Foul calls Rockets center Yao Ming said he appreciated coach Rick Adelman's and the Rockets' efforts to address the way he is officiated with the league office, but said the problem is not new. "It (the officiating) is just not consistent," Yao said. "Some days you feel all right. You get a couple calls (against him). You're OK. You have no question with that. Just like sometimes you have poor shooting nights, the referees have poor calling nights. It can happen some days. He makes bad calls. But please, make less bad calls on both sides, not just one side." Yao is a tough player to officiate because of his rare combination of size and shooting ability. "Yao's the toughest guy in the league to officiate," teammate Shane Battier said. "He's so big. When a defender plays him, he has to use all his strength, and he has to push because Yao is that big and strong. There is a fine line of trying to officiate him fairly and allowing some creative license on the defensive end. It's not easy. But at the same time, Yao withstands a lot of punishment, day in, day out. If he wasn't as nice a guy as he is, he could really hurt some people with frustration fouls." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5352522.html
man.. i remember barkley and his "frustration fouls". of course you don't want yao to hurt anybody, but you can't help but to want him to get his point across... just once.
Battiers quoet pretty much summed it up. yao needs to throw a couple of unsportmen like fouls to show the refs whos the boss. because yao shows no reaction, the refs assume he's not getting fouled. yao needs to be like duncan. duncan goes down like he's been shot with the slightest contact. thats why tim gets alot of calls.
Yao needs to fight, be angry, and hurt couple of people. Look at Dirk, one of the best players around, but he is too soft and get pushed around in playoffs. If Yao wants to win, then he needs to punish those who take advantage of him.
Always been my biggest problem with the refs, if you are going call Yao a certain way then always call it that way, officiating for Yao has been all over the map since he's been in the league.
I don't buy that "Yao is tough to officiate because he's so big" line. The NBA has clear rules on what kind of post defense is allowed: NBA rules So, a defender putting a forearm on Yao's back and working to maintain his position is legal. Somebody like Oberto, who blatantly pushes and locks arms with Yao, is not defending legally. These kind of fouls aren't hard to call, it's just that the refs CHOOSE to allow them.
Very true but if they called all those fouls the game would be over 4 hours long. Truth is that the refs end up deciding how they'll call a certain game, sometimes they get it right, other times they are way off
There's a very simple solution to this problem: Make sure Yao and other skilled post players don't get stupidly, blatantly fouled! Send the message to opposing players that their dirty tricks won't be tolerated anymore. There will initially be a lot more calls, but then other teams will be forced to adjust and cut down on their fouls. It will allow post players to do their thing, and make for a more entertaining game (who really tunes in to see Yao or Shaq hampered by no-name scrubs?)
i disagree if they called all of those fouls they would stop fouling him so much and the game would be more even sided instead of just being a 1-3 and athletic 4's league.
You got it, Jim. This is my pet peeve. Why have a rule book if you ain't gonna follow the rules. Call it like the rule book says and if adjustments needs to be made, then let the rules committee make the rule changes in the offseason and the rules be implemented in the preseason. If they called the game by the rules, Yao would average 30 and we'd probably have a record of around 15-4.
It'd be awesome if someone from clutchfans who gets tickets close to the court for a game could swing by Kinkos and have them print up these rules on a couple of posters. Then display them while heckling the refs.
With the combination of mystery fouls called on Yao (fouls where the refs think there should have been contact and clearly replays show there wasn't) and non calls at the other end, or calls against Yao where he is just holding his position and the offensive player barrels in and creates fouls against Yao. It doesn't take long to put Yao in a handicap situation. IMO I still don't trust the refs!!! Have a non call on one end and a mystery call on the other and it doesn't take long to change the out come of a game. Stern of coarse is the head crook! I don't trust him or the refs! This reminds me of the WWF (Uhmm, WWE), Mystery calls on one end and no calls on the other. I wounder if the refs from both leagues where trained at the same academy. It's a sad day in the NBA, their losing my faith quickly. How about Tracy's non calls? Defenders have their hands all over him. How about at the beginning of games when Yao gets the ball and defenders swarm him and take the ball away? Did they not touch him? Did they get all ball? I don't think so! I don't think they're bad calls, because bad calls would mean that you made a mistake. Their intentional calls, called every game from just about every ref.
The RR's should have the rules on a poster for the refs to read or come up with a chant for the refs.
one thing yao has improved on is keeping his arms straight up in the air when someone charges into him. he used to bend his arms low and the player would crash into yao's arms, which would be a foul on yao.
