SI Exclusive : Yao getting Tough

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This is from SI Exclusive for Sports Illustrated subscribers only-so the link won't work unless you're a subscriber. I've cut and pasted the whole article here though.....

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Inside the NBA: Hard Knocks

Critics still call him soft and say his game has regressed, but Yao Ming is quietly making strides as a center

By Ian Thomsen

Amid yearlong criticism that he had taken a step back in his development, Yao Ming had his finest performance of the season last Friday, piling up 27 points and 22 rebounds in the Rockets' 127-107 win at Phoenix. In a potential first-round playoff preview, the Suns suffered their worst home court loss, with the 7'6" Yao swatting five Amare Stoudemire shots. A sign of things to come? "I've got a sense that it will be," said Tracy McGrady, whose 38 points helped cap a week that began with wins over the Mavericks and Sonics. "There was nothing soft about Yao, nothing at all."

While confidence and conditioning have been troublesome issues in Yao's third NBA season, he is quietly learning to play his best in the biggest moments. He led Houston on a 41-17 fourth-quarter surge with 14 points and 10 boards, and at week's end he was shooting 59.5% in fourth quarters. "People talk about [Yao not] being tough and mean and all those stupid-ass things," says Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy. "But being good in this league is also about being mentally tough and poised, and Yao is all of that."

Among centers, Yao's 18.5 points per game through Sunday ranked third to Stoudemire's 26.1 and Shaquille O'Neal's 22.5, and he was third in the league in shooting (55.1%) and 10th in blocks (1.93). Foul trouble had limited him to 31.3 minutes per game, a 1.5-minute drop from last year. Instead of benching him, Van Gundy has recently kept Yao on the floor to force him to play through early fouls. Yao admits he must continue to grow stronger to earn the referees' respect and to prevent smaller, quicker players from openly pushing him out of the block. "Those fouls are because of the conditioning," he says, speaking English without an interpreter. "You are late probably a half step and cannot get good positioning, and now the call is on you."

Yao is 24 and works hard, so why isn't he in better shape? The obvious answer is that his body isn't given time to recover. Dream Teamers complain of fatigue after representing their country at one Olympics; Yao has spent every off-season playing for China, while missing only one NBA game in the last three years. He is trying to persuade Chinese officials to let him have at least two months this summer so that he can not only rest up but also put in the private workouts that help transform All-Stars into Hall of Famers. "I like to play for the national team," says Yao. "It's a huge honor. But I just say that some [summer] games are not really important -- they do not need all of the national team players to play in those games."

The Rockets are still under construction, as G.M. Carroll Dawson's four midseason trades suggest, and Yao is still years from peaking. But the league's tallest star indicated his tantalizing potential on Friday when he dived into the corner for a loose ball, sat upright and bounced a pass behind his back that led to an easy basket. Few centers would have hit the deck, and no one else could have handled the ball so deftly -- showing why Van Gundy bristles when critics say that neither Yao nor McGrady is vocal enough to lead Houston to a title.

"A lot of guys are great quotes but poor leaders," Van Gundy says. "The biggest thing is going to be these two guys figuring out how they can play inspired basketball to inspire their teammates to win big. Neither of them has figured it out entirely yet. But when they play hard, practice hard and deliver in the fourth quarter, that's inspirational."





THE 76ERS' STRUGGLES: Webber's Woes Mask Ailing D
At week's end the 76ers (30-33) had gone 4-5 since acquiring Chris Webber, dropping them four games behind the Atlantic-leading Celtics and earning hometown boos. Webber was averaging just 15.1 points and shooting 37.5% while trying to adapt to Allen Iverson's offense.

But fans who complain that Philadelphia needs Webber and Iverson to become a high-scoring combo are focused on the wrong end of the floor. The Sixers are struggling because, through Sunday, they were 8-25 when they failed to score 100 points, thanks to a field goal defense ranked 19th in the league (44.8%). The acquisition of Webber was never going to boost Philly's D: His chronically weak left knee has limited him to 0.75 blocks per game, less than half of his career average. "I've heard comparisons to Rasheed Wallace going to Detroit, but Rasheed was joining a team that had back-to-back 50-win seasons," says 76ers coach Jim O'Brien. "[Becoming] the type of defensive team that can do something this year is our challenge."

The key to improvement is 6'11" Samuel Dalembert, the raw third-year center who at week's end was averaging 2.6 fewer minutes (23.9 this season) and one-third fewer blocks (1.55) while struggling with O'Brien's directive to front the post rather than guard the rim. Dalembert's frustrations have raised hopes around the league that he may leave as a restricted free agent this summer, but Sixers G.M. Billy King vows that he will match any offer.

O'Brien's teams tend to improve defensively down the stretch because he emphasizes the same reads and rotations every day at practice. He insists that his system will ultimately bring out the best in the 23-year-old: "Samuel has a chance to have as much of an impact over the next five years for this franchise as Allen Iverson or Chris Webber."

ATLANTA'S JOSH SMITH: Dealing with Kid Stuff
When 6'9" Josh Smith won the slam dunk title last month at All-Star weekend, he demonstrated the phenomenal athleticism that prompted the Hawks to pick him 17th out of Oak Hill Academy last June. But many teams weren't as high on Smith, fearing that he might rely too heavily on his superior talent and not develop as a complete player. At week's end Smith, 19, was averaging 8.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.84 blocks -- tops among rookies. "Josh makes some of the most amazing blocks I've ever seen," says forward Antoine Walker, who teamed with Smith in Atlanta before being traded last month to Boston. "If I was him, I'd watch a lot of film of [Jazz forward Andrei] Kirilenko."

Smith likes the comparison. "We're similar players," he says. But Atlanta coach Mike Woodson notes one big difference: "Kirilenko knows how to play."

Woodson spends a large part of every day exhorting Smith and his three fellow rookies -- Josh Childress, Donta Smith and Royal Ivey -- to learn the little things that will help the Hawks (10-50 through Sunday) turn from losers into winners. But it is becoming harder for him to get through to Smith, who hit the rookie wall last week in part because he was still exhausted by All-Star weekend (and perhaps a little too satisfied by his newfound celebrity). "He's not as active as he was," says 25-year-old team captain Al Harrington, who also jumped to the NBA from high school. "At that age, as much as someone tries to tell you things, it doesn't register until you've experienced it yourself."

Scout's Take
On the most talented teams in the NCAA tournament:

"North Carolina and Connecticut are head and shoulders above everyone else. The Tar Heels are easily Number 1, with three lottery picks in Marvin Williams, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants to go with Sean May and Jawad Williams, a borderline first-rounder. UConn's Rudy Gay is a top five pick, Josh Boone could go in the lottery, Charlie Villanueva is a first-rounder and so is Marcus Williams. At most other schools a first-round guy is usually the best player in the conference; North Carolina and UConn are so ridiculously deep that Marvin Williams and Gay are first-rounders who have come off the bench."

Issue date: March 21, 2005