Yao has been acting more and more like this is HIS team...giving props when a teammate makes a good play that he was not involved in, giving instructions and even yelling at teammates. Last night he seemed to be angrily yelling out a play (the one where thumbs are pointed downward) where I believe it is designed for him to downscreen in the low post and then receive the ball from the wing. He had not touched it in a while and seemed ticked. Later Boki missed him wide open in the post, and he angrily yelled and waved at Boki to get out of the way for Francis to drive. On another occasion, he seemed to be giving instructions to MoT for how to play the high-low. It seems more and more like Yao is taking over the reigns and relishing the role. Not bad for a 23 yr old with all the adjustments he's been through.
Oakley has been beating up on Yao in practice and having him practice his trash talking. Yao: I believe you have somesing in your eye. DA BALL!
This is a good thing. Yao is much more a student of the game and fundamentally sound than any of the other young guys. The greybeards (JJ, Oak, MJ) have a lot to offer due to their experience, too, but Yao will be around much longer and should be directing things.
Did any of you guys see Yao kinda pushed Mo to move forward (because Mo was not moving at the right time) on one of the inbound plays off of a timeout? That's a slight change I noticed that's a good sign for us also..
Yao's attitude starting the game was really something to behold. He seemed to wear out at the end of the game though. Now that his attitude is fixed, we gotta work on the stamina! You could tell late in the game the team was trying to feed him and he was trying to take over, but he ran out of gas. If we hadn't played in OT against Portland, Bosh would have been broken in two late in the 4th and in OT.
Does anybody know what Yao said the other day that resulted in Jonathan Feigen's column from the Chronicle? It was called "Yao 's presence felt and heard in win" and it said that they couldn't publish what it was he said. I'm really curious. I saw him getting really aggressive, and I've heard him give out the occasional war cry, but I've never seen or heard him talk any real trash. Maybe this is the real reason Charles Oakley is in town. Anyway, if anyone could tell me I would very much appreciate it. Thanks
I think the reason is because Yao used to be so worried about Shaq that it occupied his mind all the time. Now that Oakley is on hand Yao doesn't have to worry about Shaq, so he feels emboldened.
That quote reminds me, when will Yao slam down a thunderous dunk on shaq and say the typical yet still funny line of arnie's" You are mine NOW! You belong to ME!"
