Guys, chill out. The fact of the matter is Yao IS definitely going back to China. And he should! It's necessary for him not only to fullfill his duty as a NT player, but also, on more personal level, to go back his home county and visit his relatives, friends, and fans in China. On the other hand, the NBA needs him maintaining a close relationship with China so the market value $$$ is there. The opposite case would be Wang Zhi Zhi. Did you believe the only reason Yao got all the hype was because he could play? Having said that, I think the best solution is to have a personal trainer to go with Yao. This will make all the sides happy.
Chinese fan, you have nothing to fear about Yao jumping ship from the National team. Everyone knows Yao is a very patriotic fellow compared to Wang who is only here for the all-mighty dollar. If Yao was here to earn some "greenbacks" he would have left the National team when he was negoating a contract with the Rockets. Remember the CBA or the Chinese Government or someone back in China............. is getting a huge cut of Yao's paychecks. If money is what he came here for, he would have told China, "**** that," and left the National team high and dry when they tried to take his money. But as a die hard Rockets fan, I do agree that he needs some time to rest and recharge his batteries fro next season. He has an obligation here too, now. Part of it is playing his best to make you Chinese fans proud. If you are going to be the best against the best, you have to be ready to play the best this league has to offer. Rest is what's best for him. One more thing, you must not be from around these parts. I say that because you mentioned "Houston" and "Small-town" in the same sentence. Brotha' this is the 4th largest city in America, bigger than Miami, San Francisco, Philly, Detroit, Seattle etc......Our city limits are three times the size of Israel. And and got more people in this damn town than Iraq and Iran combined! If China needs some people, they can gladly take some of ours. It would free up some much needed space on our roadways.
Playing for his homeland is great and necessary, but the kid needs some time to rest. Shaq makes rap albums and movies in his off-season. Yao definitely needs to practice, but going all-out in the summer after a full season of the NBA could hurt his development far more than help it.
Ok, when does training camp start over here? late Sept or early Oct? The games he is training for are in the first week of August and shouldn't last more than a week or two...that means he should have from the end of the games till the start of training camp to rest.. better than nothing huh?
Ohoh, I should start such post in this forum, admin, please delete this post for me. thanks and world peace,
Munco, I agree with you. Yao need rest and I hope national team coach will give him more time to stay with his family and girl friend at home.
I really hope the Chinese team doesn't deprogram Yao to get him to stop playing aggresive and dunking because it's "disrespectful". Please don't undo all the hard work the Rocket coaches have done. I really think the Rockets should send Colin Pine to China with Yao to make sure he's not overworked, and that he's working on his upper body.
Isn't yao is generally considered fundamentally sound player by nba coaches? Didn't yao learn his skills from the coaches in china? It's funny now all of the sudden coaches in china would make him less of a basketball player? I agree that chinese coaches would have their weaknesses and rockets can send their own experts to help yao in those areas. But please dont sound like rockets will send yao to some amateur coaches. I just hope that yao would get a long break in the summer.
You may find it hard to believe, but not everyone in America is corrupted by greed and marketing. Duncan is one of hte best players in the world and gets relatively little pub. I don't care how much Yao gets, as long as he gets damn good, superstar good.
Good point, and something people seem to need reminding of. Also, the NBA season is probably a lot more tiring for Yao than training with the NT. At least he won't be on a plane 3 days out of the week. Yao may be China's best player, and he may even be considerably better than last year, but the training is for learning to play as a team. Ideally, a team is supposed to be more than the sum of its parts. If the Americans took that long to play together, do you think we'd have finished 6th? If the situation was reversed and we had our best American player playing overseas, you'd go crazy if he contemplated not coming and training with our Olympic squad. His patriotism would be seriously questioned, not to mention the wisdom of letting him go in the first place. Wang is a punk-ass for abandoning his country. Everyone can understand the importance of American patriotism; can no one understand patriotism toanother country? And the freedom argument is weak. Go to China, Yao. Do your country proud.
Yeah, its a good point, but don't forge tthe dunking issue. Even this late in the season he's putting up finger rolls and lay-ups when he needs to be stuffing the rock down someone's throat, which is considered rude in China. You'd think something as simple as "Slam It" would be easy to remember, but apparently, its not. Yao: Be careful, don't get injured, hit the weights, and don't forget how to dunk.
Can not agree with JuanValdez anymore. I understand that many rocket fans do not want Yao go back China so he can play his best for Rocket next season. But as I said before, Yao first is a Chinese player, then is a Rocket player. National game is at least as important as NBA game for him. BTW, sorry for mention houston as a "small town" in the early post. The "small" I mean there is relative to "best" in nations and world instead of best only in one city. I like houston as a city personally.
Spiral:- You must be a realy low down sort of person. One that would wish such a bad thing on one of our Team must be an ungodly wretch of of a being. I hope you dont call yourself mankind. For saying such horrible disgusting, rude and abusive statements you should be sent back to wherever you came from!
10 days huh? Well we are still not mathematically out of the playoffs. We need to win out, and if Phoenix loses to San Antonio, @Portland, and @Seattle/or Golden State we are in. Those are tough teams. And we have a fairly easy schedule. Against seattle we are at home, against memphis aswell, and when we are at denver well its self explanitory.
