(a soapbox aside) I’d like to first address the Oscar Robertson opinion piece: Cheap labor? Bleh… how quickly and easily do we forget what opportunities have been fought for and won for us – and that’s everyone – to be judged primarily on ability and hard work, regardless of creed, religion, geography, etc. While there are serious strides still to be made in this area in terms of acceptance, it is misguided for an icon like the Big O to respond to healthy competition with such a playground, “It’s mine. I don’t want to share” mentality. Think about this: How many baseball lifers “explained away” Jackie Robinson: “Oh, it’s just publicity and marketing!” “Let them in and they will take jobs from our qualified people!” “He’s an OK player, but if they want a better product - Why don’t they just invest more in minor league development? – Train our guys!!” “He’s cheap labor!!” Now, being resistant to change doesn’t mean you are racist, but the two are not as far removed from each other as one might think. Be careful what you ask for, Big O. I say stick to telling Francis to get it to his big man. (steps off soapbox) This thread is to acknowledge the enrichment that the Chinese posters have brought to the experience of being a Rockets fan. Starting with Windandsea, the Jackie Robinson of the Clutch BBS (Why is the first one always so classy?) down to every last Yao-only fan lurker out there. Warning: You will all bleed Rockets’ red one day – you’ll scream for Moochie Jr to be traded, Yao Ming Jr. to pass it more to his big man Francis Jr., and cry when Van Gundy retires following back-to-back championships after an allergic response to all the happiness. (Seinfeld (wiping at tears): ”What is this salty discharge?”) Thank you for the endless scoops, hours of article translations, and perspectives. I’m not sure if most posters even realize how privileged we are to get this extra information. For example, just in the last month: - We found out a few days/week early that Yao beat out Shaq to start the ASG. - We debated amongst ourselves about Yao’s breakthrough game, then heard it from his own mouth. - We found out Dell Harris is coaching the Chinese National Team (This has HUGE ramifications from a Rockets perspective in replacing Wang Fei – who had them lifting stones in the morning and balancing water buckets in the evening – with a seasoned, prepared, highly qualified NBA coach). Again, the lack of relevant, summer NBA quality training was THE reason Wang Zhi Zhi defied authority and got effectively blacklisted. Yao doesn’t have that in him, but everyone should breathe much easier with Yao in infinitely better hands. Of course there has been some questionable info to go along with all the good. That is inevitable when you open wide lines of communication. But hey, we’ve all got a “believability” filter - use it. I just think it is extraordinary to learn and to appreciate the Rockets and Yao from so many different perspectives. Perhaps someday, the Big O and his colleagues will hold up an example like Yao and say, “This is an example of someone playing the game ‘The Right Way.’ Everyone would do well to learn from him.” Communication will get us there one day. Yao Ming is the perfect international ambassador. Meanwhile, it’s just cool to see Stein’s Chinese coach “scoop” on ESPN and utter a collective Clutchfans, “Old news.” Thanks again. Keep up the great work!
I always enjoy the posts from Yao's bbs, which near as I can tell are authentic. Please keep up the good work on those translations.
Not to distract from the thread too much (yay W&S and everyone else)... You're giving Wang Zhizhi way too much credit for helping him justify his desertion. Wang Zhizhi wasn't concerned about his workout routine, he was concerned about NBA exposure. That is, last summer, he expressed great interest in playing for the Chinese National Team again (despite the work-load)... at least during the weeks it played in the United States. Why? Because he's patriotic and really does want to help the team? Hardly. The only reason he volunteered to play in the US (and not, say, the far more important Asian games) is strictly because he viewed his performance as a job interview for the NBA managers in the audience. Do you know what he recently said in response to a question of how far he was from Yao Ming in terms of NBA performance? "The difference is paper-thin." The man's selfish, a classic bling-bling seekin' fool who has an over-inflated sense of self.
Sorry, I did not mean to interject so much social commentary. I get riled, forgive me. I meant to offer a simple "Thank You" to a group of posters (some who are still relatively new fans) who add a lot to this environment. So, if you appreciate the work they do bringing Chinese-based Rockets news to you, continue to add your thoughts. And if you are one of the Chinese-based posters translating articles and bringing news we would otherwise have no access to - as Yao would say - there is an American saying: "Give yourself a pat on the back."
