SportingNews: A center but not a centerpiece

huh? we have some sportswriters continue to bash our man and some that continue to adore him? so what else is new...

in other news, i think we have the top ten for a lot of racial categories.

Tmac-top ten african american player
Sura-barry-top ten white american
Deke-top ten african player (dang is luol deng getting good, though)
Yao- top ten Chinese player, but IMO, while Shaq-fu is still in the league, he'll still be the #2 Asian player.

 

http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=1709044#post1709044

Search is good. At the very least there's conflicting information on this topic. I say this whole things is up in the air with Yao leaning towards wanting to use the summer to train. He said as much when mentioning how much Amare improved over the offseason. We'll see what happens.

 

Thats exactly what I've been trying to say this whole time. But no one listens to me.

 

It is fine with me that somebody criticizes Yao or predicts him not to be great or dominant.

But I feel that many writer only watch scoreboards instead of mathces. If you don't do your homework, don't make up a 3000 word article. There are cliches there. There are wrong judgments there, nothing else left.

 

Even by that,

Yao's averaging what, 20/10 in the past 8 games. He is averaging 18.5/8.5 for the season in 30 mpg. Did Greg Anthony call Yao a 18/9 at best for his career two years ago. I dont think these people even check the scoreboard. They just copy each other.

 

FWIW, I'm reading Yao Ming's biography and in it he says he's committed to playing in the National Games for 2005 as part of the deal in coming to the NBA.

 

I've been critical of Yao this season.

But he's played well, particularly of late. To pretend his impact in this winning streak is the same of that as Dikembe is absolutely ridiculous. I'm guessing this guy hasn't watched more than 2 Rocket games all season.

 

It's nice to see lots of Rockets fans who were critical on Yao this season came up to defend him on the recent waves of bashes against him.

To bash Yao who has been playing as good as any center in the league (Shaq included) in the recent win streak is just plain stupid and ridiculous.

 

There is some truth, but not to the extent this a-hole is saying...I agree T-Mac is our first option, as it should be, but to open that, you have to have chemistry and a post player that creates like Yao does...Definitely doing it more now than in the early part of the season...

 

I'm ok with the beginning of the article, but the second half has been said over and over and over.

Yao will get better and then these writers won't have enough good things to say. All they do is state the obvious, but I really don't agree with Z being better. Z is a good center and talented, but Yao is young, stron, smart and can adapt to change. Z is not going to get any better.

 

The analysts can argue all they want that Z is better than Yao.

However, the reality is that every team in the league is gonna take a center who averages more points, more boards, and shoots 55% from the floor than another more skilled center who averages less points, boards and shoots 47% from the floor (with more tricks under the basket).

Did I ever mention that Yao is 5 years younger than Z man?

Case closed.

 

^^Opens up the case for a second. And Yao doesn't have a history of foot problems. Case Closed forever.

 

Ok, that's as idiotic as Stan McNeal's statement. Do you know how offense works? Is the first pass out of the post the best shot available? No. Why? Because the defense rotates quickly to guard the first shot...so what next. Oh...swing it around with another unselfish pass to the next man until there is a high percentage shot with no opponent nearby. If you watch the games you wouldn't need "assist to prove it". Yao, along with all our other players, contribute to the great team game and chemistry we are enjoying right now.

The media loves putting "I" in team.

 

Not to stray off topic but does Yao really have to report back to China this summer and play with a bunch of no talent scrubs in some stupid "national games"??

I was hoping he'd be able to stay in the US and work with Rockets trainers, etc etc all summer so he could make a bigger impact next year.

If he has to go back to play in what's worse than the NBDL then it'll really tire him out and set back his progress further. That would really suck.

 

Similar situation appears on some of the NBA bbs lately. Fans of the other teams are really taking it out on Yao and keep saying how he has performed below the expectations. On one of the more popular bbs, a few idiots talked like Yao is the worse rebounder in the world. Then someone came out to defend Yao. He pointed out that Yao is currently ranked 22nd in total rebounds/game by playing only 31 mins per game and challenged the haters how they could say Yao is such a poor rebounder. None of the haters could respond to it.

 

That most voted allstar in NBA history isnt excatly a good thing for Yao. A lot of people get jealousy. I guess Yao can only answer it on the court. I hope somebody can pass words to Yao, get him motivated.

 

I wrote to Stan McNeal, titling my e-mail, "Yao (and read this before deleting)". Here is his reply. For the hell of it, I left my real name in there. I must admit, while I was not scathing to him, I was not entirely polite, but he was very professional (and didn't even have to respond in the first place).
---------------------------
Michael,

Thanks for writing. You make good points. You probably are right that any team
would be interested in trading for Yao, but that's mostly because there are so
few legitimate centers out there. Being a legitimate center and a dominant
center are two different things and I believe Yao, the Rockets, the NBA and
Yao's fans are expecting him to be more dominant than legitimate.

I also realize that it may seem unfair to toss kryptonite at Yao. On the other
hand, many NBA fans figured he would be a dominant player by now, and I felt it
would be interesting to explain why he hasn't become one yet.

Thanks again for your interest in the Sporting News.

Stan McNeal