No flame here, but I see Yao Ming at his very best becoming another Rick Smits. He doesn't play with enough fire from within, and also doesn't seem to understand that HE needs to take games over. It is what it is.
it not like yao is playing aganist the most dominate center in the leauge right now; wait a minute.............
I am not talking specifically about his stats. It is more his effort level and the difficulty he has understanding where the ball is.
Right now Yao has lost all sense of balance and court awareness. Hopefully he can work on this this summer but he has definitely declined throughout the season. GO HOME YAO. make sense of what has happened to you and the team and we'll see you next year much improved. climb that mountain grasshopper. Don't come down from the shaoline temple until you're ready. OKAY...VERY CHEESY
FWIW, Yao doesn't even guard Shaq most of the time, and though Shaq does guard Yao, he's a good but not great defender. Therefore, the "well he's going against shaq so his below average play is to be expected" excuse doesn't hold much water when he can't get a shot off over Karl Malone. There's something wrong with him, whether its physical or mental, I don't know, but this ain't the same Yao that dominated the Lakers back in February. It sucks because we need him.
Yao has now played Shaq 9 times this year. If you had a graph of his performaces in that time, it would scare even you. He obviously has lost both confidence and stamina... things that any NBA player needs all the time, let alone in the playoffs. He will, no doubt, learn from this... but we all kinda hoped for a little bit more, after he tantalized us at times during the season...
Sam Fisher, exactly. It appears that Yao at a given time has no idea where the basketball is. Whenever it ends up near him, he seems shocked and usually flails his arms around to no avail.
Well, I hope you're right. But HEART should make up for stamina. Remember that game in the Finals when Jordan had the flu and could barely stand? He had no stamina, no energy -- but his heart propelled him to a monster performance. Maybe Yao's tired, but I haven't seen him using his heart to get past the fatigue. And I don't know if you can learn "heart" ...
If heart makes up for stamina, then confidence is the BLOOD that serves the heart. Confidence allows you to ignore what has transpired for the past game, week, month, 3 months... and to always believe you're better than everybody. Yao doesn't have that anymore, and not having any confidence will sap all your heart, intellegence, poise... everything.
owned. eat up, buy that Jordan Jump strength video, and grow some balls this summer Yao! shopping list: PF
Yao is ending this year similiarly to the way he ended last year... and he obviously made strides to improve. Maybe it will be a trend... lets hope so.
On the other hand... if Yao improves as much next year as he did this year... he'll be the greatest player in NBA history next year. I don't expect that. but this post is r****ded.
Oh please, you are pathetic. "Im not bashing Yao, BUT... dot dot dot..." You ARE bashing Yao. Take out your insecurities elsewhere. Shaq is a monster. He is a franchise piece of real estate and with your common flavor of the minute thinking, we'd trade him for a double ply sharman. Are my eyes dialated?????
Yao got intimidated by worrying about fouls. He needs to learn to play hard and take his fouls when it is appropriate. He still has not learned that the AGGRESSOR gets all the calls. Yao is very soft, and needs to toughen up or become a 2nd option. DD
Well, I don't think he helped out his case much tonight. Any flames of Yao should be accepted, sometimes things like that just need to be said.
If that is the case, it is very similar to basing your baseball team around Jeff Bagwell. You do not "develop" fire for the game in clutch situations. Either it is there (just look at Cat), or it's not.