Heech, I hear you. Good points re: Wang. But in that same vein, I'm sure if Wang knew Dell Harris, asst coach of the Mavs, were waiting for him in China to impress, his bling-bling seekin' self may have made it back for his own reasons. Also, while helping the Chinese National Team directly, Harris is also helping to facilitate the development of the younger NBA level prospects and hopefully loosening the reins on all the Chinese players with NBA aspirations. That includes considerations for Yao (More rest! Less pointless corporate exhibitions! Please!).
Agree with Harris' contributions. This summer's gonna be an interesting one, now that we hear the Chinese national team's gonna be *based* out of Dallas. Now how's that a slap to the face of Wang Zhizhi... And yes, that's great news for all the Rockets fans out there. Yao Ming will be spending a majority of his summer in Texas, if not Houston in particular.
I couldn't help sharing my humble opinion regarding Wang. I never watched Wang's game in Chinese national team, as a Chinese I have been abroad too long, and wasn't even in North America, which favours basketball a lot. Anyways, I read and heard a lot about Wang, I guess he did a fair bit share of his contribution to his club and national team, and at the time Ming was just a newbie. Finally, he got a chance to play in NBA, I guess every Chinese was happy for him and wished him do well. As a new comer here, he really need time to get familiar with the games in NBA, he needed time at training camp etc. All I know was at the time, national team demanded him to participant some low level preparation games. Wang expressed his willingness to play the World Cup (or World Championship? or Asian games?) games, but was reluctant to play those meaningless games in his opinion. At the time, the national team officials were quite arrogant, told him you either play all or nothing. I mean, he might not as good as Ming in terms of dealing with people. But for God's sake, he grew up in the army, played in the army, never learned how to deal with everything on his own, but he DID contribute a lot to Chinese basketball. Whether he should skip training to join those preparation games, is arguable, but painting him as a bad bad selfish person who puts national interest at the lowest place, as Chinese national team officials did, I can not agree. By the way, I saw that report about his talking about "paper-thin", and in my understanding, he was asked a question about how far away he was from top NBA level, not particular Ming. Again, his answer is somehow correct, in my opinion. He said top level is just like paper thin, once you get over it, you get it, but if you can't, you just can't. Let's assume Ming plays great throughout his whole career from now on, we can look back then and say that Lakers game was his "paper", once he got over it, he has total confidence. Too far away from this thread, sorry about that. But I would like to say, if you think a person is not good, anything he does might seem bad to you; but if you can always think something good about a person, especially those things he did good for you before, you might find out that nobody is really bad. Cheers
It's interesting to read the different interpretation of Wang's "paper thin". Real_egal's version is really beautiful: poetic, and philosophical. If that that's wang's true understanding, he is half-way there, and has a good shot to get there eventually.
once again... asians are forever considered "the others" or "un american" ... ive been a rocket fan forever... im chinese. ive been on this site since it's very beginning... jackie robinson of the bbs? please... did you think everyone here was white?
Again, I think you're giving way too much credit to Wang. The only games that Wang volunteered to play in were games in the United States... even when these games were totally meaningless to the Chinese national team. He offered to play for the Chinese national team on exhibitions in Oakland back in early 2002 (before Yao was drafted). He offered to play for the Chinese national team in the World Basketball Championships in 2002 (in the United States), but refused to practice with the team before the tournament. He also refused to play with the Chinese national team in the Asian Games. Note that in all of these games, not only Yao, but Mengke Bateer some how managed to find the time to make an appearance. China *most* needed Wang last year for the Asian Basketball Championships, when an invitation to the Olympics were on the line. And where was he? Working out with a personal trainer and playing pick-up games in LA. He can come up with all the excuses he wants, but the bottom line is, he's the one person who controls his fate. Every time that he refuses his obligations and denies his selfishiness is yet another time that he digs himself a deeper hole. I hope he enjoys his million-dollar home in LA. After the current contract with the Heat expires (really, does anyone believe that the Heat plans to invest tremendous amounts in developing Wang for the future?), it's all he'll have left.
