Interesting post. Yao is an average basketball player...with tremendous height. While his vision is court wide and shooting touch smooth; he is slow on his feet and his handles are sub-par. Yao is a pass first team guy in an NBA hungry for I ME MYSELF egos. This year Yao will bear the brunt of attention - both positive or negative based on the Rockets progress. Because the team has been retooled around him.......BUT HE NEVER ASKED TO BE THE CAPTAIN or the LEADER in that sense. GUys quit looking for Yao to be leader like Jordan, shouting screaming and compelling team mates through that stare. For the guys who have been Rockets fans for over 10 years....the last three vocal leaders were Barkely, Pippen and Stevie...and you know what happened to each. Your last TRUE leader...who led the teamon the court, from the front was hakeem....dont forget that fella. He was probably the softest speaker on that team (that is if you could cut through the accent)..and yet he was the leader. Yao is great...because he has his head firmly rooted on his shoulders......that creates a likeability........as some poster mentioned.....a player, a model, parents would be proud to associate their kids with. For NBA he is probably getting atleast 50 MIllion new fans in China; another million more American Chinese into mainstream Basketball spectatorship. Is it becasue he is CHinese - no becasue he is not the first, nor the second. Name one player ever in the history of the sport who created new fans for a professional sport on his own. The commercial application of that charm is being paid back to him. Remember at the end its a question of NBA being a sport..or professional sports or a profession. IS Yao unique becuase he is a TRUE center with offensive skills. OR he a skilled tall center....or a foreign born center ..all that could be said of Rik Smits or Georghe Museran..........but they were never able to get new spectators either in the stadium or televiewership in the scale that Yao has created. For Yao to continue to get the acclaim he will hva eot get his results better - both at individual and team level.....DO you expect him to be a rodman, dampier or even duncan on boards..I doubt.......keep dreaming or cursing depending on which sie of the equation you are..... Hoping Yao will ever be a LEADER in the classical American way.....might remain a pipedream (Hint hint...was it a leader who got the rings in Lakerland last 3 times.....or a team.....)
The "hate" that Yao receives is mostly due to the fact that Yao's accomplishments have not yet met up with the attention he receives. Same thing with Lebron. Maybe you don't notice because you're more focused on the what people are saying about Yao, but Lebron still gets people that don't want him to succeed because he gets too much hype too. Also, Yao sometimes gets a free pass on this board, whereas Steve always seems to get hammered. Steve had more years to prove himself, but it still rubs some people the wrong way. Where people stand on Yao's improvement is your basic bell-curve model. You have small extremes that think he will never succeed, and extremes on the other side that think he can do no wrong. When those two factions get together, sparks will fly. And sometimes when those extremes get really flamatory, they bring in the people in the middle (as Yetti and Juugie have shown that they can do in the past). One last note. It seems to me that some of Yao's harshest critics are Chinese people with their own self-esteem issues who are projecting a lot of their ego onto Yao. And when Yao doesn't live up to their exacting standards, it feels like a blow against themselves and they lash out at Yao. Just wait until Yao starts bringing home titles, some of those guys will become Yao's biggest jock-huggers.
I haven't seen one single aritcle saying that Lebron will be a bust, before or after the draft. On the contrary, announcers from ESPN, TNT, even writers from the Houston Chronicle has been saying Yao is a bust from the moment he been drafted. So I think there is a big difference between the hype of Lebron and the hype of Yao.
Hmm... I dunno about that. First, I'll come out and say that I'm Chinese. I think what you said is a load of crap, but I can't speak for everyone. Unless you have statistics, and are not just trying to perform armchair psychology on the board, best to leave such generalizations alone. They only stir bad feelings for those under said generalization.
If Yao can stay health for next five years, he will become more aggressiveness, and self-confidence. But a few haters may want to see Yao go to different direction.
If anyone hates Yao Ming, it's for the way he plays (or doesn't play) sometimes. I doubt too many people really hate Yao himself. I think the issue most people have with Yao is that given his size, he plays too passive. Shots we expect him to make or at least take, don't get made or taken. He was a #1 pick - with that comes all kinds of opinionated "under the microscope" views. Look at Kwame Brown - he's constantly getting raked up an down as a bust. Had Yao been a 2nd rounder, not much would be expected of him. Heck, had he been a #16 pick or something, I doubt there'd be this much discussion. The fact of the matter is that he's a #1 pick and people expect more. As for T-Mac, people have seen T-Mac take over games. In the pre-season he was on cruise control trying to work within the offense. He led the NBA in scoring back-to-back - these are things he's done. Yao has yet to do any of this. He took over maybe 3-5 games as a Rocket TOPS. There are games where he completely disappears or is fatigued. People expect more from Yao now that they know he's not a flop. Maybe they're expecting too much. Who knows. But with his tools, he should be able to take control of a game more than he has to-date and that's what gets people mad (not necessarily "hate"). My opinion is that he can get better, but if you're expecting another Shaq or Jordan in terms of being able to take over a game - the wait may be long, if ever. Hopefully I'm proven wrong, but I won't be too disappointed. I don't expect him to be the caliber of player as a Shaq or Jordan, but I do expect him to become much better and a dominant player. He's not quite there yet.
