He's in the Yao is a scrub group, you know those who'd take Nene or Okafor because they dunk more and don't lose the ball
yao is not akeem nor kareem. but he's better than he's made out to be by a mile. and what is right is right, what is wrong is wrong, no matter if it happened in the past or it is happening right now. your post looked particularly funny in an era where the guards get calls when the defender breathe in their necks.
The tough guy angle right? This whole "Yao losses the ball 80 million times a game" thing is WAY overblown. No one is arguing he could do something about it, but just because he doesn't that still doesn't change the fact that he is being hacked and it is a BIG reason why he fumbles or losses the ball. Simply put It's not all Yao's fault, hell if I'm defending him I'm hacking and scratching until the refs call something! But they never do and people like yourself put it all on Yao. Yes we know back in the day men were men and basketball was played with a rock and barefooted on a bed of nails with the skull of Lion as a basket blah,blah,blah.(FYI NBA fan since 87) The fact is Dream, Jabbar and all the premier big men (wich we could agree Yao is today) got the calls and as you know Yao just doesn't, for what ever reason he get NO respect. But I will say this..... that "How can they slap" line did make me laugh
based on this statement, it is safe to assume that you don't watch NBA games other than the Rockets.. Big men throughout the history of the game have suffered from "unfair treatment" due to their unbelievable size advantage.. no one could stop Shaq in his prime, but after a while, they found a way to do it: just throw in every big man you have on the bench to guard him, and have them flop/flail their arms wildly hoping/fall on the ground like someone shot them every time he gets the ball.. this will get him at least 2 quick offensive fouls called => mission accomplished, Shaq goes to the bench, the threat is neutralized.. same thing with Yao, you can't really stop him, so you have people flopping all over the place to get him in foul trouble, all of this is perfectly true.. what's NOT true and really absurd is the thought that Yao is the ONLY player that has it tough.. are you even serious? bottom line is, slaps on the wrist are not called in the NBA (exception: James, LeBron and Paul, Chris), these 2 players get every call possible, every other NBA player doesn't get a foul whistled on him if he gets slapped on the arm simply because, well, he's strong enough to keep position of the ball/avoid gettign stripped.. Yao Ming is one of the most uncoordinated players in the league today, and no one could dispute that.. he's still great, but you really cannot blame the officiating for him fumbling the ball every 2 seconds.. I understand his physical limitations being 7'6, but an NBA player should have the presence of mind and focus to keep position of hte ball and avoid the wrist slaps.. and no, I'm not in the "Yao is a no-good scrub" club.. I'm in the "Yao is a great player with amazing work ethic who is officiated unfairly due to his size, but you can't blame the officials for his physical shortcomings, which are few but very conspicuous to the average viewer" club
The uncalled fouls go both ways with Yao. Both he and his defender are wrestling with eachother. Yao does his fair share of dislodging and illegal screen setting. Do little guys get away with more contact on big guys? Sure .. and that's how it always has been, going all the way back to Wilt. It's nothing against him, personally.
by the way, this portion of my post wasn't sarcasm, I was 100% serious: all I'm trying to say is, I absolutely agree that Yao gets unfavorable treatment from the officials and it makes me sick, but he's far from being the only one who does and it's really absurd to think that the NBA has an agenda against him.. I really believe that the Houston has never been favored nationally in any sport, they just have something against us H-towners.. from people calling for an asterisk next to our trophies because "Mike was playing baseball" to Rafer beign elevated to Jedi status as soon as he gets traded away from here.. that being said, blaming the officials for everything is just ridiculous.. the concern over flops/offensive fouls is perfectly legitimate, but justifying Yao's lack of coordination and ball control by blaming the refs for not calling the "hacks" is very ignorant simply because this is part of the game and everyone has it the same way..
As I said before, Yao's turnover rate per game would be down a lot more if the refs called the game fairly and enforced the rules on him and his defendants equally across the board. If you were really for the Rockets, you wouldn't be arguing the obvious, you would just admit the problem, and then be concentrating, like the rest of Rockets fans, on what we could do about it to make sure that he is officiated fairly, instead of defending defensive players' and the refs' wrongs towards him. Ultimately, it benefits Yao as a player, other Rockets players as players, the Houston Rockets as a team, and the city of Houston as a whole if Yao is officiated fairly. You shouldn't let your hate for Yao because of his ethnicity divide your loyalties to the Rockets since he is a part of the Rockets. Him being officiated fairly might even benefit other players around the League who are officiated unequally in the end, so there is a larger benefit to this all.
I made a mistake, its supposed to be defenders, sorry, and not "defendants" as I said in the first paragraph of my post.
You do know that Yao's turnover average for his career is less than Dreams his first 7 seasons right? And that this "uncoordinated" player gives one the most physical specimens(Dwight) in the game fits?
Really? Everyone has it the same? Dwight get's to the line 10 times per game. No one is blaming "Everything on the refs" but just like hacking is part of the game then so is officiating and the rules are there for a reason.
yes, big men have always been called differently throughout the history of the nba. there should be denying of that. but that's a generalized statement. in yao's particular case, he's been whistled unfairly even compared to other big men in the game and to a large degree. if one cannot see that, he must be blind. yeah, everyone does moving screens now and then. but tell me why yao was singled out in an important first round series against dallas? the league office even wrote a memo and eventually fined jvg 100k for speaking up the truth. yes, yao dislodges his defenders too. but he's called for an offensive foul more often than otherwise. watch d. howard. his post move largely only is made of one move - simply lower his shoulder to separate the defender for a hook. imagine yao ding that all game. look at yao's arms, face and even legs and look up close. i dare anyone to find another nba player, big or small, with so many scars and scratch marks. then you compare the number of these marks to the number of fouls called in his favor. i understand when something lasts for long, it becomes part of the reality. bit otoh it doesn't make it right.
Blurr#7 is right, to enforce the rules for one player and then to blatantly ignore the rules for another is a double-standard that breaks down the integrity of the game and sullies the game, plus it does indeed hurt the Rockets in the end. Who knows how many extra games the Rockets might have won if the referees were not biased and prejudiced against Yao. Who knows? The Rockets might have made it out of the first round of the playoffs already and maybe even gone further in past years.
One of these times after a guy is shoving Yao and then throws his body resulting in a foul on Yao, Yao needs to elbow the hell out of the guy that drew the foul immediately after he gets called for the foul. When asked why, respond with "I was called for a foul, as I didn't actually commit one, I wanted to get my money's worth."
yep. i don't know where people got the idea that yao is especially "turnover-prone". his number says he's average in that department.
good night! we get that from actually watching the games and understanding that a center should have a TO rate a lot lower than a guard.. yes, he's right around the "average" in the TO department, "average" for point guards who handle the ball 80% of the time and run the entire offense, not for half-court post up players.. and I'm not just his turnovers that show up in the stats sheet..I'm talking about the times when he gets the rebound then fumbles it away/gets stripped. if you've been consistently watching Rockets games, you'd easily see that Yao loses the ball way too often, and it's not because the refs aren't calling the "hacks", it's a weakness he has and considering his work ethic, I am 100% sure he will work on it.. however, we must understand that a guy standing at 7'6 has a significantly slower reflexes than the average NBA players, thus making him more vulnerable to this problem..
