More than anything else, what do floppers do? Hit the floor. More than any other center, what does Yao do? Hit the floor. Is he a flopper? Yesterday against the Suns on one defensive possession just before Shaq scored Yao fell to the floor screaming. I didn't see any contact that would cause a 300 lb man to fall to the floor like that. With all this talk about flopping this week, that immediately came to my mind. All this time, whenever Yao falls I've given him the benefit of the doubt. He gets pushed on so much, and his proportions on such that its hard for him to keep balance. But thinking back, he does seem to fall down a lot even when there appears to be minimal contact. For all those wanting flopping to be enforced more strictly by the NBA -- how do you think they'd view Yao falling to the floor 6 times a game? Or Battier and Scola for that matter? Perhaps just innocent banter, but does this quote from Friedman's recent Yao and Shaq article tell us anything? [rquoter] “Tonight there aint going to be none of that. It’ll be two powerful guys going at one another.” Yao says he agrees with Shaq’s statement, but he thinks the Big Cactus is sending a subtle message with his strong words as well. “I think the way he tried to do it is tell me don’t flop tonight," says Yao while laughing. "He set a trap right there. “Honestly, I agree. They think the players who are above 300 pounds should be able to handle any hammer, any pressure, any foul, anything.” Then Yao jokingly suggested his new goal for the future: “My weight can change. I can get down below 300 and see if the rules can be changed.” [/rquoter]
Floppers hit the floor to draw a foul. Yao hits the floor because he's mad clumsy. Most of the time, when he falls it's straight down, no arms crossed.
Well there are some other things to consider. Yao does try to draw charges to our chagrin, and since he's 300 pounds you can bet the contact he's hit with isn't enough to make him fall. So you could say that's a flop, selling the foul, whatever. Honestly, if players do that I don't have a problem. It's when players take absolutely no contact and fall to the ground writhing in pain. For instance when a post player starts his move and the defender falls before the player even initiates contact. The Okur flop from teh Jazz game comes to mind, or even the recent Shaq flop. Or, and this is even worse, when players just randomly start convulsing to get a foul when there isn't even the possibility of contact as in the post. For instance Kirilenko acting like he got poked in the eye last game by Shane. It was clear from replays and Shane's reaction that there was no contact. Or the infamous "Scola: Hands of Steel" vid last year where he "threw" Kirilenko into the third row. I think we would be ignorant to say he doens't to some extent flop. Everyone does, even the Shaqtus. However is he by flopping alerting the refs to legitimate fouls that are limiting his game? Or is he just trying to deceive to get an advantage? That's the issue. I think for the most part, he's just clumsy and selling legit fouls. Therefore I would not classify him as a flopper. I will look closer the next game to watch this.
Well, aren't there times when you kind of have to fall back in order to avoid too much of the collision? I think Yao simply falls due to that. I can't imagine him flopping as a strategy. He's so big I think it's actually counterproductive for him to flop. He'll just become more injury prone.
Couldn't we say the same thing about Yao's defenders? They're leaning backwards so they don't take the full brunt of Yao's ginormous frame colliding into them. And so, what lesser contact there is will cause them to fall to the floor more easily. That sounds plausible to me.
Woah, that voting is biased. Lets all be honest now, we are all die hard fans and love that Yao is a Rocket but seriously. Everytime a 7foot6 300 pound man tries to take a charge by falling down he is flopping.
I guess my definition of flop is much different. Selling a foul (embellishing the foul) implies there is an actual foul, and you are making it more obvious. A flop to me, is making a foul out of nothing. AKA fooling the official into making a foul call where there isn't one present. So to answer the question in the threat title, no, Yao does not flop. I've seen him exaggerate his contact sometimes, but the contact is there that is worthy of a foul call. At the same time, he should stop flailing, and actually try and finish the play for a potential and-1 situation.
Nobody will doubt Yao as a flopper except those TMac lovers or Yao haters. It's a meaningless post. The poster is just talking big to impress people.
Honestly, I thought people post here should've at least finished high school and learned that the difference of a 300lb and 250lb player is not that much when the law of physics applies to body contact, not to mention the higher center of gravity for a 7"6 compared to 6"7. Then again, I'm just kidding myself if I believe fans are rational.
He's clumsy and he has the highest center of gravity of anybody on the court (or in the league) by far, of course he's going to go down a lot.
Man this is stupid. If Yao is hit hard he's supposed to fall back and let it be known and draw a legimate foul. If he stood his ground and fight back against a hard hit, the ref won't see it as a foul. Or a foul might be call against him if he doesn't fall back. Also falling back lets the REFS know that you have both your feet planted to the ground to take an offense foul against the other team. ALso falling back is part of an instinct to follow through with the momentum to lessen the absorsing of a hard hit. As for the j*zz. They are a bunch of p***y and dirty players. They flop NOT because of a hard hit but a dramatic overreact stragety to draw a foul.
And why the fck did you even start this stupid thread calling Yao out?? Yao is being treated unfairly by the refs with no call on the holding, hacking, pushing and grabbing, and scratching on Yao.
Having been watching Yao for 6.5 years, as Rockets fans we should know by now that Yao is not good at balancing. Do we still remember when Marbury crossed him over and he felt down on his rear in his first NBA game? Do we still remember the whole nation was laughing at him and bball experts all had a field day, while Rockets fans cursing towards TV "I told you so, Williams is much better?". Well, did Yao start to flop on day one? With Yao on the Rockets team for 6.5 years, as Rockets fans we should probably know that height of the center of gravity has something to do with balance, and he's 7'6? As common sense, we should probably know that ears help you balance, and of course as Rockets fans we should probably know that Yao's deaf in one ear? Just throw out some possibilities, why Yao falls down a lot, although he knows he might injure himself with 300lbs hitting the floor. Maybe, just maybe, he's not really trying with ugly flopping but rather he can't control.
