SA Express News: Now that the ad is over: What Yao needs now

Don't know if it's posted before. My comment for this article is: Yao Ming MUST take the Rockets to the playoffs.

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=1010&xlc=946524

Buck Harvey: Now that the ad is over: What Yao needs now


Web Posted : 02/11/2003 12:00 AM

Monday proved it. Yao Ming really can sit in a first-class airplane seat, reach up, then pull something down from the overhead bin.
He can do this, too, without Mini Me sitting next to him.

But the more telling Continental moment came further back in the plane. Slumped in his seat, asleep before takeoff, was Yao's translator.

Talking for Yao over the first half of this season would wear out anyone.

As opposed to playing against him.

By all indications, Yao plans to change that. And it's not as if Yao has been lazy. If anything, the opposite is true. He's wondered why Rudy Tomjanovich doesn't work him harder in practice.

Then there's his energy and willingness to accommodate everyone. Yao has usually addressed the media before every game with a news conference, and on off days he's been hanging with everyone from Gatorade to Mini Me. He's made four commercials this season, including one for a Chinese cellular company.

An ESPN The Magazine reporter is witness to that. He traveled with the Rockets on a road trip and spent entire days with Yao, and one 12-hour commercial shoot in particular had him feeling as weary as the translator.

It's what the NBA dreamed of. Yao sells to a new market with the persistence that few in the business have, and it's turned into covers of national magazines and huge ratings overseas.

Yao was no different this past weekend. Traffic grid-locked downtown Atlanta, and about the only one who didn't mind was Avery Johnson. He'd rented a Cadillac Escalade limo that came with an outdoor hot tub in the pickup bed.

The price? About $1,500 a day, swimsuits not included.

In this traffic mess, stuffed inside a van like a clown at the circus, going from one function to another, Yao emerged to walk to his next engagement.

That's the nature of a man who doesn't stiff anyone. Voted to the All-Star team as a starter, he didn't have to show up Saturday night when the rookies took on the sophomores. But he asked if he could. So there he was in coat and tie, sitting behind his fellow rookies, a show of solidarity.

It sure beats Jason Richardson throwing a bounce pass off an opponent's head, and the fans love Yao. Outside of Michael Jordan's introduction Sunday night, Yao perhaps received the second-loudest ovation.

Then the game followed, and it looked like a lot of games this season. Steve Francis threw Yao a nice pass for a dunk — his only shot of the game.

He was what he has been, a charming innovation. When Rick Adelman teamed him with Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett, the lineup came with a Yao-ed nickname. They made The Great Wall.

Yao kept at it even at halftime. Then he was supposed to go on a national conference call to China, but the broadcasting crew couldn't get the audio feed.

The visual wouldn't have worked well, either. Yao played far fewer minutes than any starter, only 17, and here's the twist. There are nights Tomjanovich doesn't play him much more with the Rockets.

Now Yao figures it's time to prove he's more than a curiosity. Yao says he won't do any more commercial shoots this season. He's ready to play, and here's a change that David Robinson and Duncan adopted a long time ago: No more pregame interviews.

If Yao is ever going to win consistently, he'll need more than that. He will need Francis and the others to play through him, not around him, and the responsibility should fall to Tomjanovich.

But the burden will eventually fall on Yao, no matter how many pictures he poses for and how many times he smiles. That's why what follows now will tell more about the legacy of Yao than all of his All-Star Weekend appearances.

The way it's going, he'll need more than more focus. The Rockets' recent slump makes them the favorites to head for the lottery a fourth consecutive time, assuming the Lakers don't lose what they gained before the break.

It won't be the first time a No. 1 overall draft pick didn't take his team to the playoffs. Ralph Sampson did it for these very Rockets, and Kwame Brown did it just last season.

But to Yao? To his legend?

He doesn't need to reach up from his seat anymore. He needs to stand up.

 

Kwame Brown's a high schooler. KG and T-Mac didn't take their teams to playoffs in rookie seasons either. Plus please tell me you don't consider Brown on a par with Yao. If so, your standard and expectation are too low. All the great players took their teams to playoffs year in year out.