This is an article by a Chinese reporter who is following Rockets at Houston. Yao Ming didn't play well at the first half with Grizzlies. At the half time, Cat yelled at him, "What are you doing? Do you want to play or not? We must win this game." Yao Ming said these words woke him up and he played hard at the third Quarter. (He had 8 points at that Q). (In fact YM only played 21 minutes in that game. I think he played well.) After the game, Yao Ming said to Cat sincerely, "Thank you very much." Yao Ming said this is one of the hardest "critique" he got from his teammates in this season. Another one is when they played Grizzlies first time. The center of Grizzlies played very dirty on YM. Yao was afraid to get injuried. He played timidly. Rice came to him and said angrily, "If you don't throw you elbow to him, I won't pass the ball to you." "They always remind me on court. I am a rookie. I made mistakes. These critiques helped me a lot........" Yao also said he didn't technically improve this season. He wants to improve his techniques at the summer camp. something else like "you pass to me, I attack the basket; You don't pass me, I play defence." http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2003-04-18/0327427199.shtml
see, if there's one thing ming needs steve and cat for, it's to learn to play aggressive. good for cat for speaking up like that. hopefully yao takes it all to heart and comes back one mean sob. that is the most important thing yao can learn. and see, if cat's on the team next year, yao will learn to play a lot of D. another advantage of cat.
in the playing with fire and intensity department, he has all the room in the world to criticize others. it's not like he told him to learn to pass better.
Did Cat say "We must win this game" (against Memphis)? OMG Did someone not tell him Phoenix clinched the 8th spot on Sunday? Can someone tell me why We had to win that game?
Wow, and to think I almost replied with the "I wonder how long it takes until this turns into a Cuttino bashing thread". I held off because I figured cooler heads would prevail -- obviously not . . .
its good that the rockets are getting on ming for not being aggressive. but they need to do it more. next year in training camp, rudy T should make yao ming run laps around the new stadium everytime he lays the ball up instead of dunking it whenever hes a ft away from the basket.
Cutino bashing is a way of life. Cutino should first take the log out his eyes before worrying about the speck in Yao's. Rice, MoTay and Rudy are about the only the only people I will not have a problem with when it comes to advising Yao. By the way, Mobley should fire his publicist sofort.
R u telling me I can go in there and tell them all off if I can play with fire and intensity even if I play stupidly? I think Yao went all out a lot! It was just that his tank is running on empty. Sure we all heard it before but how come the Rockets had never done anything about it? Yao had to help out Cat and Steve on defense most every play and then set pick on most every offense set?!! How about letting someone else take that burden once in a while? Then come back and tell me if Yao doesn't play all out!
yao did not have to help cuttino out all the time. cuttino was our most consistent perimeter defender and is much more susceptible to being shot over than getting burned. and if he does get beat every once in a while, well that's what 7'5 guys are supposed to be for. and yeah, setting picks, really tiring work. maybe physically demanding, but not tiring if you are only setting one on a possession out top. like i said, cuttino can talk all he wants about playing hard b/c he does.
Last home game of the season. Last Rockets game in the Compaq center. It was a basketball game. So if he had said "it's just another game, no big deal if we win or lose" I'm sure you would've been content, right?
This is great to hear, windandsea. What I and many others would like to know is this... how much time is Yao going to have in Houston working out and getting exposed to playing with great players from all over the NBA who come here to work on their game/ for the Summer Leagues/ for Newell's big-man camp and a host of other things available to him in the States. When will he have the time? He can be a great player, there is no question about it in my mind, but if he's tied up with all the Chinese commitments and flying back and forth to the far side of the world (and I've made that trip, to Hong Kong at least, so I know what it's like) when will he find the time? And if he's worn down before he reaches greatness (and we would like him to have "greatness" for many years), what then?
Yes. Because Yao plays timid sometimes. I'm glad Rice and Mobley said something. If Yao is playing hard, but missing shots, that's one thing. But if he's playing soft, and missing shots. That's another thing! At least play hard. He does not all the time. Especially when defenders play dirty and rough w/him.
W&S, good article thanks! Good to see Yao's teammates doing all they can to teach Yao about being more agressive. Yao is a rookie. He came A LONG way this year in his development. He will just get better and better.
not timid. STUPID is the correct word for how yao plays. the guy is so used to laying it up, even if you made him and his teammates run laps, he'd still lay it up cause that's what he's used to. he couldn't dunk the ball to save his life if it depended on it. it's like you have to remind him he's 7'5.
