I love Yao. 2 things happened that ruined his career. 1) Far away, the worst thing to happen to his career, the Chinese government broke him down by playing him year round. 7'6" giants are not supposed to play in every minor tournament in existence. Either NBA or obscurity in the Chinese league but you can't have it both ways. 2) In a lesser way it's the way the bulked up for the JVG regime. I love JVG but Yao was always huge, he didn't need to bulk up even more like he did. He just needed to use his size. He lost the speed that he had the early years and then the added bulk and the continuous pounding on the post killed him. I wish Yao had Adelman instead of JVG during those years. He would have made use of Yao on the high post as well as the low post, making him truly versatile, like a center version of Webber but more dominant both offensively and defensively. Oh well, both T-Mac/Yao had their chances. It will always be remembered as an era with so much unfulfilled promise.
Everytime I watch his videos, I wonder if it was a HUGE mistake getting him to bulk up that much. He definitely needed some muscle when he entered the league, but I feel we went a little too far with it and it probably contributed heavily to his injuries.
