Haha. It can't possibly be that big for Yi to stuff it thru the hoop. It is actually a ball smaller than bball but all solid inside and hence pretty heavy.
A little bit more of the article describing the China/Croatia game: Yi flew in the air, threw down a thunderous dunk. Far away on the bench Yao was waving his arm and said, "Great play, Yi!" Again Yi flew in the air, stretched his long arm like a flash of lightning, in mid-air swatted the opponent's jumpshot away. This time Yao was just behind him, overjoyed, he cried, "Great play, Yi!" When Yi took off in mid-air the third time, it was a Li Nan fast break pass for him that sailed almost to the top of the backboard, and Yi's elbow was already high above the rim. It looked to be a great alley-oop play, but was yanked down by a defender (for a foul). This time, everyone including Yao dropped their jaws for oohs and aahs.
Yao's a nice guy but let's face it, he doesn't really understand enough about the NBA to realize what a special player he can become. While his stamina is suspect and his athleticism is subpar for the NBA, Yao might possibly be the most skilled player over the height of 7 ft tall (I said possibly so don't jump on my back about such and such player being more skilled). And at 7'6" with his base and his skills he should be able to dominate in a way that no athletic 6'11" pf can. In the past 8 years we have seen literally a dozen athletic Kevin Garnett wannabees but there hasn't ever been a 7'6" 300+ lbs behemoth with good vision, footwork, and a soft shooting touch. And in terms of Yi, I go back to Del Harris' opinion of him: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=78229&perpage=40&pagenumber=2 "Yi Jienlian ... can run, jump and shoot the open shot from 18 feet. He is an athlete along the lines of Tyson Chandler, Stromile Swift and Theo Ratliff but he is not exactly like any one of those players. Naturally, since he has not played any college or NBA basketball, he is not as polished as those players are at this moment, but he will be a good NBA player if he keeps working at it. " Yi can definitely be a great player, but according to Del let's hold off on any KG comparisons. He's still got a ways to go.
ty chandler's got great athleticism and shot blocking, what Yi adds to the mix is a consistent jump shot which one day may reach the arc. so he's be something of a hybrid between ty-chandler and dirk nowizki. obviously not as good a shooter as dirk, but perhaps more versatile than both.
Yes but as Yao has already found out, the NBA is a different game. Now if Yi averages big time blocks during the Olympics, then he'll really have something then, considering that he'll be up against more than a few NBA caliber players.
He cannot! Every offensive player who found that Yao is in front of him will run away like a chicken. It happened in NBA and it will happen in Olympic. Yao's just too big for anyone to handle.
Have to disagree! I really don't think humility and success can't co-exist. The Rockets once had a humble center before and he was then the best basketball player in the world.
Yi IS the next big thing from china. Too bad he's going to be drafted high I was hoping he would fall so the Rockets could pick him up so he could play along side YM.
... said Yao, inbetween games of Counter-Strike and Donkey Kong, Jr. Francis and Mobley are both gone. I think complaining about Yao's lack of aggression on the floor will be the new BBS hip thing to do in 2005.
basically yao just ensured that his boy gets picked up in the lottery....yao went #1 and there was so much mystery....we have no reason not to trust him, so yea, i think yao pretty much sealed the deal for this guy in a classy way......wrong thread but man i hope yao dusnt goto LA in 07 =/
The same center who slapped a rookie for not giving him his change? To be dominant, you have to think no one can stop you.
