Can you imagine this about Yao?

Unlike Wang, Yao Ming is not in the Red Army.

As a #1 pick (as oppossed to a 30 something pick), the Chinese government and ChBA are much more concerned with Yao's success. They won't pull him unless he is playing poorly. In which case, they can have him back.

 

that's the only thing that worries me about possibly getting Yao... a china recall... I mean what if he shows great progress then china says, "we need him for national commitments" that's just such an open loophole for the chinese, i hope the rockets or whoever signs him works that out before he comes to the states.

 

i think the only way out of it completely is if he gets his citizenship here during the 3 years of his rookie contract.

 

What if Yao gets injured during a summer stint with his Chinese team??

Who foots the bill and liability on that?? Does Les still have to honor his contract??

 

I highly doubt he would even want to obtain US citizenship - he is staunchly proud of his Chinese heritage and the way his government works. In any case, I don't think the Chinese govt. would give the chance to get defect - they'd pull him back to China on the first plane.

 

1) The Rockets and NBA will NOT allow a contract that does not guarantee that he will be available for all of the regular season.

2) They will also not allow anything that has an unlimited, unspecified out-clause that China can invoke at any time.

3) If Ming becomes a star, and IS playing well, the NBA will not let him go without a challenge. The financial impact of him leaving the league will be too huge.

One thing that I think is also interesting, it seems to me that the general feeling among the Chinese fans and civilians is that Yao should go to the NBA and never look back. They want to see him succeed outside of the Chinese government's control. They know how repressive their government is, and how Yao could be a victim of that. They want to see him escape.

Maybe Yao becomes the first Chinese athlete to "defect" to the West? Wouldn't surprise me.

 

#1 The NBA will allow such contracts. Wang never played a full season in Dallas and his contract did have language that allowed China to bring him home at anytime during the season if they wanted. The Rockets do not have to agree to this obviously but China does not have to agree with out it.

#2 Once again your 2nd statement is false. Period. China could pull Wang at anytime for any length of time.

#3 Please, in what court of law is the NBA going to challange China. Yao is a Chinese citizen and is subject to the rules of his masters...I mean owners...I mean government.

 

I FIRMLY think that China could recall Ming for a number of things:

1. Playing Time
2. Involvement In Offense (see griffin)
3. NBA development (without Ming actually being their to work with team)
4. MEDIA ATTENTION - THIS ONE IS HUGE!!!!

If Ming gets labeled a softee (almost guaranteed in his first few years), then that will be a MAJOR SLAP IN THE FACE to china and I have no doubt they might recall him. The NBA has never dealt with this type of scenario before. Its like going to war with china, if somebody bad mouths Ming, he's out of here.

Rudy will have to change his entire approach to coaching. First he must please China, 2nd he must please the remaining Rockets.

Clutch spoke of this before, that Rudy will have an extreme amount of pressure on him, with Ming in the mix.

Wang dominated, like Ming, in china and before everybody saw him play in Dallas, thought he would be something big (he was a 2nd rounder because nobody thought china would release him).

I posted this in another thread, but here are Mings own words that Wang is a more verstatile, defensive banging player then Ming. It's very similiar to High School & Junco Ball. A player dominates the easy competition, and when they jump to the NBA, they cannot bang inside with the likes of Garnett, Duncan, Shaq, etc.. (see wang).

These quotes are from a ABC (Asian Basketball Confederation) interview with Ming:

 

You obviously haven't read how Ming verbally abused David Falk for suggesting such a thing. Yao Ming would consider it dishonorable to defect.

 

<i>What if after 4-5 seasons of basketball, China decides that Yao has to go back to China after his contract runs up?
</i>

Hmm...interesting. What if we draft Caron Butler or Mike Dunleavy and they decide to leave via free agency when their contract is up? Or we trade for a veteran player and they decide to leave via free agency. Once any player plays out their contract, the CBA allows them to go to other teams via free agency. Why should we care if the player goes to China or to Orlando?

China is trying to improve their program and getting NBA experience for their players is a way to improve. They're hosting the Olympics in 2008 (is that the right year)? They want to be competitive by then. If they make it impossible for us to deal with them, then they will kill any chance they have of sending future players here. That's the exact opposite of what they want.

The one thing that will work in our favor is that the Chinese want Yao in the NBA and they want him to go #1. We can make that happen for them, so why would they kill the deal.

 

Thanks for the info Invisible Fan. Im as big a Ming supporter as the next guy but if this becomes too big an issue then you must trade the pick. Seeing as to how dedicated Ming is to his homeland it sort of hampers his potential which is so great. I wonder if there is some way Ming could there to fulfill his duties as a Chinese citizen during the offseason and be there to play during the regular season? Maybe Houston and the Chinese could negotiate something similar to this.

 

Do any of our new Chinese BBSers have any idea what it would take to be granted citizenship? The communist government thing makes it seem to me that it would be a difficult process.

Maybe, just MAYBE he'll come over here and fall in love with our society to the extent that he would consider going back to be dishonorable (at least not desirable). After all, he's just 21. I was about that age when I was a bayou-water bleeding staunch Houstonian to death, and circumstances forced me to leave, but now I'm a burnt orange, 6th-street-gutter-puke bleeding Austinite after just 6 months. Time will tell.
-Dallas Thomas

 

oh, by the way- thanks a lot for that quote invisible fan. i heard that news on ESPN about a couple weeks ago and posted a thread trying to find a link to something confirmative on the topic, but none of us could find it. i looked crazy or like a liar, so thanks for clearing my name.

 

Please trust me on this: a Yao-Ming-defect is certainly possible if China government would ask too more from him, for example, still insisting the 50% share after Yao's rookie contract. Do I have a certain source of this? Not officially, but I trust my feeling very much this time. Do some research of Yao's personality, do some research of the city he comes from, do some research about how the US has attractted other Chinese young people, then you draw your own conclusion.