For the record: Hakeem had finesse moves with physical play. Yao is a soft player and is not aggressive. However, dishing flagrant fouls is not going to solve the problem.
Tim Duncan doesn't look to dunk the ball every time he gets it. Kevin Garnett's game mostly consists of baseline jumpers. Hell, if you get right down to it...despite his plethora of post-moves, one of Hakeem's most reliable scoring options was his fadeaway. Doesn't Yao try to contest every shot that comes his way? Every time he gets the ball, doesn't he look for his own shot first? Does he shy away from contact? Seriously, some of you think that aggressiveness means jumping out of the stadium and dunking the ball every time you get it. That's just not his game. Yao's not soft, nor does he lack aggressiveness. The two things that limit him are his assertiveness to his own teammates...in that he doesn't demand the ball. The other thing is his physical stature. No amount of aggressiveness will help him grow bigger hands, become quicker, or jump higher.
Read carefully. I said that he probably does get a lot more Chinese votes, regardless of the paper vote issue, has anyone ever disputed that? And as for the paper votes, interesting that ballots are also in movie theaters and malls, probably more votes cast there than arenas. You must show the breakdown of electronic votes before you make any final determinations about who recieves more American votes; i.e. I don't think that population that votes on paper is the indicative of the population that votes online.
He definitely plays soft for his size, just a natural outcome of his demeanour. He has improved over the years but still has a way to go. On a 1-10 scale where would you put Yao? Dikembe? Sura? Oakley? And that's not the main reason why he doesn't get more boards, but it is a factor.
I think Yao's first years he was soft. He isn't a tough-minded aggressive player with a physical tough style of play that he dictates now, but... He is no longer soft. He fights more for position, looks to take the ball to the basket most of the time when he gets it in the post, and is willing to through players to get there. I think he's doing it and just now becoming comfortable doing it. I think he misses some shots now that he won't miss later as he adapts to his new playing style. I have noticed a difference in what Yao is doing this year, and what he has done in years past. I am very pleased by it.
I would assume when you said American votes, they don't include those from Chinese-Americans, or even Asian-Americans. Otherwise, you shouldn't have missed the information over and over again, on TV, on radio, on newspaper, and on various bbs. After Shaq's claim that Yao won because of billions of votes from China, he was corrected that he received more online votes (which means both domestically and internationally including China), but Yao received more paper votes (which were ALL from United States of America). What kind of breakdown you want? If my assumption is correct, I don't understand why you want to exclude votes from Chinese-Americans or Asian-Americans, they are not allowed to vote or their votes don't count? I just can't believe on a Rockets board, people complain EVERY SINGLE frigging year, that Yao, a 7'6, 19-9, arguably top 3 or even just top 5 center in NBA, with huge popularity, should or should not start a meaningless ALL-STAR game, esepcially it's held in Houston this year. Talking about LOVE for YOUR team, supposedly.
I often hear the argument that Yao is as good as he's ever going to get right now. I have to disagree. Someone here has a sig that compares Yao's stats his 1st 4 years to KG's and it's pretty interesting. Not saying he's going to be the next KG, I'm just saying that he can still get better (and probably will). Look at his point stats: 02-03 13.5 ppg 03-04 17.5 ppg 04-05 18.3 ppg 05-06 18.9 ppg As far as rebounding stats, I think that's kind of a misnomer. He's about as athletic as someone who is 7'6 CAN be. Plus, in this era of 3-pointers galore, there are more long rebounds than ever before which doesn't lend itself to a 7'6 center grabbing 20 a game like it used to. The guy is getting better every year. He's playing more aggressive this year than I've ever seen him. If he could start getting a TINY bit of respect from the refs, he would be an elite player in this league. Still not sure why he doesn't get it.
With the way Yao is refereed, playing physical like those that call Yao soft is probably not a good idea. Perfect example was in the Warrior game where he just turned and bumped the defender guarding him and got called for the foul. Until he gets some respect from the refs, I would prefer that he plays less aggressive to keep him out of foul trouble and in the game.
relevancy? If Yao wins the paper vote, then I don't understand the point in breaking down the online voting demographics. It's a moot point. Probably? Dude, you are perpetuating a myth based on a very weak assumption. If Yao wins the paper vote, breaking down the online vote is an exercise in futuility. It proves nothing.
