. Despite being injury prone, he is one of the top two centers in the league right now. If he's healthy, I think he'll stay in the top 5 for the next 3-5 years at the very least. He's not as much of a defensive liability as you make him out to be. His size alters shots from opposing players driving into the lane and he can give other big men trouble. He isn't great defensively, but I also wouldn't say he's a liability unless you're going against a very fast team. Even if you only consider him as a 'good' center, trading him would still be silly from a basketball point of view. I understand not giving him the big contract, but trading a 'good' big man with his skillset is not smart at all. I'm hoping the Rockets keep Yao, but a max contract would be tough to swallow to achieve that.
Yao is not a superstar?? You got to be kiddin me right?? Just because he is injured prone does not give you to right to bring the man down. He is as good and as unstoppable as anyone in this league if he has the ball. He alter shots inside that no man in this league can. How can he be an average defender?? He isn't that great at pick n roll but one on one, he destroyed everyone. He denies all layups and shot attemtps inside. He is a force offensively and defensively. He is injure prone but that might be due to bad luck...we never know. You can say the same about Tmac and he ain't 7'6. Why is Tmac so injure prone?? It has nothing to do with his height?? So is height really the problem here?? NO! Maybe it's just misfortune. Yao could have finished the entire Playoffs without injure...who knows.
Yao won't be traded. People forget that the Rockets don't lose all the money they pay out to an injured players. Usually teams take out insurance policies on contracts - yes, they pay a lot for that insurance, but defers the cost. To be honest, I am not really sure of the legitimacy of what I just wrote so if I am wrong, call me out. Besides that, Yao has already pointed out is a money maker for the Rockets. Not just from the Chinese fan base, but from an attendance and TV ratings standpoint. His Jersey might not sell a lot personally, but he helps by selling t-mac's jersey and such and other Rocket memorbillia. I think what will happen is that Yao will take less than the max due to his injury propensity. He wants to win for Houston, and I think he'll be flexible. He's not a greedy player.
Yao is going to stay, He's already said many many times that he wants to end his career down here in Houston. Yao Ming is way too loyal of a person to just pull a Carlos Boozer and go to some other team for money. All said and done, Yao Ming is going to be a Rocket regardless hopefully he will take a paycut like Gilbert Arenas did a few years ago so we can sign some good players in the long-term as well. Yao Ming will retire as a Houston Rocket and there is nothing anybody on BBS can do about.
I don't know whether you have said is true about Leslie. He invests in numbers of Mainland Chinese/Taiwanese/Hong Kongese owned companies here in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. And he is one of the cornerstone investors of some of those companies. I don't think they will invite him to be a cornerstone investor if he really don't pay much respect to chinese people as you said.
