For their first game, I remember the first two or three shots of the prime Shaq got blocked by the Rookie Yao....who else could have done that before...
Neither will I , big guy. Just wish we made the move for a third star like Artest earlier in your career . 2009 is still my favorite rockets squad in the last 20 years
Such a good guy and hard worker - that big body just couldn’t handle the stress the game put on it. I still count Yao as one of my favorite players to watch.
I wish Rudy T was healthy during his last season with Yao/Francis/Cat...our team was starting to gel when we acquired James Posey. I still remember that Rockets vs Lakers game in 2003 where Steve Francis was unstoppable and looked like our team finally arrived! As soon as Rudy left for cancer treatment, our team fell off and missed the playoffs...that's why I always say coaching does matter
"I'll never forget my time with the Rockets." That was like 8 years of his life. If anybody were to forget nearly a decade of their life, that would indicate severe cognative issues and they should probably visit a doctor as soon as possible.
Interesting to see how Wemby’s career turns out. Obviously don’t wish injuries on anyone, but hard to see him staying healthy for many years. Yao was definitely on a trajectory for top centers of all time.
Yao seemed like a good dude who worked hard, was a great player, and is probably the most skilled player of his size ever(Wemby might have something to say about that).....but agree with others that his time in Houston was so frustrating from a fan perspective. At some point you kind of expected it to fail every year - truly one of the great "what ifs". I never was mad at Yao though - it seemed like he was fighting a losing battle with physics and the human form.....Tmac on the other hand - as great a player as he was, I found him particularly disappointing as the leader of a team and when the injuries started to pile up it seemed evident he was the poster boy of the saying 'hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard". Sadly he was the talent that didn't work hard.
I think Wemby might have a better chance to stay healthy as he is like 70 lb less than Yao. Seeing what Wemby does now, I keep wondering if Yao didn't bulk up that much, he might have a completely different career. Of course, at that time of the league, Yao propbaly has to gain a lot of weights to compete with centers like Shaq. If he plays in today's league, he probably won't have to and can shoot good amount of 3 as well.
Not just that, the national team meant he never got the kind of rest he probably should've done with the stresses on that one of a kind frame. Hopefully for Wemby he doesn't get as overworked all year long.
