I'm perplexed. I'm watching the New Orleans game and Yao looks so winded. If he looks tired every game then I can almost live with it, but his energy is up and down. Actually recently Yao has been looking pretty good. There have to be contributing factors to Yao's inconsistent energy and I wonder what they can be. Days between games and hard practices...Staying out late.... Lack of proper nutrition during the season... I'm thinking it's nutrition since we've seen Yao tired even when he has time off.
I think it has alot to do with PJ Brown manhandling Yao down there. PJ seemed to be auditioning for the Rockets so they'll trade for him with the energy he was playing with. He was pulling and pushing and tugging on Yao down there and the refs were letting him get away with it. I think it tired the big fella out real quick.
I was thinking the samething... PJ was really moving his feet out there giving YAO more a headache than Stromile Swift does...
Home = Yao having his own, special bed. Away = Yao having to put 2 hotel beds together. I was actually thinking it was all the fighting down low with the defender pulling on Yao, with no calls of course.
There rarely is a game that Yao can play with high energy all game long. It's either 1st half or 2nd half, sometimes 3 quarters, sometimes 1 quarter.
I am just going to ask some questions here based on some of my own experience and see if anyone can shed some light: My dad smoked 2 packs of Pall Malls a day since he was 12, and definitely through my mom's pregnancy with me. Many complications, breathing, asthma like problems as a child and into teens. I wanted to be a mile runner but even though I trained a lot could never break 5 minutes. Ou high school permier miler smoked. In my 40's despite being a black belt and training 4-5 days a week, my health broke and after about two years of testing they concluded my lungs never fully developed and thus I could not get enough air to support my body. Heart was OK, everything else OK. just my lungs. I had another allergy problem related but it came down again to something affecting my lungs. And as I aged my immune system was less able to deal with the stress. I have sleep apnea and sleep with a cpap machine. My doctor and my little brother who is a rehabilition nurse - masters degree, both agree the smoking screwed me up. I cannot be around cigarette or cigar smoke or diesel fumes - mu lungs lock up. SO I ask the question - is it possible smoking and/or air pollution has had some kind of stunting effect on Yao's lungs? Smoking still seems to be very prevalent in other countries even around children. Is it in China?
I guess it's certainly possible, but Yao's problem has more to do with his height & weight. When you labor 300lb+ body upon & down the court, then have to deal with full-body contact battling in the paint constantly, that will tire anyone out.
JVG believes it is a matter of Yao getting into shape something he believes Yao never really worked on all his pro basketball life. I am talking about top notch shame not just average stamina shape. So for this reason he sent strength and conditioning trainer (Faizon??) to China last summer over an extended period of time to work with Yao so that he can come into training camp in better shape. Interestingly CNT coach, Del Harris, piggy backed on Faizon visit and asked him to work on the entire Chinese National team. It is widely believed that when it comes to basketball and possibly in all sports, that there not country like USA when it comes to conditioning. Anyway the result of Faizons last summer work with Yao so far has not been great but I can see some encouraging improvments already. I believe JVG, Yao, Team Yao and Faizon will continue on this off-season plan this summer and beyond to further improve Yao's stamina which oh btw is the last huddle between Yao and true greatness. His stamina or lack there of affects everything about his game including foul troubles, strong finishing, rebounding, holding position in the low post, etc. Something in me still sides with the point Richirich raised. It could still be a health issue but I will defer to the experts who work with Yao on a daily basis.
I'd love to see Yao play just one season with the advantage the rest of the league has -- taking the Summer off. I'd love to see that cause I'm a Yao fan and a Rockets fan and I want him to succeed. YOF's? How bout a Summer off?
I believe that is a point we all can agree on. He isnt really needed except to help China win gold in the 08 Games...so why keep riding him every summer? I could understand him playing with the Nat Team for the Olympic Games....but why at other times? It just perplexes me that they seem to have so little care for his long term health that they wont allow him to use the summers that dont involve the Olympics to train properly and rest.
It is a lot harder for his heart to pump these blood to circulate his 7'6" frame than these 6'6" guys! Also, Yao seems always chases these little guards on the perimeter on defense and sets a lot of useless screens on offense. I am sure that takes a lot out of his energy. He needs to learn from Shaq on how to conserve his energy during the game.
