http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4335745.html Nov. 15, 2006, 1:56AM Van Gundy renews big-men plea Yao's treatment in Miami prompts coach to speak out on 'mayhem' inside By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Complete Rockets coverage With center Yao Ming bringing a fresh, 18-inch scar and several new bumps and bruises back from Miami, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy on Tuesday gave a familiar but particularly passionate plea for the NBA to protect big men the way it has perimeter players. While also speaking in defense of San Antonio forward Bruce Bowen, who has been accused of being dirty or at least dangerous, Van Gundy said Sunday's game in Miami and the treatment of Yao stepped over the line to "reckless." "It just irritated me," Van Gundy said. "The whole game irritated me the way he was officiated. 'There was no contact,' (officials said) yet there was blood streaming down his arm. They tell you there's no contact and you're watching blood flow, unless he's so self-hurtful he's taking his own nails to his skin and ripping it open to draw attention to himself, you have to ask yourself, 'What am I seeing? Why can't what I'm seeing and he's obviously feeling and seeing be seen?' "There was going to be no call on the Chuck (Hayes) drive when he dished it off until (official) Dick Bavetta had to call it late from out of position. Everyone's talking about this Bruce Bowen stuff. Inside, Shaq (O'Neal), somebody swings at his head every game. Same with Yao. (Miami's Antoine Walker) literally pushed him with both hands. He landed on one leg. The other time he landed on his back. And it was 'play on.' " Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said it is the team's policy to not comment about whether the team has sent tapes to the NBA but "if it's warranted, we would, like every team in the league. "You don't send in every play. You want to build up a case to show a pattern." Van Gundy has long maintained there is a pattern that allows "mayhem" inside. "We're so perimeter-oriented right now," Van Gundy said. "It's not just our games. Other games, mayhem goes on inside. (Tim) Duncan faces it, too. ... "They so regulate contact right now, the only thing I think is sometimes reckless is what is going on inside, like a swing at the head of Yao the last game; Antoine Walker tries to push him down. Not only is there not a call, it should have been a flagrant foul. "Players are smart. They'll do what they can get away with. If you know you can get away with things, you will take the liberties. I think every big guy faces that." No action was taken against Bowen after the NBA reviewed a play in which the New York Knicks' Steve Francis suffered a sprained ankle in an incident involving the Spurs forward. Knicks coach Isiah Thomas later accused Bowen of a dangerous play by undercutting Francis. "The perimeter guys, like this Bruce Bowen stuff, because you can't touch them, there's more attention drawn to it," Van Gundy said. "But I think too little attention is drawn to the inequities the big players have to face right now. I think something should be done for their safety. "That push by Walker, which was ruled a no-call, could have injured Yao very easily. So can some of the swings to the head that big guys take. This isn't me saying it about Yao. It's every big guy that plays inside." jonathan.feigen@chron.com Gundy has a LEGIT point. The treatment of Yao has been ridiculous. It's almost like the NBA wants the rare and talented big ment to get injured!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4335986.html Nov. 15, 2006, 3:48AM ROCKETS NOTES: Van Gundy's an admirer of Bowen By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Days after the Knicks became the latest team to accuse Spurs forward Bruce Bowen of dirty or dangerous play, the Rockets not only defended him but praised him. "He's never been that way with me," Rockets guard Tracy McGrady said. "I always love the challenge. I always accept the challenge of going up against him because he is the best perimeter (defensive) player in this league. As far as him being a dirty player, I haven't seen it. "He has really quick hands. He's very smart. He has quick feet. "He's one of those guys, if you think you're going to sit on the wing and just iso him, he's going to stay in front of you all day. "You have to come off screens and you got to get him off your body because he's strong and he's good at using his hands and feet." Bowen has been accused of sliding his feet under shooters, spraining ankles when they land on him. "Bruce Bowen is a hard-playing guy," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "The specific plays, only he knows. If he says it's unintentional, who am I to question? "Some players, any time a guy competes hard against him, the first word they use is 'dirty' because they don't want to put in as much effort into the game as the guy who competes hard. John Stockton, I always heard that, 'he's dirty.' You got the little whiners who are running for cover any time the game gets tough. "I'm not saying it's not a foul. That's what the NBA said, that's a foul. They use a great word, 'alight.' How about 'land'? You're supposed to be able to go up and land without somebody making contact with you. It's supposed to be called a foul. On the ( Steve) Francis play, they didn't call a foul. It's on the officials." Changing view of Yao As much attention and praise as Yao Ming has generated for his recent play, including outscoring Shaquille O'Neal by 19 points, the largest margin ever against O'Neal, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said the media is citing Yao's improvement to cover for its past criticism of him. "Right now, everyone's on the bandwagon, but Yao was doing a lot of this increasingly better over time," Van Gundy said. "I don't think anybody is being taken by surprise. I think, media is now trying to say how much he's improved instead of recognizing all along that he was really good. So now, some are trying to backtrack and say, 'Oh, yeah, he's really made major improvement,' trying to get themselves off the hook, instead of, 'Oh, I'm such a dope, I didn't realize how good this guy was.' " "A lot of that is revisiting what to most NBA players has already been obvious, that Yao is very good and he works very hard and on some nights is tremendous and other nights, like any other player, isn't quite as good." Give and take As Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy finished his pregame media session, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich shouted his critique from down the hall. "I'm going to fight you tonight," Van Gundy said, alluding to the verbal sparring with Knicks coach Isiah Thomas during the Spurs game on Saturday. "Stay on your bench," Popovich shouted back. Inside the numbers 2 — Rockets' field goals, both by Shane Battier in the final 17 minutes. 9 — of 14 3-pointers made by the Rockets through three quarters. 1 — of 9 3-pointers made by the Rockets in the fourth quarter. 41 — Spurs' points off the bench. 16 — Rockets' bench points. One last thing The Spurs' seven-game win streak against the Rockets is the longest current streak against the Rockets in the NBA.
