http://www.nba.com/athens2004/blog.html (article towards the bottom) Yao sounds off Moments after fouling out of China's opening Olympic game, an angry Yao Ming dropped himself into a chair on the end of the Chinese bench and slammed a towel down to the floor in disgust. Then, after the game ended for China in an 83-58 blowout loss, Yao walked over to the "mixed zone" (i.e., a cordoned-off hallway in the arena) to meet with the media. A group of Chinese reporters quickly surrounded him and peppered him with questions. Yao grew more and more agitated as the queries continued. He responded to question after question in an increasingly stern voice before walking abruptly away from the group. Welcome to international play, where even stoic players such as Yao find it in themselves to show a little emotion. Evidently, representing one's country will do that to a player. After Yao left the mixed zone, one of the Chinese journalists paraphrased his answers. "He was very angry, very disappointed with his team," she said. "He thought that the team might be better by now, but they were making the same mistakes they were making at the World Championships in 2002. He also said that now that he was an older player, he needs to make sure the younger players step up. He said 'the team has changed its skin, but the heart is no different.'" Yao had reason to be frustrated. He had just 12 points (on 4-of-11 shooting) and eight rebounds for the game, while his team hoisted a total of 26 3-pointers and often left their star big man uninvolved on offense. But the thoughtful and intelligent Houston center put his anger away moments later. By the time Yao arrived for his official post-game press conference, he was calm once more. "There are no regrets or pity," Yao said about the loss. "It's our fault. We gave up at the end, but we had our opportunities." As for China coach Del Harris, his only regret was that he hasn't gotten Yao to be more assertive, especially on offense. "I thought Yao was too much of a team player today," Harris said after the game. "He gave up the ball more than I would have liked. He'll have to be a little more aggressive in the rest of the tournament." While the Mavericks assistant can certainly shoulder some of the blame for not getting his team to go through Yao more often, Harris faces an uphill battle in coaching the Chinese national team. He's currently without his top assistant (who is sick) and is basically working as a one-man coaching staff that doesn't even speak his team's language. "I do film editing, I do scouting, I do the coaching," said Harris. "Staffing has been a problem." Still, if there's one good thing China can take from the loss, it's that they're likely to get a passionate and fired-up Yao in the next game. When asked by a Chinese journalist if showing so much anger with his team was productive, Yao quoted a famous Chinese writer. "If you don't break out of silence, you're destined to die in silence." Tao of Yao, indeed.
Good article. Typically respond from Yao and any other players after a tough lost and people pepper you with questions. Same incident with Stevie.
Hell of a quote there. While I like Yao showing emotion, Dell Harris hit upon one of the biggest problems Yao had during the season - taking over and being at least a bit selfish. I hope he breaks out of that funk this season.
Let's see him start using that anger on the court rather than for the media. If anything, I think he wants to prove something next game, so it's definitly one I'm going to watch. We've seen what he can do when he gets angry, at least Theo Ratliff knows. I remember that Hawks game were he was getting frustrated and finally took his anger out on Ratliff. Basicly through him around in the paint and ended it with a huge facial and a roar followed by a technical. Houston fans aren't asking for much, but it would be nice to see him just get nasty once and a while.
well they play against New Zealand. I may be wrong but its either them or Australia that have the tallest player like 6' 8. (i know Angola does too, but i'm talking about one of these 2)
lol he gets rowdy when he faces Ratliff. IN his first season yeah lol, he got his first tech when he dunked on theo and yelled at him; he did the same thing against the blazers in OT after he got blocked by Ratliff in consecutive times when he tried to stuff him in the 3rd quarter. yeah i watched the end of the clip where he was talking to this other chinese official, and he made some hand signals as if he was talking about cuts to the basket. I'm no playbook expert, but that's what it looked like to me. If whoever watched/taped the game could maybe try to piece together something, that would be greatly appreciated. eg, did they get burned on defense with the cuts and give and gos and stuff?
China plays New Zealand next. NZ has one 7 footer plus former Heat and Raptors center, Sean Marks (6'10"). Australia is in the other group but has plenty of players over 6'8".
Actually FYI, the quote is a cliche every school kid in China picks up in it's high school Chinese textbook.
If Yao dosent dominate a scrub like Marks, he really needs to have a good long hard look at himself in the Mirror. you can only blame others so much...
If it's straight up one on one, Yao could take anybody in the post including Shaq. Yao needs to improve his conditioning definitely. Like Doug Collins said, Yao learned how to beat double team now. He still has a long way to go though. It is frustrating to see he bend over his knees just 5 minutes into the game. Endurance is supposed to be easy to improve.
I think he is referring the next game against New Zeland, which has a center named Marks just signed by spurs two months ago.
Well, I watched the game between China and Spain this morning and Yao just plainly sucked (got dominated by Goasol). I have no idea why he's so angry toward his Chinese teammates because he really didn't play much better than they did.
Maybe he needs to do More cardio ( jogging, bike riding, Swiming?. and less heavy Wheights. change his diet ? . less Carbs and fat?... more fish and les red meat?. i dont know. thats something the Rockets need to sortout. I lost Over 60 pounds in less then 7 months by changing my diet and doing more Cardio and less heavy wheight. hence i was alot more fitter. i regulary go jogging now. i only wheigh now 170 pounds. i think This type of program can help Yao immensly.
Sound like you are blazing now. What kind of diet are you on. It's hard to follow a healthy diet. 7 mont 60 pounds is impressive.
I did'nt See the Game at all. but by all accounts he sucked bad. i dont think Yao should be Immiune from critisim?.
We have to understand that the Rox trainers know what they are doing for Yao. But people are forgetting Yao is a giant and is not built like some normal 6 footer or some 7 footer. That's a pretty big body for the heart to pump the blood throughout. It's going to take time for his body to adjust if fatigue is the true reason. It not like he isn't trying to improve. It's so much how his body could take. I'm not making excuses for him since it almost common for majority big people.
It was Really Hard at first. but once you see Results, it becomes alot easy to bear. you can still eat bad things like Red meat, but regulary. instead i have boiled carrot or peas instead of fries. i eat lean chicken or fish ( not fried) for dinner. for l unch i just have a couple of healthy snacks. i just dont over do it anymore. you only got One body, so you might as well look after it.
