The famous basketball reporter, NBA expert, Su Qun answered some questions online at sina.com yesterday. (He didn't answer my question ) Here is something about Yao Ming. What is your expection about Yao Ming at his first year? 10+ points per game with good rebound. Don't give him too much pressure, because he has given himself a lot of pressure. It's unfire to have a high expection to Yao Ming's first year. He cannot attend the training camp, which is very important. I hope he can attend the training camp next year. Will Yao Ming be another Shawn Bradley? Shawn Bradley doesn't have the talent, but Yao Ming has the talent. Height is the only similarity between them. Yao Ming has a much stronger lower body. He can hook shoot, mid-range shoot. If he has a too strong upper body, it would be a heavy burden to his knee. Why didn't Yao Ming get many points at Turkey? Both Shanghai Shark and Chinese National Team are lack of the connection of inside and outside. And the training level of them is very low. Under this situation, Yao Ming only played out 20% to 30% of what he's suposed to be. Do you think "Ming Dynasty" will come true? Yao ming has talent, body, and the spirit of hard-working. The American don't know Yao Ming. They don't know his personality and individuality. They don't know his attitude when he faces the failures. So Barkley sneered Rockets when they picked Yao Ming. When Ming Dynasty comes true, all the evaluation will focus on Ming's personality, not his height and his body. People will say, Yao Ming is a man. Without his spirit, he cannot get such a great achievement. Please give a rank of our "great wall" in next season. Bateer will have 5 to 10 points and 5 to 6 rebounds. Wang Zhi Zhi will have more play time, 15 to 20 minutes per game. His stat will be improved. Yao Ming will play 30 minutes, because Rockets is lack of centers. What will Yao Ming's stat be at his first game with Indiana? 12points and 8 rebounds. What kind of relationship of Yao Ming and Steve Fransis will be? Yao Ming and Steve $@%&65$54#@2@456~1143$364&%869 ( Su Qun, can you speak Chinese?) http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2002-08-06/1703296389.shtml
This Su Qun guy is good. Very informed and with good insights. Looks like those who know Yao Ming in China are very high on his character and personality. He is viewed as THE future model for China to present to the world. Man, I'm excited. Also, Su has an interesting point. He said that having too strong an upper body will put strain to the knees. Everybody in the NBA thinks he needs to bulk up.
Yao is going to develop into a really good player. He's going to be getting accustomed to a whole new way of life and style of game all at the same time. Cut the guy a little slack. He's not going to be able to come in here and be the Dream right off the bat.
Yao Ming is not the Dream. Yao Ming is the Nightmare. To the other teams of course. Yao Ming is nobody's copycat, he is one of his own kind.
I agree that he will never be the Dream. There game is different. But you can argue that Yao has the tools and the opportunity to dominate more than the Dream. Before I get flamed, let me explain. It is argued that Dream was never the best Center of his time. Afterall, he faced guys like Kareem, Parish then Ewing, Robinson etc. Perhaps he was better than the aforementioned players but the variance was not very extreme. On the other hand, in 5 years Yao's main competitors will be Olowakandi, Brendan Haywood, Todd Maccoulough and an assorted group of rift rafts. Under these conditions and against this lesser group, it is completely viable that Yao will outshine his peers and become the unanimous #1 center in the league. P.S. I luv Olajuwon by the way but he did face some tough competition. Mr. B
No he's never going to be Dream or Shaq ! He is a New Age Center, part Center part Small Forward, it's the way of the Future! He is quite a different player from Dream with different talent and he's 7'6'' and one day will be the Great Yao Ming, having established his own style and greatness at Center.
It is inevitable that the new guy will be compared with the old guy. Ten years later, We will ask here if our 2012 1st round draft pick (if he happens to be a center) is the next Yao Ming.
I've always been skeptical about Rudy's rave about Yao's good personality. 1. It could be wishful thinking blinded by Rudy's appreciation of Yao's talent. 2. Rudy is the kind of guy who always find good things to say about a player (Pippen, Cato, Rice etc. ) So I've learned to give his praises some discount. 3. Most importantly, the cultural gap is bound to distort things. How good can an american guy who's never lived in China judge the character of a Chinese guy who's never lived in America? But now, it's the reporters and fans in China who praises Yao's character relative to other Chinese players. I am convinced. I am a believer now. Damn, Rudy T and Yao Ming. . . the good guys will win!!
Mavs fan here...granted Ming seems to be better toned than Wang Zhizhi entering the league, but I was gonna warn Rox fans about possible conditioning problems with Ming. The quote above intimates that fitness is a problem with the Chinese nat'l team. When Wang debuted with the Mavs at the end of the 2001 season, he had just come off the full CBA season and a successful championship playoff run. Ya gotta figure he was in about as good of shape as the Chinese could get him into. Yet, he couldn't stay on an NBA court 4 mins without nearly passing out. [He's since acquired muuuch better fitness. For example, Wang hung for a seriously intense 9 minute stretch late in the 3rd game of the Minnie series when Raef had foul trouble, and held his own against Smith and Garnett] The past diet Wang has described as a CBA/Team China player wasn't exactly heavy on protein and MetrX, if you get my drift. He's currently working out with a personal trainer in Cali who has opened Wang's eyes with the successful effects that eating muscle-building foods soon after strenuous exercise has had on his body. He describes this as backwards from the Chinese philosophy of delaying eating after exercise for fear of upsetting the stomach. Even though Wang missed training camp and the first few weeks of the 2002 season, he showed up last season in much better shape, thinner and more toned, able to play hard longer. He understood the NBA demands and arrived in better shape for his second season. His current solo efforts this off-season reflect his understanding that NBA success depends on fitness and stamina. He's watched Dirk run his ass off all game long and has learned. What I'm trying to say is, don't expect miracles out of Ming early next season, maybe even ALL season stamina-wise. He was reported to be surprisingly winded during his pre-draft workout. The Chinese don't feed or train their players well enough to prepare them for what Ming faces as an NBA player. Distractions for him are at an all-time high. He's getting little NBA training camp time in October, if I understand correctly. Be very surprised if Ming doesn't lag behind your young NBA greyhounds for a while. For fun, I watched a tape of a Dal vs Hou game last night, and I just wonder how he's gonna keep up early in the season until his diet and more intense training kick in, 'cause the Rox are young, lithe and gotta go. Just a heads up not to over-react. Wang came around.
I don't know about Chinese fitness, but I read the reason Ming was winded at the camp was because of serious jet lag and he couldn't sleep the night before. But I agree he may experience fatigue. Then again, maybe he's a freak. I think he will probably get 20-25 minutes a game, this year. Hopefully this doesn't kill him.
Franz Kafka: There is a difference between Wang and Yao. Wang was like 220-230 lbs as a center in his early NBA games. Naturally he'd get pushed around a bit and be quickly winded. Yao is already 300 lbs, so he can use his mass to save his stamina. A more apt comparison is Mengke Bateer, a fellow Chinese NT member as well as a Denver Nugget. At 290 lbs, Bateer averaged 15 mpg for the Nuggets last season and was pushing others around. The weakness of Bateer is his slow foot speed, not his stamina so you get the point. Yao might be lacking a lil stamina at first, after all he's not fully developed at 21, but I'm sure he's got no problem to log at least a good 20 minutes per game. By the way, it's interesting to hear from other teams' fans. May I ask what do you think about Wang's role on the Mavs in the upcoming season?
He probably knows more than me, but I don't think Wang will play with the Mavs. I think this is because of when Wang didn't want to go back, the Mavs didn't want to get i trouble so they released him or won't sign him. I am assuming he will play for the GSW. Good point about Ming's stamina.
