after this olympics, China will should allow Yao to rest every summer until 2012 and by then, they better buy some international guards to help out the big center.
My heart goes out to Yao. His will and spirit are insurmountable, yet his body is not cooperating. We can be selfish and expect that he should be healthy enough to play a full season for the Rox, but we knew going into this that China would hold the trump card and insist that not only would he play for the Chinese team but carry that team. I want to be selfish and insist that he preserve his health for helping the Rox win a championship, but as we can attest with our troops in Iraq, sending someone into battle for the good of the country has more gravity than personal rewards. He's truly between a Rocks and a hard place.
if Yao is anything more than a shadow of his peak-2006 self in 2012 I'd be shocked - he's got 2-3 more good years left at present injury pace.
opposite to your opinions ,i think yao should play for his conutry every summer .there are three chinese rosters playing in nba ,yi,yao and sun who blocked d howard in the olympics.There are also many capable rosters in china national team but their coach can't organise the talented guys well.Chinses played as individules instead of a group just as we always do.i don't think the internaional teams are as strong as teamUS but many times have we been beaten by them.just take argentina as an example,only scola and manu can be called stars in their team(hell nocioni and delfeino ,not to mention herrman) but they won the gold in athens olympics .Argentinna can do that because they play teamwork while the teamUS has nothing of teamplay.in fact ,the reason why the teamchina always lose is not the lack of stars,at least they have yao,yi and sun who is the hope of the chinese guards.the chinese thought that they have yao and yao means domination ,then they would beat any opponent who doesn't have a superstar as great as yao.as a result ,they gave up their teamwork what made the teamchina pretty good in the 90s.they change the teamplay for individule ,but they don't have as many stars as the us have.if the teamus can still win some games because they have too many great stars to lose,then they teamchina is not likely to win any because they only have one real star who has long been suffering fatigues and injuries.so the keypoint for teamchina to win more games is not yao himself ,it's teampaly.if the teamchina doesn't regain teamwork ,the will still not be able to do better in any events even though they consist of 12 yaos. although yao needs to rest,i still think he should play for his nation year in and year out.as we all know ,dirk plays for germany every summer ,the same to gasol and parker.it 's ones obligation and glory to play for his country ,so yao should feel proud to represent his nation to attend in the olympics which is the bigest sports feast.However ,yao's situation is not the same as dirk's ,or gasol's.dirk must play for his national team because he earns many times more than his teammates in both the mavs and the german national team,gasol is the same.actually yao earns more than his chinese teammates,but his yearly imcome is still just 2m.yao makes 31m peryear ,including salary and ad rewards.but after paying taxes,he also has to give most of the rest to his country and only retains 2m in his own pocket.In china ,a star is always thought to be cultivated by his club and the so-called goverment leaders,so it's resonable to give something back to those guys.However,why is there only one yaoming is china?WHy don't they cultivate more yaomings?yao can't afford private training assitances and first class shoes,lives in a house whose squar is only as small as a basketball feild.yes,yao's life is luxury compared to the common civilians,but yao is a superstar and no other center is as good as him around the world.what's more,some guys in china who is not even as smart as luther head haplpen to pocket more than yaoming do.Nothing is rediculous in china. In a word ,china's goverment officals ,ladies and gentlemen,please leave yao health as you have already taken his money.I beg for your generocity for yao.
I hope you are kidding. At Yao's stage of his career, earning money from the NBA and giving that to the Chinese government is GREATER than ending his career sooner by playing him year in and year out. Bones get weaker as we age... not stronger! Maybe someone needs to read the Goose that Laid the Golden egg to the Chinese government.
Typical article by western media. Dirk plays for his country, no one complain about it, except Cuban. Scola, Manu, Nocioni etc play for Argentina in all major tournaments no media make big deal out of it. I used to feel the CNT forced Yao to play but I do think Yao himself willing to play for his country majority of the time. Reason no.1 he loves his country and proud to represent team China. Reason no.2 he got his public image to maintain else his image will be tainted. I am big fan of Adrian Wojnarowski's articles but this article is more political jabs than about Yao Ming or Houston Rockets! Peace!
the thing is dirk is not injury-proned. at this rate, yao's NBA career will end in 3 years if the last 3 years are any indication. if you read his article, adrian says does yao want to be more than just an injury-proned superstar? playing too much has been one of the primary reasons for his injuries. i think we all want yao to fulfill his potential of having a potentially a hall-of-fame career. at this rate, yao will not be in the HOF or even close to being considered (playing-wise anyways; he might make it simply for the worldwide influence he has provided). yao's too good and too nice of a player to be stopped by injuries.
