The only group that I see not accepting Yao is the standard group of black players and fans who think you have to be black to play this game. Not all black players and black fans are this way. But there is a group of them that act this way. Back in Bird's day, they never accepted Bird, no matter what he did, and how many L's he put on them, because he was white and non-athletic. Corporations already embrace Yao. And most fans embrace Yao with the exception once again being a portion of black fans who want to live their life in a tunnel. He is embraced by whites, asians, and hispanics.
there's also the idiots that can't recognize talent. two weeks ago, a dude here in san antonio told me that yao would be out of the league in 3 years. said he was too soft and sucked. true story.
ONCE AND FOR ALL! Yao cannot be compared to Olajuwon, Ewing, Shaq, M. Malone, etc. or anyone else in the "GREATS" category for one simple reason. HIS SIZE! Yao's size puts him into a "freak" category. Manute Bol...Shaun Bradley...George Mureson (probably misspelled...but you know who I mean). These guys are NOT known as great athletes...display poor strength...have poor coordination/agility...stamina issues. Dream wasn't even 6'11...weighed 255. Shaq...7 foot or so...Heavy...350 probably. Ewing...what? Maybe seven foot...260? Let's compare him to Olajuwon let's say...when you add 7 inches or so in height...then add 50-60 lbs more you change EVERYTHING. The ability to control that body...agility...coordination, stamina, mechanical advantage, etc. Now...compare him to the "FREAKS"...He (Yao) is far and away the BEST to ever play the game (thus far) at that size...what is considered to be LARGER THAN NORMAL (even in the NBA). He is a better athlete...displays better coordination, better stamina (as those guys all have issues in that area)...He is better in fact in every area save shot blocking...and even there he ain't no slouch. AND...he is beginning to hold his own (most times...and at an increasing rate) against players who ARE better athletes...AND who are structurally superior to him. SOMETHING THAT FEW OF HIS "FREAK" COUNTERPARTS HAVE DONE. So...get smart...the body size thing makes a difference. Ask anyone who knows basketball.... We're not talking about a seven footer here folks...Yao sized guys are even fewer and further between than that. Seven footers are a dime a dozen...the Rockets have had a few over the last few years...none were as talented as Olajuwon, Shaq, Ewing...OR Yao. And I use the term "FREAK" only as a word...not an accusation or an identity label. I guess I could have just as easily used "NOVELTY"...but even then someone would have an issue with it. No disrespect intended...just identifying those who display "freaky size". Yao is damn good...and he is getting better. No Hall of Famer yet...but...who knows. Rejoice in the fact that he is improving and when he is on the floor the Rockets are better. Plenty of other teams would improve just by adding him.
Jopatmc, thank you for stating the truth. I think what a lot of people don't understand is that a lot of the reason why Yao gets so much love in the All-Star votes is the fact that White people love yao. I see it all the time, dad's and corporate white men who attend the rockets game (my dad is a big time bussiness man in the corporate world) love yao ming. They're not going to sit there in the media and argue for yao ming's case and that's why people don't see any resistance when all these dumba$$ nba analyst keep assuming that all of his votes are from China. Just think about it, who would respectable corporate white and even black men love more, a hard working gentle giant(Yao Ming) or a talk **** all day in your face (shaq). Every one of my dad's friend's talk great stuff about Yao and they love him solely b/c he works hard and not because of his race.
I agree with both of you guys, although I do think Yao has a lot of black fans too. For some reason, they are not as vocal as the black haters (pmy guess is because they think being a Yao fan makes them look bad in their communit). I go to a lot of games, and I see lots and lots of black fans wearing Yao jersey's.
The Spurs decided to force Amare to beat them, and he couldn't do it. Amare is a product of Nash, which was demonstrated both when Nash was out and Amare did jack and when Amare has been out the whole season, Boris Diaw stepped into his place without missing a beat, and the Suns are still atop their division. People were saying many of the same things about Joe Johnson that they said about Amare, and how is Atlanta doing this year? Johnson went from a max contract producer to an average SG, and was replaced without significant dropoff by retread Raja Bell. There is a reason that Nash is getting traction for back to back MVP awards.
