Since Steve is the leader, the HEART, of this team, then for us to be consitent in playing well, the heart has to keep pumping. Heart attacks tend to render the rest of the body useless. I have renewed faith in this team.
Does every thread have to turn into a Yao vs Francis thread? Lets just accept that both Yao and Francis contributed to this win even though both had there rough spots.
For every good game, Steve Fancy gives us two stupidly played games. Net result: no playoffs. For every ESPN highligt, Fancy costs us two to three scoring opportunities. Net result: turnovers and loss and no playoffs. For every allstar appearance: hogging the ball and ugliest basketball games. Net result: no playoffs. Overall Net Result: Max contract, multiple allstar appearances. Oh, almost forget, no f****** playoffs.
Apparently your reasoning is so INCOHERENT, you couldn't understand yourself. According to your statement above, all NBA players should be feeling SO EMBARASSED because no one, NO ONE YOU HEAR, gets 16-17 rebounds PER game. And please, please dont tell me you didnt mean averaging 16-17 per game. Just as soon as you said Steve is the LEADER of this team, which by the way didn't lead us anywhere the last few years, you went on to diss Yao. What a double talk. By the way, please point out what was so INCOHERENT in my previous post. Duh
Anyone suggesting that Yao should avg 16-17 boards per game should really think about that. That's like saying Francis should avg 10 assists per game cause he's supposed to be a great PG and if he doesn't then he's a bust.
Wrong. According to my statement above, all NBA players with Yao's height and coordination should be getting 16 rebounds per game. I'm very unimpressed with your reasoning ability. I won't, since that is what I meant. Why is it 'double talk' to say that Steve is the leader of this team and to say that Yao isn't? No problem. From what I could decipher, you said that you couldn't stand those people who said that Yao should be getting certain statistics because of his height; you also said that those were probably the same people who thought a 7'6'' player wasn't worth the #1 pick. First of all, nobody said that he wasn't worth the pick because of his height. His height was clearly one of the leading factors in drafting him at #1. Secondly, I applauded drafting Yao at #1. And it's not only the people that didn't want him to be drafted who are dissapointed by his performance. You then go on to phrase an argument of the people who didn't want to draft Yao. But it's confusing because you don't clearly indicate that you are aping those people. So it seems out of place in the rest of your post. Also, the fact that he isn't clumsy like Bradley is my main point regarding his production. He is that tall, and he isn't clumsy so he should be getting 16 boards a game. Your entire previous post lacked any cohesive points and was confusing which is why I labeled it 'incoherent.'
You know Yao is the only one in the ENTIRE nba who fits that description. That's such a copout to avoid the Bradley/Bol height comparison. That's like me saying all NBA players who are Francis's height, weight, bloodtype age and whatever else is needed to make sure only Francis fits that profile should be avg 15 assists per game.
Oops, you got me there. I should've made my words - How about just be a Rockets fan, ya know, enjoy the win and credit everybody that contributed? - bold so that desperate men could see. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Nobody's game is perfect, including Yao's. On the other side, everybody should play a team game - which is my original point, and why Yao's patience on the lack of involvement is amazing. Yes, which Yao has been doing, and which is starting to dawn on Francis, maybe, under the positive influence of Yao. Don't know where did you get that idea. Yao is inconsistent so far, so is Francis. So I would say they are prolly on par with each other in terms of performance. BTW, how about quit playing the YOF card, it's getting a bit old.
The problem is that many people here want Yao to be agressive, but he might be having a hard time doing that because of culture reasons. I may be well off-base here, but aren't players from China more finesse than being physical?? Give him time; Yao will be a monster if people don't run him out of Houston due to their impatience. However, I will admit that it is frustrating to see him get a rebound and then get it taken away from him by guards like Kobe, etc.
u can say that again! IMO,both of FS,YAO dont have the power to lead the team singly to playoff,we need FS+YAO+Others,we need a team!
Your post is complete garbage. "stupidly played games" it hshows that you are dripping of YOF stench. Are you trying to pull off one of those Mastercard commercials in your post, because if you are its completly worthless. You do realize that there are quite a few players that have max contracts and many have some of the largest contracts, but their team never seems to move past the first round, or even get into the playoffs many times. If we had not resigned Francis. Imagine a team run by mooch with the same supporting cast.
You are so egg-headed, so let me decipher for you. First of all, my very first post was a general statement to many people here, not just to you in particularly. Never in my first post did I call you out. It is a fact that many people here were against drafting Yao last year because he is 7' 6". Anyone that tall couldnt "bang" in NBA, they said. Of course there were others who dislike him simpily because he is freaking tall Chinese from China. From reading many posts here since Yao's arrival, many of the same people are now complaining of Yao of not capable of dunking on all his opponents or grabbing like 16-17 rebounds, like you suggested, simpily because he is 7' 6" and should be able to do so. That is pure hypocrisy. SO PLEASE tell me what was so INCOHERENT in my first post. And let me enlighten your observations. Despite his great height and massive legs, Yao doesnt have good balance or explosive leaping ability. If he can't win the opening tip, or should I say he wasn't even chosen to do so, what makes you think it's easier for him to get those rebounds inside the paint, when the ball bounces off the rim in all possible directions. Unless the ball is well within his reach, if he tries to grab it with both hands, he will most likely be knocked off balance by others. Why do you think he falls so much. DUH. Since your kind of reasoning is so COHERENT.
