Some fact to consider... 1. We the Rockets, along with the Heat, have the most national TV appearances this year. More than the Lakers and Pistons (last years CCs). 2. The Rockets account for 40% of the all-star starting lineup in the West this year. One player received the highest ever allstar votes in history. 3. Tracy McGrady, the league's leading scorer for two years in a row, specificly requested a trade to the Rockets last summer (which was carried out, of course). 4. Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Kenny Thomas, Jimmy Jackson all publicly expressed their heavy displeasure in being traded from the Rockets. 5. Tracy McGrady, Jon Barry, Deke Mutombo, Mike James and Moochie Norris all openly expressed satisfaction in being traded to the Rockets. (Exception: David Wesley, who have very heavy family ties in New Orleans) 6. Given a similar amount of money, James Posey, Rashard Lewis and Nick Van Exel would rather player here. (Counter example: Brent Barry). 7. We have fans everywhere wearing our jerseys and attending our games on the road. (The most empty Rockets games are almost always in Houston.) 8. We have a country who has 1/4 of the world population roots for our success. 9. We have a team BBS that has the heaviest registered population among all NBA teams. 10. We currently only have the 6th best record in the West. No respect?
Preach it. Soon, Young Skywalker, the respect will come it will. (Gosh, sorry, but I still got that Ep. III trailer in my head - I'm not a SW nerd!)
1. TV schedule 2. Allstar roster 3. Media 4. Media 5. Media 6. Media 7. Observation 8. Self-evidence 9. My own research 10. NBA playoff standing
I don't think this is true. a.) The entire country doesn't root for Yao. b.) Those who root for Yao don't necessarily root for the Rockets.
The world popution: 6,504,806,611 and counting The chinese population: 1,309,843,832 and counting You are right, 1/5.
Barry went to a better team than the Rockets and its not a fair "counter example" since the Rox didn't offer him as much (or at least as many years on the deal) but otherwise you are right on
there are lotsa overseas Chinese that do not live in China (like myself). Also - a lot of non-Chinese Asians root for Yao. A popular yof fansite was started by a Japanese-American. He is probably the world's most popular bball player. The All-Star votes provide good evidence of this.
That's a difficult one to state with authority - just consider this, in terms of jersey sales in China (one measure of popularity - not an all-emcompassing one obviously) - Allen Iverson outsold Yao (as did one or two other players who I'm blanking on right now - some combination of Kobe, TMac, Vince I'm sure). Now granted there's a lot of wiggle room for using jersey sales to equate to popularity (availability of jerseys outside of major cities, prices of jerseys, etc.) but having been in a lot of different places . . .I'd say maybe
I was in China a month ago. When I asked about Yao Ming, most people know of him, but could care less about basketball. I would say that Yao Ming is not as popular in China as most Westerners tend to believe. Maybe in the larger cities like Shanghai, Beijing etc more people follow basketball, but overall, they just dont care.
Dude, have you seen the video from the China game last year? Yao is like a rock star in China. Hundreds of people banging on the Rockets' van and yelling out "Yao". If that's not popular, then I don't know what is.
9. We have a team BBS that has the heaviest registered population among all NBA teams. so what kinda research do you mean? id love to see a ranking...
maybe Yao's jersey would sell better if it wasn't so large.... Iverson's probably fits most people a lot better.
