BEIJING (AP) -- The Houston Rockets won't find out if they can sign Yao Ming until at least mid-October, a Chinese sports official said Sunday. ``Matters concerning Yao's playing in the NBA will be made clear after the Asian Games,'' which end Oct. 14, Li Furong was quoted as saying from Busan, South Korea, by the official Xinhua News Agency. Li, a deputy director of the State General Administration of Sports, didn't say what issues remain to be worked out. Yao still needs approval from the Chinese Basketball Association before signing a contract with the Rockets. The NBA team doesn't expect there to be a problem, team spokesman Nelson Luis said Sunday. Chinese officials have said Yao's dealings with the Rockets would not be affected by the dispute over the Dallas Mavericks' Wang Zhizhi, who angered Chinese sports officials by not reporting for training with the national team. ``Wang's issue with the Chinese team will not affect Yao's NBA future,'' Li said. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news/ap/20020929/ap-rockets-yao.html the strange thing is in chinese news site, what Li said is "Yao's signing will not face any obstacles" basically it is a same article, but turns out to be two different interperation...guess some people add "water" while translate from chinese to english. http://sports.sohu.com/24/29/sports_news165042924.shtml
If any of you doubt that the NY-based media has an extreme bias against Yao Ming, read the lead of this article, and read the lead of the original article in windandsea's thread. The original lead: BUSAN, Sept. 29 (Xinhuanet by Wang Jingyu ) -- The 2002 NBA Draft top pick Yao Ming is likely to get green light from the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) to start his NBA career after the Busan Asian Games. Revised: BEIJING (AP) -- The Houston Rockets won't find out if they can sign Yao Ming until at least mid-October, a Chinese sports official said Sunday. While it's not untrue... it's clearly an omission of facts to try and build the anti-Ming stance that most of the New York readers want to hear.
I think politically China cannot afford not let Yao Ming join Rockets any more. Rockets have done an excellent job in many aspects so far, and I have no doubt that Yao will come to Houston after the Asian games. It is reported that more than 10 Rockets, most of them are staff I think, attended a banquet hosted by local Chinese communities to celerate the Chinese national day yesterday evening. Here are some pictures linked from sina.com:
As I said before, Xinhua is the official news agency of China. Trust them the most than any other media when China news are quoted. In this case, it appears that AP only translate half of what the sports official said (this part is quite vague) and then used its imagination to amplify the "rumor." sigh! Expect to see half the sports pages in the country's newspapers will carry the AP article tomorrow. THen the idstorted news will spread even further.
It's already the lead basketball story in Toronto's biggest newspaper, the Star. Big Headline..." Ming's NBA Future Up In The Air." To be fair to the Star, though, and reflecting both the high degree of multi-culturism in Toronto, and the lack of American-only basketball insecurity in Canada, at the time of the draft the local sprts coverage of Ming was a lot more positive than was generally the case in the States. They rarely focused on the negatives that ESPN etc. did, but talked more about his potential to be revolutionary, and the whole internationalization of the NBA angle.
I agree that some in the media, based all over the country, are looking for an excuse to bash Ming, but it's not geographical by any means. I live in New York. And nobody gives a damn about Ming here one way or the other. I don't even know that story will make it into tomorrow's papers (print edition) as its a post-NFL monday.
I still don't see how this is an issue.....how can you allow somone to be drafted but not signed. That's soooo stupid!
Fox26 SportsXtra Sunday is about to comment on Ming in the next few minutes. Check it out! Ok, they just aired the segment and pretty much read from this article word for word. Then they cut to footage of the Rockets owner on Thursday saying that things are always being negotiated when you are dealing with the #1 pick & a $14 million dollar contract. Finally, they aired his opinion about this Rockets squad being "the best team ever assembled."
BEIJING (AP) -- The Houston Rockets won't find out if they can sign Yao Ming until at least mid-October, a Chinese sports official said Sunday. Sports Xtra Sunday just repeated this statement
Yeah, same stuff, different broadcast. Didn't windandsea already post all of this? This is getting boring.
Hey if he comes, he comes. If not, no big deal. We have something called individual liberty here, and Les can't strip that away from Ming once he's here. I mean what do the chinese officials expect, do they expect the United States goverment to whiplash Ming's ass if he refuses to go back to China.
damn just imagine Americas goverment forcing Shaq or Kobe or whoever to play for their special nationalistic prideful little feelings -- or else! If something like that were to happen here, it would stir a revolution.
*Note : This is an observation, not an attempt to piss anyone off.. I find that Americans are one of the LEAST patriotic people in the world.... I mean, I completely understand China's stance in the Yao Ming AND Wang Zhi Zhi situations...I expect Ming to be here soon..It's like a mother's only son going away for college...she's going to stall it as much as possible.....But it's going to happen anyway... Just wait. Yao Ming will be a Houston Rocket before the regular season starts.
Yes. I remembered that Ming said his first NBA play with Indiana will be very good, but he cannot predict his whole season because there are so many "x" factors in a 82-game-long season.
Especially since the AP goes out globally, and is not a media company for New York. I think this guys post was just the chip-on-the-shoulder deal of having that feeling that other cities don't respect Houston or whatever.
I don't know Mandarin but you are being shunned and so I'll try. If I remember correctly "X" in this case sounds like "sh" so, Sheen-hwah?
And just a mention: Pukesworld---er, hoopsworld (admin, do not lock the thread, please)---is dumping over Yao ("Yao will not be a factor" etc). And they kind of run with the "No Yao Now" BS. Generally, the sites that believe Yao was too much of a risk will go ahead and be negative. But if you want a laugh (admin, please do not lock the thread) go to the site and read how many wins they predict for each team. Good Lord, talk about an East Coast bias (admin, do not lock the thread)!
