To reiterate the 10% thing. I share the same I guess you can call it deformity as Yao when it comes to the big toe. When I balled in the Reebok Franchises, the healslip combined with hard end destroyed my toe and caused the same injury as Yao has now. It was terribly painful, bloody, and ugly, and took more than 6months to heal. I have no idea whether or not the Reebok ATR's have the same design flaw as the Xbeam Franchises in the way it effects us weirdos with long Big toes. But everyone should be happy that Reebok is sending Yao new shoes that promote more stability in his ankles. This means that there was alterations to prevent heal slipage. This also means that though the old shoes may not have caused Yao's injury, these new shoes will do more to prevent injury than the old ones. I really think a padded toe liner serves more purpose than a steel tip. My toe got all bruised and bloody not because people stepped on it. It was my own force of my weight all pushing into my toes and the toes were hitting the hard end of the shoes.
yao is chinese, he is not an american. This is a free country, we get anything we want here, there, you say something bad about the president in china, something will happen to you. sure he means what he says, but so far in his career, what has been more important to him? himself or others? haven't fans called for him to be more selfish? haven't coaches and players called for him to think about his shot? i don't think vg is putting him down like you think he is. what he is telling him to do is to stand up for himself, and not always be so mindful of others. basically telling him, reebok is an american company, and you don't have to act chinese with them and be polite(they are not going to put yor family in danger), and demand yor rights like a true american would... what is the worst that can happen? yao's image is tarnished? everyone in the world thinks he is the nicest bbal player. reebok tells him off? i am not sure what huizenga is protecting, yao's business interests? yao has given reebok an awesome deal, and funny to hear from a company say, if the rockets requested us to be there, we would be... shouldn't yao be reeboks pride? where is their loyalty? are they doing everything? by the way, i have never seen one reebok commercial of yao, in fact, i didn't even know he wore reeboks until now. yeah, reebok really sells his image in this country... i wonder how much they advertise in aisa? maybe he really isn't even that high of a priority for them... i see tmac, i see kg, kobe... yao? what does he wear?
one pissed off Yao in a news conference that is a sight that will never ever happen... why are you concerened about yao blowing up ala TO? yao is not like every other american ballplayer, me me me, it's like the bud commercial, leon... what makes you upset? that vg and tmac take advantage of yao? tmac came to htown because of him, vg stands up for yao all of the time on the bball court. bash those two guys? fransic is the one to bash, him and mobley hogeed the ball up the whole game. yao would never ever have a career here if those two guys were still here. them being me me me, and yao being everyone else but me.
So what's your point? Are you trying to say that Yao is an unselfish guy and......er, something? Well, we all know the former, but as to what this has to do with shoes..........
Just a theory... Yao didn't grow up that rich. He probably didn't grow up being picky at sneakers. In fact when he got really big he probably had a hard time just getting ones his size. Didn't he once say he wanted to make the school team as a kid just so he would be given leather, instead of canvas, sneakers? Besides, they don't have as many of the the expert sports trainers in China as they do here. I remember reading an article about some Chinese player having foot problems going to a basketball camp (basketball without borders?) and the American coach or trainer there found out his foot had an unusually high arch and he really should have been wearing orthodics all his life. Young atheletes in a lot of countries simply don't grow with all that expertise around them. Thus, they don't tend to think shoe fitting, orthodics, etc are a huge deal. Yao probably simply don't think about these things and thus isn't as careful/picky/anal about them as he should be.
means what will yao's reaction be about his shoes.... commenting about declan's reactions saying that we shuld take yao's comments about shoes face value. there is more to it than that... what thread have you been reading?
None of us know for sure whether the Reebok shoes have anything to do with Yao's toe problems. But all of us do know this: If Yao Ming or Allen Iverson are having foot problems, there should be a Reebok representative onsite every single day of training camp, dialoguing with the player and figuring out if there is anything they can do to alleviate the problem. Giving this excuse of, "We're not going to send anyone down unless we're asked," is Grade A BS. Yao is not the type to whine about this sort of thing, and Reebok should be very proactive in managing this problem. And the one piece that they did have control over was making sure they filled Yao's order on time, no matter how many forced labor camps of 12-year-old kids they had to set up. They just decided it wasn't that important. The worst part is when Huizinga defends this activity. He might as well take out a full-page ad that says, "I don't care jack about Yao personally, I just want my free meal ticket!"
Reebok has finally give Yao his new shoes, let see what happens now that Yao will be working in the new shows. If the problem continues with his foot I hope Yao can break his contract and sign with someone else, maybe Air Jordans will work.
I got the information on Yao getting show from an article in the Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4250466.html Yao's new shoes arrived Monday and are higher on his ankle, with the top eyelet farther back to allow him to tie them tighter and perhaps avoid the sliding he has had inside the shoe. "The doctor told me I have a special foot because my big toe is longer than my second toe," Yao said. "In 90 percent of people, the second toe is at least even with the big toe. I'm different, so that means more pressure on the big toe. This is the (shoe) they sent me, and I feel pretty comfortable."
It is ironic that every important stage of Yao's beasketball career,there were shoes involved.Yao started his career because of a pair of basketball shoes,may very well end it because of them(which I hope not). Glad to hear he get the new shoes. Get well,big man!
I do agree with you. It seems that u r familiar with Chinese culture pretty well. I think Yao just dosen't wanna make any trouble/conflict with Reebok.
I am not buying that 90% theory. At least, in my "Asian life", I saw more people with longer big toes around me. My whole family have longer big toe than second toe, even my wife. I don't think the 90% would be accurate, or at least not accurate for ethnical Chinese. On a side note, on the subway today, I saw some ads from footclinics in NYC. There are photos of 2 ugly feet, of course before and after. 4 photos of longer big toes. Nothing I've seen suggests that 90-10 split. It's possible that Yao Ming's big toe is a LOT longer than the second one, which could be unusual.
