He may be gaining weight, whether its good or bad, he is still playing basketball almost everyday... 295 or 315 or 360lbs he'll be in shape. Stuart
Exactly. some training and playing light competition only do him good. This whole "he is been playing for 2 year straight" argument last year was meant to unload the pressure on him. He got exhausted at the end of the season, but that is mostly because he had never played at that level and that intensity in his life. It had little to do with what he did last summer or the summer before. Even he joined Rox early last summer, he would have worn out by March.
Aren't we "hoping" to make the playoffs this year? The reasons why Yao was exhausted or not last summer will be up in the air for a while...but let's consider he is a 20+ year old man with two years of experience and lives/plays year around...and in another part of the world... After so many championship runs...even the lakers got tired...and SHAQ just sat around looking at his toe...and Kobe spent the summer in "ohter" hotels... Having Yao go to China every freaking summer is going to catch up to him...the boy has to rest eventually.
Will our visa officers deny his Visa application? Or basically, he doesn't need a visa at all after a year in US?
I am sure there are more than a few NBA fans in the customs. How easy do you think it is to fake a 227cm guy. LOL
He can apply for his visa any time. Normally it is valid within 3 months. I think he would have done all the papar work after finishing those games. So he would be likely in houston between oct.5 to 7.
Not that there will be issues, but there certainly could be. There was a full day-plus worth of governmental paperwork that had to be dealt with last year. Maybe he won't have as much trouble this time around, but remember that baseball teams have trouble getting players out of nominally friendly countries in a timely manner on an ANNUAL basis.
You know customs is only the front office now. The big brother is the homeland security department and don't forget Ashcroft. I think they are the american version KGB nowadays. KGB keeps an eye on everybody, no matter what your social status is. Last summer I attended a conference, and a couple of scheduled speakers were absent. They are quite famous scholars but still they were put on hold for background check. I am just hoping Yao won't trigger anything in the stupid profiling system.
I am sure he will because he must have something in his shoes to be 7-6 this time instead of 7-5 last year.
Sane I'm not looking for an argument either, but it the 5-7 dates don't mean that's the time he'll miss. The flight from China and being back into the grind is not an ideal way to start the season - especially facing a new system ostensibly built around him. If you're not bothered, that's cool. Where I will pick a fight is with the morons that complain about Yao going back to China in the summer at all. I want Yao in camp on time, and as Sane said, this is just unfortunate circumstances. But Yao's in more of a meat-grinder here far more than he is at home. And China is home. With all the media and attention he has to deal with here, I wouldn't care if his home was in one of Karl Malone's cabin's in Utah, but I'd want him to be able to get the hell out of here for his own sanity. The CBA committments are something we have to live with unless Yao says otherwise: the Rockets and the NBA are powerless regardless of the agreement with the Chinese authorities. But how can a Rocket's fan begrudge the dude going home for the summer? Yao's shown significant mental mettle to me. But Houston's going to be some serious culture shock to Yao for at least a couple of years. The CBA stuff to him now is probably a huge relief. I don't know how Yao "burns off steam" here, but it's ironic that in today's NBA I worry about his ability to do it.
