I believe that ming will be a Rocket because china believes he is their best chance to capture a large market, and, therefore lots of money, by having hiom play. it is as much a risk for china as it is for the Rockets. The chinese put a high price on integrity because it can be used as leverage. ming will have a lot of pressure placed on him to succeed so that the chinese government can use his success to catapult the CBA and other programs. The various chinese groups will take their 50% share of Mings' salary and use some of that to support him over here. But the real money is in the marketing over in China and there is gold mine. So if i had control of Ming, then I would want to control everything that I could to ensure that the gold mine produces a maximum benefit. I expect the chinese ' players' to be a real pain in the butt, especially when Ming begins to dominate in any way shape or form. We will be slammed if he reaches anything close to Olajuwan status.
Rockets still awaiting clearance on Yao By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Rockets general counsel Michael Goldberg left China late Monday with the Rockets still awaiting the clearance to make Yao Ming the first player taken in the draft but still confident that approval would come. Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said that Goldberg reported that the Rockets had done everything they could do to help Yao receive the recommendations in China needed for FIBA to grant the letter of clearance necessary for Yao to be drafted. The remaining talks were between Yao and his representative Erick Zhang and Chinese officials to reach an agreement on the payments Yao would make to the Shanghai Sharks and China Basketball Association. "We're still waiting," Dawson said. "Michael said he thinks we had a great week, as we all do. He has done all he could, so he's heading home." The Rockets had been scheduled to work out Duke point guard Jay Williams, today, but Williams cancelled. If Yao is selected first, Williams is considered certain to be the second player taken in the draft. The Rockets are hoping to reschedule his workout for later this week. The Rockets on Monday exercised their option to switch second-round draft picks with Miami, completing the transactions from the Hakeem Olajuwon sign-and-trade deal with Toronto. The move will give the Rockets the ninth pick of the second round, 37th overall (because the Timberwolves forfeited their pick, there are 28 picks in the first round).
Thanks for the info, although it's not as encouraging as I would have liked it to be. -Dallas Thomas III
Is it me, or does it seem that all of the 'insiders' on this board post 'scoops' that support their own opinions and agendas? To his credit, at least oeilpere gave Doc Rocket and Clutch credit for their 'scoop' in light of his own.
Scoop, schmoop. Recently half of the "scoops" have been nothing more than basic logic. I have a scoop, the Rockets will take Ming if both sides can come to a complete agreement on all terms. If not the Rockets will likely trade the pick in a two or three team deal involving either the Bulls or the Clippers(or both).
