Sort of...in a weasely sports reporter sense. The Dish: No, Yao has NOT always been this good Nov. 16, 2006 By Tony Mejia CBS SportsLine.com Staff Writer I think it's cool when coaches call out the media. We do it to them. They have every right to do it to us. "Right now, everyone's on the bandwagon, but Yao was doing a lot of this increasingly better over time," Jeff Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle. "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.'" I'll bite. I have friends who consider me a Yao Ming supporter. I've assured them that he's going to be a great player and his offensive gifts, particularly at 7-foot-6, are extraordinary. When he was labeled soft, and worse, a product of a culture that couldn't succeed in the NBA because of the lack of a mean streak, I defended him. Most Yao supporters on this site, at least the ones who send me nasty e-mails as a matter of habit, would lump me with the pack of doubters Van Gundy referenced. This stems from my not ranking him as the No. 1 center this past summer, placing him behind Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard and a mending Amare Stoudemire. Is Yao playing better than all of those guys right now? Absolutely. Has he gotten better? No doubt. But Van Gundy's statement that he has always been this good is misleading. He has always had the potential for this, but he has shown it in flashes. The first three seasons of his career were all about progress. Remember, this is a kid who had a terrible time of it early on, leading everyone to wonder what the fuss was all about. His aptitude for learning can't be questioned. His scoring average has improved every season, from 13.5 as a rookie to 22.3 during a 2005-06 campaign riddled by injuries. That's a far cry from the 26.4 he's averaging now. Up until last season, he had never averaged 10 rebounds. For someone of his size, that's troubling. He has never dominated or taken over a game consistently like he's doing now. What you're seeing in this "jumping on the bandwagon" scenario is people acknowledging that Yao has finally arrived. He's doing the things that were expected out of someone who got so much hype. Howard and Stoudemire will continue to grow and challenge Yao for top center honors supplanting O'Neal, but you can't deny the transformation. Don't sleep, though. It has been a transformation. The media is filled with dopes, but on this Yao situation, let's not let the present overwhelm documented history. Incidentally, Yao needs to get this season's rebounding average well over 10. I don't even think Van Gundy can disagree with that.
Yao Ming needs to be mean, and not mean, but God damn mean. Let those dirty bastards have a taste of Yao's big elbow! For Free!
Sure, Yao has improved each of the last few years. Otherwise, what was all that work for? The problem with the media using that to get themselves off the hook is that the media did not say "He's good, he's getting better, and he'll get to greatness soon". The media said "Yao IS not great, AND he WILL NEVER be great because he's from China and doesn't have the toughness/mean streak/killer instinct". They said "This IS the BEST he can EVER be" Now they act all suprised at his improvement when the fact was with all his work and talent, he was going to get here all along. They were dopes.
Yao has been this good since the last All-Star break. It's just taken most of the media an extra six months to catch up.
Mr. Mejia proves again why he indeed is one of those media dopes JVG was referring too. Yes you did rank him behind Shaq, DHoward, and Amare after Yao showed the same dominance after the ASG last year. That's the same Yao that is out there now. He didn't make some transformation between last year and this year over the summer. Just tells us how much you have really watched.
If this guy is a Yao supporter, then i'd hate to see his friends. Yao was just as good last year after he got a chance to recover from his near-gangrenous toe that he'd been playing on for years. Health probably had more to do with his step forward than anything. This article is a total backtrack, and I'm shocked he had the nerve to say he's a yao supporter. He put yao fifth on his list last year, which was a joke. He put him fourth on the list this year, with injury questions as an excuse. He put an even more questionable Amare over him, along with Shaq who misses 20 games every year. For him to claim that he's one of the guys who believed in him is bogus. show me some proof, some old article where he did anything but take veiled or overt shots at Yao.
I agree with everything that you posted! But remember there was a majority of our brothers and sisters on this very Forum who were of the same voice as those reporters which you mentioned. I know this because I was the leader [first] of the Great for the Rockets Yao Ming Movement andfirst to be called a YOH.
Mejia still doesn't get it. Yao was always measured against his "potential", rather than what he actually did for the team. So people focused on what he didn't do instead of what he did do. Despite the fact no player of his size in the history of the league ever played as well. That's something these sports writers always seem to gloss over. They always say what Yao is "supposed" to do because of his size ... based on what? Has there ever been a player taller than 7'3 who averaged 20/10 in a season?
Actually our very own Ralph Sampson did it 2 years in a row but I get what you are saying. I think part of Yao's lack of respect is due in part that he has a soft personality. He has this very meek persona of a gentle giant not the demeanor of a Yao the Barbarian. People like their tough guys to act like tough guys. Tyson bites someones ear off and while the consensus is he is a nut, they respect he is a fierce nut. Artest is feared because he is psycho. Yao will never be this type of person but please donot confuse his kindness for weakness. Yao is a fierce competitor and is as tough as they come and Ben Wallace and Shaq know that first hand... although Shaq won't easily admit it. So until Yao starts biting off the noses of opposing centers and picking them up and throwing them in the stands he will always be labeled a little soft and not the premier big man in the league. Idiots.
Sampson slipped my mind. But he had a completely different physique. How much did he weigh? *Maybe* 250 lbs? He was much, much quicker and more mobile.
