I guess I'll qualify my statement. When I say I don't like it, I mean that aesthetically. It doesn't seem "cool" to me, because I just have negative associations with it. I doesn't mean that I have a problem with it. The Dallas game, being one of the few games this year I've had the opportunity to watch, was the first time I'd seen them do that. It may grow on me if I see it more. I imagine the way I said "Americans" (as if I'm not one) may have rubbed people the wrong way. I apologize.
Compgeek, or anyone who conveniently recorded this scene on a computer, can you be kind enough to put it on the internet and share? I haven't had the priviledge to witness this ritual, and this discussion made me really want to see it.....
What many have failed to mention so far is that this greeting is somewhat the wedding of an American (or western) and Chinese (albeit ancient) greeting ways. The handshake and fist butting is in my limited knowledge not Chinese. And IMO, I believe MoTay surgested this act and Yao in his good heart way like it and obliged.
Darn. I deleted the game after re-watching it as my PVR's harddrive is running low in space. Somebody?
Everyone's preference is different. I like the old NBA (15+ years ago) as there were fewer chest-drumming or other me-me gestures which I find pretty poor-tasted. But to each his own. I saw the MoT-Yao greeting before in some Chinese kungfu movies. I believe it is some kind of battlefield sendoff gesture. I could be wrong.
Ill yank it and get it posted later today. I have been slacking on ripping highlights lately...but I have been working out a new compression scheme to get my games smaller for storage and havent had time to do highlights. stay tuned.
Accordingly to my Chinese buddies, it is the traditional Chinese way of greeting --- it was the standard way until about a century ago, but no one seems to do it when the dynasties ended in the early 1900s. If you look at drawings of the great Confucious, who lived some 2000 years ago, he used almost the exact same gesture. It was not associated with battlefield --- in fact the gestures are different: the normal one you cup your left fist with your right hand, while the battlefield one you don't cup the right hand at all. --- it is somewhat like Japanese' bow, you do it all the time to greet or show respect, yet apparently much better.
Thanks! Actually, the whole greeting thing per se is not THAT cool... but it's great that MoT and Yao have a nice bond going on.
cool clips! i don't care what anyone thinks, that handshake rules. it shows respect and comraderie. also, in the clip of the francis to yao pass at the end of the mavs game, i love the look on cubans face- it's priceless. looks like he is about to cry.
I think it isnt as much the 'coolness' factor of the actual motion than it is I love to see stuff like that amongst the members of my team...If you watch the pregame stuff, and all during the game when they show the bench reacting to on the court action....you see 12 guys that love being teammates and loving the game they play..... THAT is whats cool about things like this to me..
wow... someone actually posted a clip? awesome. i can't believe this thread is still around. this board rules.
