Yao Ming's talks about Olympic games and some NBA players

thank you windandsea - I think I've enjoyed reading every single one of your post - from the first to the last. Even if Ming does not pan out here, I'd be honored to have you stick around and give us insight on him and other rising Chinese stars

 

Thanks W&S

I love the guys attitude. I would sure like to know what he had to say about Shaq's elbow. I guess the reporter couldn't say because wasn't I am honored to play you champ.

There is not doubt Shaq will get his points on Yao but I can't wait to see him get his first block on Shaq.

 

thats funny. dude has serious balls.
so far, the impression of ming that i get is he's funny, smart and hardworking.

 

Thanks Wind & Sea,

I'm looking forward to having Ming on the Rockets team. He seems to be a very genuine person. From everthing that I've read, he seems to be a truly good person.

The one story that stick in my head is a recent one about the Goldberg (Rockets lawyer). He was talking to his son on the phone while he was in a meeting with Yao. Goldberg ask Ming to tell his son hi. Goldberg said that Ming and his son talked 10-15 minutes. To me that shows that Yao is a decent person.

Yao will be a good fit for the Rockets.

 

Yao's going to fit in to the NBA mindset just fine. Maybe he'll adopt the Dikembe Finger Wag.

 

Another great post. Thanks for the info. Heres to hoping it all works out.

 

Something interesting I wanted to point out from Ming's quotes above....

Tyson Chandler - 6.1ppg, 4.8rpg, 1.3bpg
Eddie Curry - 6.7ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.7bpg
Kelvin Cato - 5.7ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.4 bpg

In the quote above Ming said that he thought that many of the highly picked rookies last year played dissapointingly. I wanted to pull up the Bulls #2 and #3 picks stats and just for fun pull up Cato's stats from last year.

I know a lot of us have been dreamcasting what we think Ming's rookie year numbers would look like. Saying what he did about last year's highly picked rookies and looking at their stats from last year, now we know what he thinks is "disappointing" in terms of stat production.

He obviously feels he can contribute in a much bigger way then they did.


Also, something else to throw out there. I was looking up Shawn Bradley's first year numbers. I know, enough with the Bradley references eh? Well, just look at his rookie numbers.

Shawn Bradley - 10.3ppg, 6.2rpg, 3bpg (28.3 min)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/statistics?statsId=1273

Looking at those numbers wouldn't you think that Ming's production would be better? I guess the key with Ming will be how many MINUTES he gets.

Chris

 

His trash talking reminds me of one of my junior high school coaches, Coach Pettway, who related everything in life to food. "Hey boy, you a ham," was his favorite. I remember when he called my buddy a "potatoe chip" after he fell over a hurdle. I still laugh at him over that one.

Now here comes Coach Pettway reinvented as the world's tallest communist with "Hey Chandler, you a small piece of cake, boy." No doubt Shaq will be a "ham." Langhi is seriously looking like the dreaded potatoe chip.

Got to love it.

 

Lets all be honest and say it.

Here in the west, we all think that asian people are polite, shy, respectful, nerdy, smart, non-confrontational, and seen but not heard. That's what the movies and media shows us, so that's what at we believe. And there's a lot of truth to that. People with asian backgrounds, especially those with immigrant parents, are taught the eastern way, to be respectful, thoughtful, keep your head down and work hard. Not exactly the top 10 values for success in the NBA.

BUT JUST LISTEN TO MING. He has clearly been taught to be polite and respectful, but even more clear is the fact that he has some serious competitive fire that will explode once he gets here. He might succeed, and he might fail, but he's not going to cower to anyone. That's half the battle right there. What's more, all the great ones had this confidence and edge. Jordan, Magic, Bird, Hakeem, Dr. J. . .

I'm not saying that Ming is a first ballot hall of famer, but the Ming haters have to recognize this guy is not a shrinking violet. He's not going to say please before going over someone's head before grabbing a rebound. He's not going to apologize when he shoves a shot down someone's throat. And (Stevie pay attention), he's not going to be afraid to take a big shot.

He's clearly not here to be mediocre. It sounds like he is carrying the honor and pride of China on his shoulders, and he is not shrinking from the responsibility. He embraces it.

Steve might be able to teach Ming about basketball, but Ming can teach Steve a thing or two about character.

 

Excellent points, Rileydog.

 

Rileydog, great post. I totally agree. I see Ming being much more "assertive" than Wang was with Dallas. Sure Ming will be new to the Rockets system and will have to pick up a lot of stuff but I think he will be assertive in his game. He looks like someone that has a lot of fire and desire to be great. He has a lot of great intangibles that I think will help the Rockets.

Chris

 

Ya, just wait until Ming stuffs Francis in practice and tells him not to bring that garbage in anymore. Then Francis will respect him.