I no longer give a crap where he goes. I just want to see the Rockets get good value for him. He can go to Atlanta for all I care.
I think if we give Yao a contract with 10M a year, it is reasonable. But we have to give him 15M. We have to overpay him so we have chance to get max value back. He is on his rookie contract right now, if we trade him, of course I don't think it will ever happen, you only get another 6M player back.
For that strategy to work, we should at least have some great catch-and-shoot shooters. But at that time everyone was shooting like crap.
The reason why Yao is soft is because of the way he grew up. I can almost guarantee you that Yao probably never got into a fist fight. He might have pushed others and got into their face but never seriously had a fist fight. Chinese fokes in general are just soft, especially when you compare it to the players in the NBA. Without basketball, as the center piece of their lives, most of those guys in the NBA are nothing but "thugs." I like Yao and I believe he's got potential in him. The first thing he needs to work on is stay focused and learn to stay out of foul trouble regardless of how the refs call it. Go Rockets!
What about Bruce Lee and the 1 inch punch. Imagine Yao with the 1 inch drop step. That would be deadly. Was Bruce Lee soft?
Like I said before, Yao and the Rockets' worst nightmare is to have a Chinese gangster baller to defect and come to the United States and go into the draft. Yao's popularity would plummet faster than Krispy Kreme stock after the low carb craze took hold. There's no way every baller in China is as soft as Yao. There's a freaking billion people over there. Someone has gotta be a hardcore baller.
Man...Bruce Lee would make a good PG. His passes would be lightning quick, and the opposing players would find out they have broken bones after the game is over.
Dont generalize it too much about something you know a little. China has many vicious gangsters doing things you can't imagine. It's just Yao's own personality.
Yao is a chicken and a coward becuase he is who he is. Not because he is Chinese. Our country men back in the mainland, many work in the most dangerous industries one can imagine. take for instance our coal miners where in every month there are deaths and fatalities, and in some months 100s of miners get killed by cave ins or poison gas. But they do what they do to make a living iregardless of dangers involved. All Yao is being asked to do is play some ball as a bloody "Man" for 82 games per year. Not too much to ask for is it? Compared to the grit, determination and sacrifice of his peers back home, Yao is a freakin Coward because of himself not to do where he comes from.
The higher the expectation, the deeper the disappointment. That's what I feel. We probably set the bar too high for Yao. He's probably going to be a very good role player but may never going to be a greater superstar as we wanted him to be. You may never see the aggressiveness and consistency you wanted and you may complain about his softness but on the other hand, you'll have a guy with good attitude, committment and a guy free of off-court issues. He's never going to be a bust like Vin or Eddie or a trouble maker but I'm really unsure now if he'll ever become a Tim Duncan-level player. You may argue about his young age and all but to my knowledge, Chinese athletes seem to peak early around mid-20s and I don't know how much more yao can improve really.
I'm chinese man... I lived there EVERY summer til I was in college... I think I would know? I played ball down there, and even the college players (my cousin's on a university team) aren't that tough. BTW Charvo, there's some good street ballers in China, but the problem is they aren't nearly as good as people like Hot Sauce and other street ballers in the US. And you have to take into account that people are generally shorter there. Most of the people with good handles are small and aren't tough like AI. Also, those guys are just not as athletic when they are a bit taller. Look at Liu Wei, the kid ain't got game on the NBA level and he's like China's best ball handling guard.
