Edited Title: Is Yao's Cultural Impact overstated?

There's no point expressing a complex opinion into a medium that washes away nuance.

There really isn't.

With emotion set on defcon 5, all people really care is whether 'u fer us er agin us'.

Some people here can't even take the time to purposely write Chinese government instead of blanket Chinese.

Anyways Yao did bridge two counties. This is the bridge we're standing on now. It's paved with money but money follows interest.

If you're someone who thinks your ideals are superior, it should be in your best interest to keep the dialogue running, rather than give up when you think things are unfair. There might be real people in these words.

I already mentioned the medium for communication sucks but that doesn't mean some people aren't trying.

 

Thank you to all the fans that understand that Yao is in a dire situation and his family should be his priority and working to improve things for the National Team!

He has been between a Rock(x) and a Hard place.

 

Changing the title is quite deceiving

 

Sly is the fox.

 

If Basketball and the Rockets are that important to China and you then why can you not just ignore personal matters of players and executives? Do you care that Harden is not a family man for example? Personal details should not matter when it comes to sports so long as it is not illegal activities.

 

And what’s wrong with that? His contribution to basketball wasn’t solely on the court, oh well. We got 2nd round virgin T-Mac in the HOF, and he did much less to further this game than Yao.

 

Think abt Donald Sterling. He’s was not even openly saying those words on Twitter. Why do Americans just not ignore his personal matter?
Oh cuz black life matters. It’s politically incorrect to discriminate African Americans. Donald Sterling has the freedom of speech but he paid for the inappropriate points he made.
In Morey’s case his supporting Hongkong for the so-called freedom and implying China being the devil was extremely rude to us. cuz he didn’t even know what has happened.
Why are you all of sudden out of nowhere finger pointing at us? Wtf? You hvnt even visited China (maybe once idk correct me if wrong)

 

Yao built the bridge and Les Alexander was selling the toll tags

 

Yao vs the communist party? He has no choice but to relent. Pretty sure the communist party can ruin him for the rest of his life if he doesn't. Nothing anybody can do at this point other than wait the ordeal out. Just stay out of China's politics if anybody wants to do business there.

 

OMG, cannot imagine hown childish a person can be!!! You definitely opened my eye there.

 

WTH?!?!, you going on about. Sterling was caught on audio recording, discriminating against blacks who are majority of NBA. Morey is trying to help bring awareness to the suffering of his personal friends. That is NOTHING like what Sterling did. The fact you are trying to equate the two tells me all I need to know about how you think. Or have been brainwashed into thinking. If you want to make an accurate comparison, Sterling is like the CPC.

 

I was hoping that Yao could be the one who has enough exposure to American Values & has real influence in China who could help solve this issue.

Sadly I look to be wrong. After all of these years ingrained in our culture & values, its disappointing that he doesn't see any responsibility to convey to his country how they should also RESPECT our values & laws even if they do not align to his country's laws & values.

Yao will always be beloved here in Houston & be an icon, but I am deeply disappointed that he seems to have no understanding that this idea of RESPECT between two countries should be a two way street & not take a chance to hold the mantle as the one guy who can bridge two countries who have vastly different sets of values but can work together & at least enjoy sports together.

Very disappointed in Yao. I expected better from him.

 

Yao had no problem coming here and making his millions. Do you think the CBA is paying its players 10 mil? I wonder why he decided to have his daughter here instead of there if he is so ticked off about american freedom.

 

Agreed. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because he loves his country and I can't fault him for that. However, his relationship with Morey and the Rockets should have given him pause and make him think "Super pissed off but this isn't typical Daryl Morey behavior. Let me talk to him and find out what his thought process was in sending that tweet out".

Maybe I'm naive (maybe all of us are) in thinking that Yao would give Morey the benefit of the doubt given the country/government he supports. Maybe I'm also naive in thinking that Yao has/had ambassador-like qualities.

 

This, I honestly think behind closed doors I'm sure he's on Morey's side or at least willing to talk about it, but coming out and publicly stating something that's against the government, even with his status in China.. can have huge impacts like you mentioned (and as much some complain about the US it's not even close to the police state China is, like not even remotely close).

It would basically take multiple people in power to have a chance to make the HK issue grow further and even then it might not be enough (I mean it'd take some crazy resistance/response and probably generations to change). Like... their police state is so powerful and just listening to some of the various sources/interviews I've seen the general population is so terrified that they basically accept it (and if they speak against it must have their face covered or be so removed that they're not coming back to the country, and even then it's probably risky), then you have most of the population that have been so brainwashed with propaganda that they will not go against some of the other things going on regarding religious camps etc etc (the list goes on).

Tl;Dr, Basically it's a lose-lose situation (like you mentioned) and regardless of a person's class/public status in China (and from what I've seen) if you try to make a statement/take on their government you're going to lose in someway. Hell Morey's allowed to freely speak (obviously there were ramifications as expected, possibly job/money/endorsements etc., but he's allowed to freely speak). To add look at all the Twitter bots/trash posted against him on social media. Like his account has had more traffic to it than ever and some of the top comments were straight garbage.

 

We did beat one of his teams by 70 points
I’d be mad too if the Rockets are toying with CBA teams and shooting one leg three pointers