Yao Mings idol is Sir Charles and has been for years, if he has half the intensity and fire Charles brought to every game the Rockets will be in good shape for years to come at the center position. I remember when Chuck used to get mad and turn it on, he was unstoppable. Yao needs to bring that kind of fire to the NBA game if he wants to take it to another level.
I watched some highlights of the game and the one thing that stood out to me was the Chinese guards inabiltiy to feed the ball to Ming in the low post because of waist high passes. I dont care how tall a player is, if his teamates keep feeding him inlet passes at his waist, they're going to have great difficulty in getting him the ball. 6'6 chumps from Canada can front that stuff all night long. The chinese guards seem small so it may be too difficult for them to see over their opponent and lob the ball to Ming -- up high. I think a smart coach would counter this though by having one of his bigger forwards come out to the top of the key and have him where he could easily feed the ball to Ming. I think Rudy had Robert Horry do this for Olajuwon. I expect Rudy will use Griffin and Taylor in the same way.
Hi guys, I live in Vancouver and I was at the game. The tickets were cheap, I mean you could get a good seat for what you pay for a fast food dinner in U.S. dollars. Anyways, from what I saw on this board, people already got a general idea of how Yao played. But really I dont think Yao really tried, there was really no point in playing hard in this game. For one thing its only an exhibition and there are more important games to come in the WC. Offensively we saw what Yao can do when he wants to do it. Defensively, he could of made an attempt to block on several occations if he reacted, but he didnt, I dont think he was lazy, its just due to the insignificance of the game. I think the Canadian side played much harder cause they were in front of a home crowd and the opposing player/center that guarded Yao wanted to prove something.
Good points. Since everybody is extrapolating, i would say that based on this game's performance Yao is already a greater player than Hakeem ever was. Dream was always terrible, terrible in exhibition games...
I enjoyed reading these posts whether pro or con. Its great getting these "at the game" reports. I am Pro-Ming so I hope all these positive reports are true. Keep these reports coming!!! COOL STUFF!!!
