Shaq met Yao's parents. Yao's dad said that they greeted each other, then Shaq said a lot of things but he didn't understand what Shaq said. Yao's dad joked that Shaq might be bollocking them, but he didn't understand so it didn't matter anyway. Shaq did look sincere though, Yao's dad added. LOL.
Yao is the ROY because he's much, much better than Stoudamire on defense. It's not remotely close. Game over. Yao is resented for three reason, one of which is legit, one is half-legit, and the other is bull****: 1. He got so much hype so quickly. It's not his fault, he didn't ask for it... but players are going to resent less accomplished rookies who get more press than they do. Some of it's negative... but any press is good press, if you know what I mean. 2. American plays resent the growing influx of foreigners. Look at the media treatment of the issue: Americans (and particularly black players) are stereotyped as me-first, streetballers w/low basketball IQ and poor technical skills. Euros and now Yao are considered technically proficient, team-oriented, and generally more pleasant and less spoiled. This stereotype isn't always true, but there's some truth to it. And you bet the players resent it. It's not Yao's fault, so they shouldn't hold it against him. 3. Yao is a 7'5 Chinese guy. Some of it's probably bigotry. But some of them probably honestly believe that a 7'5 black center wouldn't get the same press, even w/the same skill set. So this factor is partly racist, but not completely.
Crap, Jeff stole my thunder. Next time I'll check to make sure there's not a 2nd page that I haven't read yet .
International three point range is 20'6". NBA three point range is 23'6". That's a big difference. Thank God Yao doesn't shoot threes. The last thing the Rockets need is to turn him into a perimeter shooter.
Compared to those jealous players, Jamaine O'Neal is much more smarter by saying "Yao is money maker for every player in the league".
RIET, if this is any other rookie center then maybe I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but as it stands, Stoudemire simply does not play against better competition than Yao. Let's even set aside the fact that Yao gets double/triple teamed sometimes even before he touches the ball while Amare does not. But if I recall, Rasheed, TD, Elton, KG and Dirk also all took turns guarding Yao. So your argument is simply not valid.
And on the defence end, I believe every time a player on the opposing team dunked the ball the announcers said they dunked right over Yao. Remember KG's dunks in the most recent Wolves game?
One of the coolest things about NBATV is that it shows much of the live court action from All Star weekend we don't usually see. I mention this because watching the players on the floor together, you can pretty much see who is resentful (like Shaq and Garnett) and who isn't resentful (like Kobe and Dirk) toward Yao. Yesterday, I was cracking up watching Adelman run the West All-Stars through shooting drills. Yao was mixing in well with the other players (especially, Kobe, who really was engaging Yao quite a bit). Anyway, during shooting drills, Adelman had players form two teams and shoot from the elbow and the top of the key. Yao was stroking the ball from everywhere. (FYI, Yao was hitting shots from a step inside the NBA 3 with ease.) The funny thing was watching Shaq around Yao. In the drill, Shaq wasn't taking deep shots, he would move in to about 5 feet and take his hook shot. After watching Yao warm up and get his stroke (Shaq seemed to notice each shot Yao took) , Shaq started trying to shoot from 15+ feet out and was airballing practically everything. One other thing to note, Francis was shooing away some of the media from Yao during the practice and seemed to be cut one interview short so Yao could get back to havign fun.
Exactly, it's the Yao affect. He effects everything. Just think about it. He put everyone on a world stage whenever they play with or against Yao. J. Oneal knows, if he played well against Yao he would gain some new fans in China, that he could only dream off, more fans mean more money and fame(globally). That's what every player's dream beside getting a ring. If we didn't draft Yao. I am sure most people in China don't even know where Houston is let along Jason Collier.
Oh I hate NBATV and the cable carriers! $179 worth of league pass cann't eve get you a freaking NBATV channel.
Remember the Celtics game? How many rookies cause a team to totally collapse on him like that. I didn't see the Celtics put 5 players on Stoudemire when they played Phoenix
Tell me how many blocks does Amare have? How many assists? How often does he cause a team to change their game plan like Yao does? There really is no comparison. Reaching the playoffs depends on how the entire team does not just 1 player.
This is off the topic. How tall is Yao's dad? Most reports said 6' 7''. He definitively looks taller than that in the picture above. More like a 6' 9" or 6' 10".
IMO, that is the crux of the whole thing. Yao changes the way teams play the game. Amare does also but to a much lesser degree. With Amare, you double him and he is virtually neutralized. With Yao, you double and he'll kill you with the pass. You can't back off of him or he'll hit a jumper. The problem is that the stuff Yao does is more reflective of greatness in a player over many years. It can create crazy numbers but, given his rookie status and the fact that he is really still learning the NBA/American game, those numbers probably won't be as crazy this season as they will be in seasons to come. Also, in the ROY balloting, writers almost always reward guys with huge numbers in one or two categories rather than players who have really good numbers in a wide variety of categories. And, when it comes to highlights, Amare is going to get the bulk of them with dunks. Both of them are very talented. Both of them are amazing stories - one from China never playing organized American ball, one straight out of high school - but Amare's game is easier to ooh and ah over right now. It doesn't mean he'll be the best player standing in 10 years. It just means, for now, he's getting the highlight reel. My money is on Yao when it comes to winning.
Yao demands a game plan against him for every game now. But there are still people out there like Tolbert who does not know BBall game and only talks about stats. What a shame!!! Fans know more than them.