No it's not. It's about Yao getting rest. Yao is more injury-prone due to his unique size, weight, and athletic ability. The league has never seen such a huge, heavy, and highly skilled player such as Yao and certainly not one that plays year round ball. If I recall, Yao himself said he wanted to be done with CNT until London '12.
That's not true. I bet a lot of Dallas fans complain about Dirk playing in the international games just like their coach does. Manu and Nocioni took last summer off, that's why Scola was pretty much on his own to get them qualified for the Olympics. Scola is the exception because he's only be in the grueling NBA 82 game season one year. I am fairly certain think the Euroleague teams run an 82 game season.
Pretty good article...I guess I'm in the camp of let him rest, which I've been since he got here...I agree there is a lot of burden on him to continue to play, but c'mon, when is enough enough...
I'm sorry but obviously you are wrong. If Yao have to choose between CNT and NBA, he'll choose CNT without a second thought.
I agree yao's injuries were due to his workloads and as a fan i do wish yao will win the championships for the rockets and be the league's MVP etc. But the point here is, Yao want to play for and represent his country and the same goes with Dirk and other players knowing that will probably lead to further injuries and anger from their nba fans. The key word here is, Yao himself want to play, no one really force him like the article tried to influence others to believe so. Until Yao says no and CNT force him to, then that is another story. As of now, as a fan, all i can do is hold my breath and wish yao all the best!
China surely want to have Chris Paul and Deron Williams, but we don't have. We'll be very happy if we have Vassilis Spanoulis who most Rockets fans made fun of, but we don't have. Most of you have seen what we have right now. That's a reality and it's not easy to change it in short time.
yao has missed more than 30 games the past 3 years and one season-ending injury last yr that really derailed the team. no other international player has missed as much time as yao has due to the workload and no one is as injury-prone as he is.
i have even more respect for yao playing for country. Any country >>>>>>> Nba. Still I think its time to take a break from the national team. Otherwise The Dream 2 may become Manute Bol 2
nobody is even questioning whether yao should play in the olympics. the olympics are a must for yao. we're talking about EVERY single year playing games year-round and yao basically has 2-3 months of rest. a big guy like yao needs to use the offseason to completely rest his body before start training again for the next yr. most of the basketball players you see, outside those who play for the US team the past few yrs, take a good month-long vacation where they do nothing by enjoy themselves until mid-july before they resume workouts. most don't go hardcore until august and september. even before joining the olympics, kobe wouldn't train until mid-july (so he usually has a month and a half of rest). and kobe is one of the hardest workers we have. i'm sure yao is finally understanding that as he has hinted he only wants to play in the next olympics in london and no more meaningless games, where he doesn't need him to play.
Look, bro, again i agreed with what you said but we are arguing on different topics here. All i want to point out is Yao's willingness to play for the CNT not as Adrian's article tried to imply that he was forced by the CNT to play for them. Whereas you tried to argue that yao shouldn't play for CNT every summer which is two totally different discussions here! Case closed!
I totally agree. Western media always neglect the fact that YAO is willing to play for his country just like every other NBA international players on the planet. Every single person born in China tend to "save faces" which is not always a bad term when they have a strong self-esteem and try to protect their honor in a right way. People need to respect the culture difference and do not judge everything based on their little knowledge about the country. It's true that the government will always put the country's honor over individual's and may say something unreasonable or stupid, but the way this article exaggerate the situation is just so misleading. It's not like YAO owns the country and the government force him to serve the country... If YAO decided to stop playing for his country due to injuries, fans in China would still love him no matter how some Chinese media criticize him.
Sadly the Kobe situation will never happen to YAO just because YAO will always feel that he represents the a whole country and has so many responsibilities and obligations to give his best to his country. When you have a such a big group behind you and putting high hopes on you, it's not that easy to do something you really want. I just hope he could retire from the country team before next Olympic and reserve his body for his career.