Since your kind of reasoning is so COHERENT. I guess you would say Boykins should be able to drive pass everyone and gets 16-17 easy layups simpily because he is the shortest guy in this league. HA, so COHERENT I must say.
I doubted for about 5 minutes whether Stevie was still the best player on this team... As of the Pacers game, I doubt no more. I would NEVER trade him.
I don't know what game you were watching, but it obviously was one that played in your own little world.
Good googly-moo!! One game and now Steve Francis is the Messiah in a blood-red uniform?? Who left the gate open on this one? One game, people--ONE. JVG has been saying this well before his under eye bags turned into that beautiful shade of BLACK AND BLUE..that our problem is CONSISTENCY. And I can CONSISTENTLY say..that Steve Francis has not played that well within "the system" before the Lakers game. Even STEVE said that getting Yao HOT early on was the key to the game..if HE can say it..you can say it. Keep driving the theory home, JVG..he WILL eventually get it CONSISTENTLY..and that way we can GET to the dayum playoffs!!
Interesting premise, chest bumps= leader. Of course, there are exceptions. There are Brett Favre/Mark Messier/chest bump equiv. leaders in sports... ...but then there are Joe Montana/Wayne Gretzky/Tim Duncan etc. leaders. On the other hand, few players are as prone to on court celebrations/enthusiasm and chest bumps as Darius Miles, yet I am hardly alone, I think, in shrinking from calling him a leader. I don't see the basis for this conclusion. Is Steve more overtly emotional than Yao? As far as I can tell, certainly. Does that equate to being a better leader? I really don't see how...there are advantages and disadvantages to being overtly emotional in sports, especially marathon sports like baseball and basketball, as opposed to, say, football. Overtly emotional players can be prone to getting too high and too low, depending on immediate success or failure, can allow previous mistakes to affect their subsequent performance, can more easily be drawn into ego competitions with other individual players, thus losing sight of the team objective, can say and do things in the heat of the moment which have a negative effect on the game, team, or a teammate, can simply play with too much heart and not enough head, etc. IMO, the best 'leader' I have ever seen in professional sports was Joe Montana...the guy they called " Joe Cool". Unlike a guy like, say, Steve Young, he didn't yell, cajole, plead and rant to get guys on his team to win...he just was so inately confident and composed that everyone on the field, teammates, opponents, coaches, etc. simply 'knew' that he would win, if they gave him the chance. That's leadership. Harris Barton, Montana's old OT tells a story about Montana which sums up what I'm talking about. In the Super Bowl that ended in the last minute drive for a championship, Montna started out down 3, with about 3-4 minutes to play, and his heels, literally, on his own goal line. During the drive to win the Championship, in which Montnana's only miss was an intentional throw away to stop the clock/avoid sack, Joe Cool was at his very best, hitting pin point passes, making all the right reads, and avoiding the one mistake which meant defeat. On the winning pass for a touchdown, the reciever who caught the ball was his 4th option. So, according to the Steve analogy, one would expect Montana to have come out of each huddle screaming, bumping chests, etc., right? Well, there were players who were very excited, Harris Baeton among them. As the drive began, players were understandably excited...last minute drive in a Super Bowl, stuff of childhood fantasies, national television,etc. Baeton himself was, as he says, hollering that they were " Gonna Win!", etc. and generally so excited and emotional that he was almost hyperventilating. So, in the huddle just before the opening pass of the drive, the 49ers undisputed leader calmly got the play from Bill Walsh, told his teammates what they were going to do, looked around the stadium and then said to Barton; " Hey, H ( nickname)...look over there...isn't that John Candy?" When Barton looked, sure enough, there in the stands was John Candy, eating popcorn. Barton couldn't believe Montana...it was as if he wasn't even aware of the pressure or the siginifacance of the moment. But, of course, he was...few players have been in as many big moments, and almost none have risen to meet them as well as Joe Montana...and yet he was never a rah-rah type of guy. Leaders, real leaders, don't have to push and pull, yell and bump chests. Real leaders, by definition, simply lead by going their way and having others follow. Montana, in that moment with Barton, effectivley calmed down every one of his teammates at a time when they needed to play ther best, when one mistake, however passionately intended, would be disaster. And he did it simply, without fanfare, without histrionics, but by that hard to define quality of true leadership, especially evident in moments of extreme pressure. You can have that quality and be a rah-rah type, as Magic Johnson shows...or you can be a rah-rah type and not be a leader, as Daruis Miles and countless others show...You can be cool, calm, and collected and be a leader, as Montana, Hakeem, and Duncan show, or you can be cool, calm, and collected and not be a leader, as Derrick Coleman and maybe Eddie Griffin show...Leadership is leadership, overt emotionalism is overt emotionalism. They aren't mutually exclusive, but they aren't synonomous either, although they are often mistaken for each other.
About the culture making Yao soft opinion. Watch Meng Bateer play some time. He's a very physical power forward from China so I'm not so sure you can blame Yao's lack of agression on his cultural background. You can, however, note that the international game is more fundamental to the point where players hold the pass in higher regards than the shot. Yao's tendency to pass the ball when he has a mismatch in the post can probably be blamed on his days in the CBA.
