Hakeem: Dream Shake Kareem: Sky Hook Shaq: Shoulder defender into end seats, dunk ball Gervin: Finger Roll Yao: ?
I'm sure lots of guys have signature moves after playing in two dozen games... His most prominent move so far has been the baseline spin stiffarm...Hmmm, this is the SECOND pic that the NBA has had on its web site showing Yao using his free arm on a spin move...are they trying to tell the refs something?
If Yao ever makes that beautiful slap pass to Francis a part of his regular arsenal, I'd say that his signature move may be the: Shanghai Slap
Yao is using that off arm legitimatly. He brings it out to the defender but not into the defender for the most part. That's legal.
It sure looks like it's on the defender to me. It's not really bad that he uses the free arm because it's been done for years by almost all great post players, plus it's just natural to want to stick that free arm out to create space. It's really a judgement call by the officials, but it can be called a legitimate foul. If the refs are being tight asses, they might call it, but usually it's not called... Barkley, on the other hand, used to WRAP his arm around defenders when he spun baseline...
That's a good point. Yao doesn't wrap his arm around. That's what should be called by the refs. If you stick your arm out for balance, which is natural, then the refs overlook it mostly. Dream did it too and wasn't call too often.
Technically, defenders can't put two hands on Yao's back and nudge him while he's posting up, that happens all the time and never gets called either...it cuts both ways...
Outward displacement of an arm is normally during circular motion such as a spin move because of centrifugal acceleration. Trying spinning around in a circle and you will find that your arms will tend to want to swing away from your body. So it's perfectly natural. If it happens to wipe out whoever is defending Yao Ming along the way, then so be it. Yao's been certainly been hacked by the opposition more that vice verse, so he derserves some slack with his Shanghai Spin
I'd like to know what move he didn't do last night.... When he does the crossover you know it's over.
Actually, my friend has NBA 2K3, and he created his own Yao Ming character. 7'5", chinese, 290 lbs....Dude did a behind the back crossover through the lane while playing me one time...damn near floored me...
Yao's showing new moves every game, but I'd have to say it's the turnaround jumper right now. He was doing that back in 2000 Olympics and probably earlier. Yeah, and it's pretty much unstoppable along with his hook shot and seemingly every other move.
Well, I guess Yao didn't do the homerun off of his noggin a la Jose Canseco. Wait a minute... wrong sport. Maybe he can try a bounce pass off of his own forehead to Stevie for an alley-oop. Or maybe perhaps Yao can slam an alley-oop pass from Stevie into the basket using his forehead. He's certainly tall enough. The never-before-seen Shanghai Header Slam!!!
A lot of people have said Ming's hook shot would be undefendable. His hook shots were 3-3 last night.
That's right! If Yao can get up in the air a little higher, his hook is absolutely, positively not defendable. But even if his hops are the same as it is now, his quick release means that he won't have any trouble getting his hook off the great majority of the time. Sometimes, I think Yao should just catch the entry pass quickly and just shoot his hook right away without bothering with all of that head-fakes and spin moves because his hook can be so effective. I sure do enjoy watching him fake out the likes of David Robinson, Jermaine O'Neal and Kandi though.
Dream did use more of the free-arm as he got older, but before the '96 season, he legitimately spun around people. God knows I've been in heated arguments with Jazz fans about Dream's "three step" Shake and his free-arming spin. Ironically, the denied all accounts of flops and cheap shots. Hmmm...Karl Malone bumps into Matt Maloney and falls down and gets the foul called on poor Matt. I'd least I acknowledge that Dream did use the free-arm once and awhile. Oh well, ignorance is bliss.
Try doing a baseline move with your free arm attached to your side. Aint gonna happen. It's out there for balance. If he hooks his arm around the defender then that's offensive.
I like his hook/drop shot that goes straight down. Kind of like Zeus throwing down a thunderbolt. Maybe it will develop to be as instoppable as the sky hook. You would have to goaltend to block it.
Maybe that Walton is right: "We all need to learn a lot from Yao". Down the road, Yao may come up with some moves we all have never thought of ...