It's always easy to ask, and once you get what you asked, you will probably ask for more. But if you are always giving, at certain point, you might not want to give any more. Again, I am not judging the whole thing circling Wang. And I am not saying he's a good or bad person, coz I just don't know him. And we all know how media is. Play or not play is his choice, you can say that's his duty or whatever, but that's his choice. You can say if you were him, you would do this or that, but it's his choice. Shaq and Kobe skipped a couple of times of "duty call". People and media critisized them for couple of days, and then they got over with it. Detlef Shrempf skipped his duty call while the Sonics had some serious hope, and he opted for the club's training camp, instead of his German national team duty, and it was serious serious games. I still remember at the time I was in Germany, some people on TV were furious, and almost called him a traitor. On top of that, German team didn't do well without him. But after a week or two, people just got over with it. The incident about Wang happened almost a year ago, why don't we just get over it, and wish him well? Nonetheless, he's a Chinese, and he did something good to Chinese basketball.
At the risk of derailing this cool thread. Wang thought practicing with his national team teammates for the Olympic qualification as being meaningless compared to his summer time NBA exposure, and didn't back up his agreement to play for the national team. After the regular season Wang went into a hideout to avoid his oligations, cutting off communications from the media, China and the Mavericks. Then Wang did an arrogant cover up by flying in to play without an apology at the last minute before the WC games. Wang was still an Chinese army personel at that time, the Chinese officials had the right to ask him back to play for China, and did the right thing by refusing his service after he treated the Chinese national team as his backyard, come and go at his will. That paper thin thing is stupid/senseless either way one cuts it. The fat, no defense Wang has a thousand miles to go before he can reach the top level, he's got no business boasting himself. Interpreted differently, viewing the top level hump as being paper-thin just doesn't make sense. You know, it's not easy to get over the hump to reach the top level. If you set your mind on liking someone, everything he does will seem "beautiful", and everything his opposition does will seem bad. I was a Wang backer at first, well, not anymore.
You may be misreading me, that's exactly what I have a problem with the Big O's quote, it's so exclusive when with Yao as the example he uses it could so easily be inclusive. "He's a great person, a great player. Learn from him." If you've got a problem with me acknowledging that a group of posters who are either based in China or ex-pats around the world that scour China's news agencies for news about Yao and the Rockets, translate to English and bring that information here, then I don't understand why. Americans or "un american" has no bearing here. In this forum they are Yao's fans and Rockets fans, they bring something unique and positive to this place, and they deserve to be acknowledged. But excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt the lively Wang debate.
yeah panda... i hear you. when wang first joined the mavericks, i went on NBA.com every day to look up his highlights, back when you could get broadband highlights for free. i read his line religiously and even listed to radio on the internet. i was so proud that a chinese person finally made the NBA. i remember those chalupa shots he hit. i guess i just can't respect actions regarding the national team because there are so many foreign NBA players and they all serve their country when it comes to the olympics and world championships. he also let me down as far as his play. but yeah back to this thread. chinese posters are awesome.
unamerican? woo hoo, now asians are democrats, too! anyways, yeah shoutout to the chinese posters on board, the insightful yao articles and translations really add another dimension to his character. we all know now that behind that loveable smile, he is a cocky b*stard underneath.
Woah there. I think CB4ever was referring to the recent influx of members originating from China or other Asian countries due the arrival of Yao. I don't think there was any racist intent. ---------- Hats off to those posters in China etc. that have "inside info" on Yao, spent countless hours translating, and offer a different perspective on the Rockets that contributes to a healthy discourse that thrives on diversity!! Thanks!! I personally enjoy the chuckles I get from translating Chinese articles on BabelFish. LOL!
I hope some of the translaters might have the time to translate some extracts from Yangyi's new book about YaoMing. Really interesting read, not only about Yao but also about Rockets last season and beginning of this season. It's the really inside of inside stuff!