yao is routinely battered on the inside and it's been that way since he got here. he gets more fouls called now but it's not even close to fair. for every foul he commits and gets called for, there are ten identical ones commited on him that aren't whistled. can you even imagine what it would be like if he got dwayne wade treatment?
Shaq and his coaches have been yelling for years that he gets hacked way more than what's called, and they didn't really get the pattern of officiating changed. Unfortunately I imagine this plea will amount to nothing.
The fact that Ming is getting his feet and legs pushed when he is shooting should be easily documented by film. The defender is "hands free" but down below, he is doing all he can to throw off Ming's shot. I hope they are pointing this out, not that it will do any good. Ming is officiated differently than any player in the league. They can beat him up, O.K., if he breathes on them, Foul. It is really ridiculous.
seriously, it;s not fair to other teams. if defenders cannot touch yao (wade treatments), yao would get 50 pts a game easily by shooting 70%.
it happened in the playoffs a couple years ago... I think Bavetta is just TOO OLD. He looks like a walking melanoma commercial. Remember's the obviously blown call when Finley was out of bounds? And all his missed calls the last few years? He is losing it and can't keep up... we need to replace a lot of refs that just can't keep pace in todays game.
I agree 100%. Some of the refs calling games can't keep up w/ the pace any longer. Bavetta is a nice example. The dude is a dinosaur. He needs to throw in the towel allready and bring some young freash blood into the system. Anyways I'm glad JVG is backing up his big man becuase its a crime for what people get away w/ doing to Yao.
average 30 something in the final is something diff from average 50 in regular season, yao is a 87% FT shooter, and he can shoot over any1 easily. anyway, i wish he can get wade treatment, but i know it will never happen.
You see, David Stern implemented the no whining rule for the players for this exact reason. JVG wont be heard. I'd be surprised if he's not fined.
I'd like to know more about how an 18 inch gash appeared on Yao's arm. Not 2 or 3 inches, but ...........18 inches??!!?!?! That is beyond ridiculous to sublime. 18 inches??!!?!?!?! There is absolutely no way you can inflict that kind of damage with fingernails unless they have been sharpened and you are ripping clear down the arm to make that kind of gash. That's gangsta stuff, the stuff we'd run into when we played down in da hood. Two things that always happened down there. Cuts magically appearing out of nowhere on the arms, top of hands, and face and neck, and the ball wound up feeling like it had been lubed in a gallon of goop. The bumps and push offs are obvious on film. That fingernail stuff, is a whole nother level. By the way, this is not the first time. Yao sported a gash on one of his arms either last year or the year before, same type of cut. That stuff should be stiffly regulated and players should be made to trim their nails and sand them down. There is no place for that kind of stuff in basketball. And it's not an accident either. I know because a playa showed me one time. You cut the nails in an upwards fashion, then you file smooth the underneath side and you can get a razor sharp outward sloping edge that is a fantastic blade. Then just fling your hands around and slice and dice. Especially when the ball is up high. You can reach and tag arms, face, all the body up high and it looks totally innocent. It isn't. What is sickening is this stuff has gone on for years. The league knows about it. They've gotten plenty of film over the years of Shaq, Duncan, and now Yao getting butchered down there. And they continue to look the other way. If the officials would just call it by the rule book, everything would be so much better. But you'd have a lot more blowouts as truly skilled bball players came to the fore and lunkhead athletes would be out of the league or at the very least riding the pine because of foul trouble.
The second foul on Yao last night was particularly egregious: A stationary Yao positioning 3 feet outside the restrictive semi-circle was bumped in the knee/thigh by a driving Ginobli. This will almost certainly be called a charge if a smaller defendent is to flop backward.
shaq did the gash right? i definitely remember looking at the replay and his arm being cut-free then one play later he was bleeding. before going into timeout they showed yao putting his arm up to the ref like wtf, you didn't see that? yao can average close to 30 if not more, right now with nothing changed. with wade rules, he'd easily get 40. also, if you took away zone and illegal defenses yao would imo be the favorite for scoring champion.
It's about time that the NBA insists on Players having their finger and thumb nails manicured in a civilized way. Men with claws should be considered uncivilized by to-day's standards.
In the latest interview of Yao, he DID mention about this: ask: Did shaq do this to you, this long gash on your arm? Yao: Yes, both of them. Shaq has really sharp thumbnails. He was really mean to me tonight. He did this to me in the preseason too, one gash was on my face.... http://sports.tom.com/2006-11-15/0424/85445211.html
