ESPN barely gave us any love when we won back to back championships in '94 and '95. So, why are y'all surprised now?
The fact is, there are people who want to see Yao Ming fail. For instance, take John Thompson. I'm not going to get into any reasons why he may not like Yao Ming or any other foreign player, so I'll just leave that to your imagination. I heard the John Thompson show on the way home yesterday (he has his own radio show in DC), and he was just bashing Ming with all his might. A soundbyte came on about Rudy simply commenting about what a good personality Yao seems to have, and Thompson just ripped into Rudy! Started making of fun him for saying that. He says, "Great personality? Did he just say that? Who cares what kind of personality he has or how nice a smile he has, if he can't rebound or block shots he's worth nothing." Mind you, he's saying all this before Yao Ming have even played a real NBA game. The co-host, Doc Walker, started pleading with him, "John, just give him a chance...just give him a chance" And finally, Thompson responded in this angry, ugly tone, "I AIN'T GIVIN' HIM NOTHIN'!" I couldn't believe my ears. I mean it sounded like he really has a true, deep-seeded disdain for Yao Ming. I can't quite figure out what the reason is behind it, and I just wonder if this is the attitude a lot of the people in the media have towards Yao. It's really dispicable the way some of the media are treating this 22 year old kid. Kind of like Kenny and Charles during the draft. My point is, there are many people out there who would take great pleasure in Seeing Yao fail! Why that is, I don't know.
I think John Thomson and Rudy have different methods for teaching...both can work. Rudy is nice-guy, and might seem a little soft from outsiders. John Thomson is proud, tough man and is used to hard work, no-nonsense type of play. So, John might be taking Rudy's comments out of context. I will say this... Sometimes Danny Ainge will say something (TNT) regarding a play, and John Thomson will rip into him like he's stupid or something. A lot of the things that Danny Ainge says makes sense. But, John Thomson doesn't like to be showed up or upstaged on TNT. I mean, Thomson is supposed to be the BIG TIME college coach and the elder. So, it's very hard for John Thomson to show any leeway when it comes to other peoples opinions. Oh, and you were wondering why some peole want to see Yao fail... The reason is this. Yao has been on EPSN, FOX, ABC, NBC, Yahoo, you name it. He's a world sports star. He's been shoved in our faces for the last 6 months. So, there will always be non-sports fans that say, "What's with all the hype?" The rest are non-Houston Rocket fans that don't want Yao to be good. That would means that their team has to deal with Yao.