Shaq actually beat Yao in the online vote Unless those theaters and malls you speak of are in China, it's still the same as Arena votes. And Chinese people are more critical of Yao than anyone else. I dont expect you to know that, so I won't keep on harping on it, but trust me, more Chinese people voted for Shaq than Yao when he was in the west, because we knew he's better
In the past Yao did get stripped a lot, but having now watched a crapload of PF's come through the system next to him, and watching other big men throughout the league, Yao really isn't stripped that much more than anyone else. He certainly is better than Dikembe, Howard and Swift, all 3 of whom have a tendency to lose the ball for who knows what reason. There are players better then Yao, for sure - Shaq, Duncan, Garnett - and if Yao wants to aspire to be better, he can improve, specifically with NEVER bringing the ball down on rebounds around the basket, but overall he has definitely improved in this area significantly. Considering how automatic Yao is really close to the basket, I wish JVG would run less direct post up's of Yao and more plays where there is misdirection and he just slips into the lane real quick.
I remember JVG did that with Yao in his first year here, and we were all excited at how they worked on getting Yao the ball while he was moving, rather than posting him up and letting the defense collapse on him.
That's just too funny. WTH are you talking about? Could you try to make any more ridiculous assumptions about what I stated, because really I don't think that it's possible. I said Chinese meaning Chinese, because that's what the original post was. Do you have some problem with Chinese Americans or Asian Americans? I don't get it. As for the breakdown, the online vote does not distinguished between Chinese (yeas, people who live in CHINA) and Americans, so the original claim that more Chinese vote for Yao cannot be proven or disproven BUT STILL SEEMS LOGICAL, DOES IT NOT? DID YOU READ WHERE I MADE SUCH A STATEMENT? PLEASE QUOTE WHERE I SAID ANYTHING OF THE SORT. After all of these years on this board, I am still amazed that some can spebd so much time here yet apparently lack reading comprehension, make ridiculous assumptions, and put words in other people's mouths.
As stated before, Yao got the majority of his votes from paper ballots, i.e. votes from here in the states. Soft, no...not aggressive enough, no. He is a vicitm of being large, and floppers taking advantage of that. he has to take punishment, and can't dish it out without an o-foul. The frustation is building up, hell he slammed the ball and got a T last night. I really don't know what people are expecting out of him...he's playing solid basketball, with SOME errors, but c'mon. He's doing a great job now. It's like he's supposed to be a 30/15 guy or something, but the way people think he's underachieving... T-Mac *is* the man on the team, and Yao is his sidekick...a damn good one. With all these replies and stuff...Yao Bashing will always happen, hell, people still bash Kobe, T-Mac, etc. There will always be haters of the bests at what they do. Chris Rock said it best, no one hates on the losers, only the winners...did anyone hate on the Montreal Expos? No.
People pointed to you that Yao had more paper votes than Shaq, while Shaq got more online votes than Yao. Paper votes can ONLY be submitted in America and Canada, which means Yao got MORE American votes than Shaq did. Chinese live in CHINA can only submit online votes, and they can NOT affect the AMERICAN votes Yao got, which were MORE than Shaq did. Whether Yao get more Chinese votes or not is IRRELEVANT to the fact that Yao won on paper ballots, unless those Chinese votes you mentioned including Chinese-Americans votes. Do you agree? Every report told you so, and every poster told you so, that Yao got more paper votes. And you are still arguing that was because of Chinese votes. What conclusion would YOU draw from that? Do you still think I put words in people's mouths? You demanded breakdown of online votes, and paper votes from arenas and movie theatres. I don't even know what's that for, and why it's relevant to any discussion we had here.
It only goes to the small question of whether Yao got more Chinese votes, which I really don't care, about but it addresses what the 'mass' of ESPN bbsers' apparently claim. Whatever. Data will never be released, but I don't see how someone could argue that a lot more Chinese would not vote for their hometown sports hero. Even on those board, there are those who argue for NOT voting for the worthy Dunan or KG so our homeboy can start. Only that more Chinese may be voting for Yao. Agreed, nothing else, but I made no other claim.
Shaq came in second probably because he does get a lot of African votes. United States supports Israel probably because most Jews do also.
NO, IT DOES NOT PROVE THAT. You are making an assumption (again), that may be untrue. To defend such a hypothesis, the populations need to be similar. There is nothing to indicate that paper voters in arenas, malls and theaters are remotely similar to online voters. E.g., what if women comprise 50% of the arena/theater/mall vote and many prefer Yao's polite demeanour (when guys who aren't even playing this year are voted in, this is not a stretch), and say 90% of the onliners are men? Therefore, you could have a situation where: yao shaq US paper 250 125 US online 400 1100 Ch online 800 200 1450 1425 In this hypothetical example, more Chinese voted for Yao and made a material difference.