Yao haters may be less than 10% but their dissent on the forum accounts for 70% of the posts, especially after a bad game. You don't need to be large number-wise to be heard.
whatever, I drafted his ass in my fantasy league... before J. Oneil.. I love watching the man play.... what's amazing about his stats is... he's not trying to get those numbers.....so if good things happen great.....but I think in his head..he doesn't see matchups as "i gotta do this.. or do that" I think he plays the sport and however the defense acts, he reacts...... you're right.. not much Me first, and then... but rather... me, your actions... then my response.
People hate Yao because he is getting all this attention when he only posts up mediocre numbers against mediocre centers in the league. He has all this potential to do better but he doesnt. Why lay it up when you can freaking dunk ittt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm the second chinese (twinkY) person to say this, I love YM. I dont understand why you would say we dislike/hate YM. The only thing I dislike is his diplomatic responses to questions.
You're an idiot. I do not know much about T-mac but Steve had to overcome the death of a parent and an environment of drugs, poverty and despair. Through all that, he has become a successful NBA player as well as a college graduate. What flaws have you seen in Steve's character, demeanor or sense of loyalty?
It IS armchair psychology. And if somebody fits the profile then they fit the profile. I didn't say that all Chinese fans are like this. And I didn't say that all "haters" are like this. I just said that "It seems to me that some of Yao's harshest critics are Chinese people with their own self-esteem issues..." I don't have statistics, but after spending a lot of time at the Yao-ming-mania board which is made up of at least 90% Chinese people, I think there is some truth to what I said.
I think you pretty much nailed everything. Most people don't hate Yao, they are just a little disappointed, a little frustrated. They don't understand why Yao can't play like the way he does for NT all the time. We saw the passion, the intensity came out of Yao during the Olympic games. That was a player like all great ones who couldn't accept loss. He even openly criticised his teammate for lack of effort during the interview. And yet when he plays in NBA, people see the other side of Yao more often. A humble, laid-back type of guy sometimes plays passively or even timid. People are just frustrated with his progress and become harsh, me included. The honeymoon is about over, same with Lebron. If Cavs still can't make the playoff in the near future, you bet reporters and fans will start to slap him also.
Both Charley Rosen and Bill Simmons from ESPN wrote pieces dogging Lebron before he played his first game. And I'm sure there were other columnists around the country that wrote the same. If there was a LebronJamesMania site that tracked this kind of stuff, I'm sure they would have a pretty big lineup of doubters. That kind of stuff mostly stopped after Lebron dropped a near triple double in his rookie premiere. But I still hear posters on a number of different message boards (including clutchfans) that want to see him fail because of the attention he's gotten . It's just the nature of the beast. Hype can get people excited about something, and it can also really turn other people off.
Yao Ming doesn't care about accolades. He just plays the game. It's the media's job to EXAGGERATE and HYPE. But lets not blame Yao for this. Yao just improves at his own pace. If the media gets ahead of themselves ("The next Hakeem" or "The next Walton" or "The next Shaq!"), then blame them. Not Yao. Maybe our "own" expectations are too fast for Yao to live up to? Ya think? As far as his progression? I think he's done quite nicely after two years (each year improving his stats).
well i'm chinese and i like Yao alot. But I do feel dispointed at him sometimes. times like when he opted for a layup instead of just dunking the freaking ball, times like when he missed the rebound he could have got, times like I felt he should have taken over the game upon himself but he didn't. But I don't blame him because I believe he tried. Not like some true Yao haters who wish him to fail and will hate him even more if he succeeds. I only feel dispointed sometimes cuz I wish him to get better. But there are also things some ppl often overlooked and there are situations that you have to be in to know what its really like. I came to canada about the same age as when Yao came in the league, now i have been here for about 5 years but as you can read my english still sucks donkeys ass. It's not that I am not trying or not willing to. And thats why I can feel for Yao somehow. I believe Yao would like to dunk the ball everytime, anytime. I believe he would like to get a 30/20 night in and night out. he would like to dominate. But right now he couldn't and you have to be in his shoes to understand that. and if you are a true Yao hater i don't think i can convince you, just wanna rant.
