are they pulling strings?????

I'm always game for a good conspiracy theory. David Stern pulled some strings to get Yao into the allstar game, 'cause he knew it would pad his wallet -- I can buy that.

About the refs, though, I think there's a lot to be said about a player's personality, and how he interacts with the refs.

Example 1: Mobley cries to the refs after every shot. Result -- Refs see Mobley as the type of guy who "Cries Wolf." Even if he was hacked blatantly, if a ref didn't see it, he'll be less inclined to believe Mobley.

Example 2: Yao just plays basketball. If a ref sees one of Yao's shots go up as a total airball, even though Yao doesn't complain, the ref suspects Yao wouldn't throw up an airball unless someone hit him on the forearm, and thus blows a whistle.

You gotta be good, and you gotta be humble. It worked for Dream.

 

Slightly off topic but this should put to bed conspiracy theories. The Economist recently did an article on conspiracy theories, how they start and who believes in them. http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=1489200

"the culprit was clearly not al-Qaeda, but rather something called al-Gur."

Do you still believe?

 

Yao will be specially treated to keep the Chinese people happy, the Chinese officials, and govt happy, and it's military at bay. But most importantly, it's to prevent China from not exporting and supplying the Walmarts of the nation. Imagine a Walmart store without the tag "made in China" on 90% of its stock. The economy would collapse, the stock market would plummet, and the USA would fall prey to our enemies.
But don't tell the Chinese this next part.........
We, the people of the United States, and the NBA organization, in so carrying out the above mentioned plan/tactic, will make Yao love our way of life, our freedom, and our Democracy. In a short time, Yao will have the love, trust, support, and attention of an entire Chinese Communist Nation. The name "Yao" will be known to the world as the start of a new beginning, a complete change in the outlook of China. Yao will be our secret weapon in soothing the giant of the East. Democracy will reign in China, and peace, prosperity, and freedom will spread throughout Asia.

So the rest of the players in the NBA had better watch what they do to Yao.
No offence to anybody....

 

I don't think it's a conspiracy as far as Houston going form 5th to 1st. There is a 9-10 percent chance if I remember correctly that Houston fight got the first pick being the 5th worst team in the league. One in ten is a small chance but not a substantial odd that they have to beat to get the first pick. I think the NBA profit more if Yao was going to a big mardet area like New York ,Chicago, or Golden State. As far as he getting the call being a rookie, it is all about respect. Even though Yao is not a veteran, in many way he act much more mature than the veterans. He play the game the right way with no dirty tricks. He doesn't complain when call was not make or call go against him. And the refs see that he truly has talents and doesn't fake or flop trying to get a call. With all these factors combine, I think it pull the refs to lean toward Yao when making a call. Also, by Yao giving the refs the respect, the ref give him back the respect he deserve. That how life usually goes. In order to receive respect you have to give other respect first. As far as the All star vote go, you'll be surpirse how many fan from other team vote for Yao. Sometime when I read other team's bbs board, there are a lot of people said they vote for Yao. People love underdog and Yao does truly have talents. People are tired of the old physical bully type of play and they are looking for something fresh and fun to watch. So I really don't think there is any conspiracy here. Yao create all these by himself.

 

Conspiracy? You never know. Wasn't Houston the first team that Yao saw and followed? Don't forget that Yao was also a fan of Hakeen after that and copy his moves. Didn't Yao Mom says that Hakeem was his favorite player? Doesn't that makes you wonder? Yao was suppose to be a BIG marketing scheme and I wouldn't surprise if they ask what team Yao wants to play for. Maybe they knew NY wasn't the place for Yao because of the pressure and the team pretty much sux and not to forget people will cry conspiracy against Stern if NY won.

 

Al-Gur invented the internet. The internet is where all conspiracies take root. Al-Qaeda is another conspiracy. And now Al-Gur and his agents are stuffing the poll boxes and using the net to influence the All-Star vote. They're trying to take down Superman, an American institution!

I should join the Stern's office or the CIA.

 

<i>when in nba history has a team u shouldve been having the 9th pick in the draft end up with number 1? </i>

Houston had the 5th worst record in the league last year, not the 9th. It wasn't too unbelievable that we got the first pick.

<i>how does yao go from 200,00 votes behind shaq to all the way 200,000 votes past shaq?.</i>

In the previous All-Star balloting totals, Shaq led Yao by less than 10,000 votes, not by 200,000.

Do you really find it that surprising that Yao is leading the balloting?

 

Fact is one should wonder why oh why does yao only have 800,000+ votes now UNLESS the NBA have not YET or have NO plans of including the China vote . If they include the china vote Yao would at the VERY LEAST get another million votes.

I have friends who are in contact with their relatives in China and many of those who spoke to wonder how come Yao has only such few votes. NO ONE there believes the China vote is counted yet and expressed concern whether their vote will count or not. If the NBA does not have intention of counting them coz it gives what others may consider a unfair advantage to Yao , then they should not have made the ballots available in Chinese right ? The timing of providing ballots in Chinese the year Yao enters the NBA certainly means they want chinese participation in the balloting and regardless of how biased or not the chinese votes go , they should be reflected in the tally otherwise dont provide ballots in Chinese in the first place.

 

I agreed. The only surprising part is that Yao is not the overall leading vote getter with 10 million votes.

 

OK now... I grow really tired with comments like above.
Hopefully somebody will keep reminding in the next thread with similar comments to what I have to say.

Research from Duke University estimates the number of Internet users in China to be around 20 million people (Not all 1 billion Chinese have access, that's a very simple common sense). Now, assuming 10% of these Internet users are basketball fans (which is fair and gracious in my opinion), there would be a potential 2,000,000 votes coming from China. But, not all 2,000,000 people know how to vote in NBA.com, plus some people are just casual basketball fans, not really die hard fans who will vote for their favorite players no matter what.

So assuming 5% of these 2,000,000 Chinese people actually vote, that would give only 100,000 votes coming from China directly.

So... please do us a favor and stop making comments why Yao does not get 1 billion or 100 million votes. There are already many stupid comments from Lakers (e.g. Shaq said that 1 billion people is tough to beat. Phil said Internet clearly has travelled to China).

 

20 million by Duke University estimates ? Sounds really like an undercount. That is only less than 2% of internet penetration in a country of 1.2 billion people, not to mention all the others from Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas Chinese all over the world. The number I am more acustomed to is close to 20%, which puts the internet users around 200 million !!!

 

Sorry. With Yao being their sort of national figure right now, I think assuming 10% from the total number of Internet users voted for Yao seems just as flaw as the idea of Yao's getting 1 billion votes.

Just my 2c.

 

It's just so obvious that the oversea votes didn't totally make it to the current results.

 

The number of fixed telephone lines in China is 130 million, at least according to the reference below. 200 million Internet users prediction are too optimistic.

Some references:
http://www.dallasfed.org/htm/research/hot/bd0900b.html

faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/ Teaching/BA491_2000/Cc/Cc.xls

 

Yes Yao is a national treasure. But people in China still prefer Michael Jordan than Yao, at least for the time being. 10% is okay for me. Yao may be famous, but unless you are die hard basketball and Yao fans, you won't vote for him. I believe overseas count is included.