Yao's career in the end will be better than Patrick Ewing, Bill Walton, and David Robinson, but nowhere near the Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, Olajuwon level. His height is a real deterrent to his quickness, foot speed, stamina, and lateral movement which will limit him throughout his career. If only he was 7'4 or smaller rather than the gargantuan size of 7'6, he would be a lot more effective and dominant on both ends of the floor than he is now. All these people who are expecting so much of Yao will be disappointed when they expect him to be the next Wilt or Shaq. He is rapidly improving every day and I'm glad to see him becoming more dominant. You could make a case that with all the damn rule changes that Yao has to face, he is already at the Ewing, Walton, and Robinson level. He would've put up similar numbers in that era of basketball. With this said, I don't see Yao averaging more than 23 points and 11 rebounds per game in this era of basketball. His detractors will say this is proof of him being a bust, but with all the rule changes caused by one man (Shaq), he is a dominant player already in this current era of basketball.
Don't underestimate just how great David Robinson was when healthy. Although Dream made him look like a fool in 95, Robinson was an amazing player until his injury (and TD) and put up amazing numbers (29.8P/10.7R/4.8A/3.31B/1.74S). Each of those numbers would be top 10 in their category except assists (top 30) if he played today. If Yao plays remotely close to the level that Robinson played at, I'd be happy. It's not a given that Yao will ever surpass his playing ability. Yao is playing great and is top 25 in scoring and top 15 in rebounds but he is not David Robinson and he is not Dream (who that same year put up 27.8P/10.8R/3.6A/3.36B/1.85S). Quite similar.
Pretty interesting remarks about Blacks not accepting Yao fully ( or atleast some). I would never have known this- thought that sports in general was color blind. Regarding Benchmarking yao with all the other greats 1/ It is blatantly unfair to compare Yao to anyone who had the advantage to soak in the American Basketball scene pre-NBA. 2/- Rule changes had a lot to do with high scoring. It was pretty routine to see scores of 120+ 3/ Yao never gets more than 20 shots ( FGA) consistently 4/ THis is first season we had a decent Point Guard. And Rafer is no Jason Kidd or Mike Bibby or Billups 5/Yao is finally not getting called for those Phantom fouls and is now getting fair treatment when others Hack him ( There i still are nights like the one with Denver the other night, where Camby was getting away with murder- almost!) 6/ Hakeem used to be a big defensive threat- because of his agility and shot blocking which was legendary. Yao' frame in the paint is equally daunting- what stats won't show is how many shots get altered by his mere presence. 7/ Now that we established that Yao can get 20 points consistently ( if you noticed he does not set as many picks for Mcgrady these days)- what are we debating, an extra 10 Points or so? Even if he get 3-4 more shots a game and gets another 4-5 Fouls called- he will be at 30 (or pretty close). Also Yao has range until 18 feet or so but under JVG he cannot make those shots. I would like that to change ( although I do agree with JVG on high percentage shots). To me it is about how many rings you got. If he gets 2 rings in my books he ranks pretty much with the great centers of NBA period. 8. Yao will be a cerebral student of the game- not a brute force that people want him to be.
Let's not kid ourselves. Yao has a long way to go before he can be considered an all-time great, and most likely he'll never get there.
I guess the above mentioned is the safe bet.... Personally, I would like to bet on Yao being able to keep his recent numbers up for a while.
a good example of blacks being unaccepting of a non-black is when chris anderson was in the dunk contest. multiple attempts at one dunk was not supposed to be taken into consideration in judging. but even the commentators were talking sht about him. needless to say when he finally completed the dunk it was a pretty low score. we go to nate robinson in this years contest. i didnt see that one but i heard he took multiple attempts at one dunk. it was not counted against him. i think chris anderson got sht on cause he's white. if he had been black and took that many attempts, i could not imagine it counting against him.
if yao could EVER guide rockets to 3 championships with him being the main dude, i'd consider him greater than hakeem. if he co-captians rockets to 3 championships, then i'd consider him as great as hakeem. i don't care about the nifty moves, quickness, or size. aren't kg and t-mac among the most talented players in the league? why can't they go deep into the playoffs? let us not use the "team sucks" excuse. these guys are franchise players who have their teams built around them. so i think it's more on leadership and the ability to actually score when it's time to carry the team over the hill rather than showcasing a repertoire of moves.
duncan is an excellent example of a great player who's not the most gifted. sure you can say he has manu and parker. but hakeem had drexler and ellie.
