The question asked is: What impact will Yao Ming have? Currently 50.3% say he will be selected to the All-Rookie Team. 2nd most popular opinion is "Flop" at 20.4%. Those that say flop must be Kenny Smith and Charles Barkely followers. I hope they remember what they proclaimed on draft night. "When it comes down to it, I don't think Yao will be able to communicate and comprehend plays in the heat of the moment....language barrier will be too tough to overcome." This is just one of the many unresearched comments they mentioned. Have Rudy and Yao not had personal conversations w/out the use of interpreters? Yao knows enough english to get by, especially when it comes to basketball terminology. IMO, no man over 7'4" has this much athleticism and all around ability. The closest may be Ralph Sampson. Any others you can think of? The purpose of this post is for us Rockets fans that, all bias aside, actually know something about the guy to realize that he can't be a flop. The people in the know, i.e. general managers, have already spoken in favor of Yao. Go to the site and vote your opinion. By the way, I picked All-Rookie Team also, I think R.O.Y. may be a stretch due to first year transition.
Talent with ming won't be the issue...it is longevity. Will he be able to remain healthy and athletic over a period of years. Bradley is weak but he is the only big guy(Sabonis, sampson, Mureson) who was able to stay on the court without being hurt. The odds, while love his game, aren't in his favor.
Off the subject, but I saw Sampson's name and have to say that I always thought he hasnt been given his due as a great player when he was here and healthy. Im a big Stick fan.
I disagree with that. First of all, everyone stop all these comparisons to Shawn Bradley; I know you were just making a point, but Bradley is not in the same league as Ming. Ming will last as long as Bradley, and beyond, due to his work ethic among other things. He will continue to add bulk, which will add durability. Someone made a good point when they said, "Burden will not be heavy on Yao due to the players around him." Sabonis just came in the league too late in his career to last long. While Sampson did have the bad knees. To my knowledge, Yao has never had a serious injury that could hinder him in the future. By the way, Manute Bol lasted at least 10 years from his rebounding and blocks alone. God knows he couldn't put it in the hoop. Mureson and most guys this size don't have the athleticism to play long. Hell, i don't even know if Shaq has the pure athleticism to last long, but thats because he's a freak of nature with his size. Like I said, Yao has the total athleticism, not to mention pure pride and determination to not only last but make a lasting impression, which those guys you mentioned will not do, sorry Sabonis. Sampson lasts in Rockets memories.
hey, i hope your right i like his game and his attitude. he's got a tough streak which means he has confidence in his game.
sabonis played a fairly long career overseas before coming here so i'm pretty sure he wasn't injury prone until he got older. as for the rest of those guys you can take all of their legs together and yao would still have a bigger base. that is the most important reason why he has a great chance at longevity. put yao's base on sampson and he never retires from injuries.
Thats somewhat true. A big base would have helped Sampson. But it wouldnt have helped that back injury cause of that nasty spill in Boston he took. Thats what led to his downfall.
I'm not sure I totally agree with that in a physical sense. He did seem to loose some aggressiveness after that and I always thought that it had something to do with the Boston game. But I thought it was more mental. He was really dominating the first half of that game as I recall. I always felt like his knees were his big downfall.
His knees went bad because of his back which was because of the fall. That was pretty well documented. His numbers were still very good after that, but after his knees started to fail, his career was pretty much over with.
Yao has a lot to prove. There is a lot of questions: 1. Can his body hold up to the NBA's rigourous demands (not just 82 games in 6 months...but all the practices) and heavy banging - without having any rest from the summer. 2. Does he have the confidence. The NBA is extremely intimidating, and other players are going to try to make an ass out of him and succeed at times. Can he deal with it? 3. Will he get past the injuries and avoid the career threatning ones. No one knows that answer to this. No one. Not for any basketball player. No one knew about Mouring's kidney's...Hardaway's Knees, Jayson William's leg, Robinson's Back. It's always a wild card. 4. Will his skill translate to the NBA game? Can he play defense without fouling out in 15 minutes? Now, the Rockets think the answer is yes to all four. He certainly is worth the risk. I don't know if he will be a bust or not, but I think it's too early to say either way. He definitely has potential. I know I will be comparing his results and progress with the other top picks. I have my doubts, but if Yao does make it and fully realizes what all the hype is...then I think that would be remarkable.
I'm not saying your wrong its just that I remember it a little different. But the fall was nasty. Especially watching him being carted off of the floor on that stretcher. I thought he blew out his first knee because he landed funny while favoring that leg due to a sprained ankle on the other foot. But like I'm saying it has been a long time and I admit I might be wrong on this.
I remember the who thing pretty well. Mainly cause I was such a big Ralph backer. After the fall, his back was so bad, when he would run, he was favoring his back so much, he was causing abnormal wear and tear on his knees. Im not sure which knee blew out first, but it was just a vicious cycle after that (i.e. he had knee surgery, then when he came back, he was favoring it, which caused the other knee to go bad, etc.). Plus, I do remember that one of his knee surgeries was a butcher job. This was the knee that he had several surgeries on. After the 3rd or 4th surgery, it was all over. His knee was shot and would never be the same.
"1. Can his body hold up to the NBA's rigourous demands (not just 82 games in 6 months...but all the practices) and heavy banging - without having any rest from the summer. 2. Does he have the confidence. The NBA is extremely intimidating, and other players are going to try to make an ass out of him and succeed at times. Can he deal with it? 3. Will he get past the injuries and avoid the career threatning ones. No one knows that answer to this. No one. Not for any basketball player. No one knew about Mouring's kidney's...Hardaway's Knees, Jayson William's leg, Robinson's Back. It's always a wild card. 4. Will his skill translate to the NBA game? Can he play defense without fouling out in 15 minutes? " 1) He has shownt hat he can play a lot. He won't have a big problem while he's here, because Cato can play 30 minutes a night. If he averages 18 minutes a night for his first season, I think he'll be fine. 2) He already answered this in the World Championships, where he got good numbers, and the US team's players ALL praised him. Antonio Davis, Baron Davis, Paul Pierce....They all said he's got game. 3) This one's kinda irrelevant because every single NBA player has to prove this in their first few seasons. No reason to put this one on Yao. No one knows what happens, that's true. But if you consider this, then who do you pick...coz....you never know, right? 4) This one is a good pint, but again, this is the same question for all rookies. From what we saw/heard at the Worlds, he played great against all competition (including U.S.). I must admit though, even I am worried about Fouls. But almost every player gets past this, and we know Yao....He's a very sharp guy..Something like this won't take him long to get. Don't get me wrong. I dont' expect him to have the same numbers as Jayson Williams or Dajuan Wagner or Caron Butler. But after the first season, I expect him to be the ebst player in the class. There's too much pressure on him so far, and hopefully, we'll let him ease through it in his rookie season, while working a lot in the weight room/practice, garbage minutes early on. Good points, I had the same question a couple of months ago. But he's just too convincing every time I see him.
Yao Ming is verry tall, but he's got huge leggs, and he naver had a serieus injury, just because he si tall doesn't mean he is injury prone. When you are just tall and very skinny you have a problem, and when you are verry fat and you have a problem, but Yao Ming, is tall and not verry skinny, he is a hard worker, and he is stonger than al lot of people give him credit for. because he is tall he wil get pushed away some times. because his gravity point is higer, so people can get under them.but he is strong.don't write him of because of his height. he can get injured but so can every player in the nba
