18 "basketball experts" voted Yao Ming #3 ROY: The final votes

Debatable. But dont you think that speaking English helps?

 

Come on, the excuses are getting pathetic. Yao had a good rookie season, as Amare and Caron did, but while not speaking english might be a slight disadvantage or an advantage if you taught your teammates enough of your language where you could say things other teams couldn't understand, this is just reaching. Basketball is a language in itself. When you play a game how often do you tell your teammate somthing aloud, other than pick right or left? You talk through eye contact, body language, hand signals and anticipation on the court. You don't yell aloud what you are going to do or you want them to do.

 

jackie robinson certainly did not get a visa commercial. that's for sure. and yao did not face intense hatred from everybody. But he was disrespected because of his ethnicity by a lot of people and unless you have a selective memory, you would have remembered that most of the US dream team wanted to beat up yao when they played china. people who compare the two are stupid because they're comparing different racial problems in a supposedly modern era that is supposedly aware of discrimination regardless of race or religion. nobody tries to hurt yao? do you know how many scars are on yao, lots of people scratched him and tried to test his "toughness". most people doubted yao was mentally tough enough to play in the nba because of ethnicity. why do you think jackie robinson was picked over josh gibson and satchel paige to be the first african american to play in the mlb? because jackie robinson was more mature than the other two and would be able to withstand the stress of representing african americans, ultimately however i think he died at a young age, probably because of the stress he had to endure in representing his people positively. and actually i remember one of the brooklyn dodgers actually putting his arm around jackie robinson to show that they were friends. and although yao has gotten along very well with his teammates and made many friends on the rockets, what were steve francis and cuttino mobley saying about yao before they met yao and saw what he could do? they weren't supportive of the idea of drafting him either. they believed lamar odom would be better than drafting a franchise center. that was obviously before they found out how good yao actually was. they obviously believed in a stereotype about yao's ethnicity to begin with at least. just like shaq did in the beginning.

and to anyone who knows how chinese were portrayed before yao came, they know that yao has improved the perception of chinese in the media. cause mostly when the word chinese is mentioned in the media, it used to be associated with the words, spy, evil, communist, and etc. also before yao came, people thought chinese didn't have a sense of humor or were unfriendly or had no personality. and etc and etc. there are countless stereotypes he has had to deal with this season. you know i remember watching the dallas-houston game and hearing a heckler saying some **** about yao's ethnicity on national television. guy was so loud, i could hear him on tv. and i think i also recall reading about how yao was heckled by fans behind the rockets bench in the first pacers game about his ethnicity.

as for rookie of the year, although yao should get more consideration for what he had to go through, most people will overlook and ignore all his struggles to earn respect, along with his better overall stats and the fact he played on a worse team than the suns, and how he dealt with tremendous pressure in having to represent china because the guy had become a media favorite through his charisma. that a lot of people started to believe yao was just getting attention for ethnicity instead of his actual charisma and how he treated the media with respect showed that the vote was biased. i think most people agree that yao probably provided the media with more one-liners and jokes than any athlete in recent memory. so most people didn't want to get accused of favoritism, and instead chose amare stoudemire. yao's ethnic background is not the reason he got commercials or got respect, anybody who actually knows wang zhi zhi and menk bateer could tell you that being chinese doesn't get you commercials or media attention. if i remember correctly, a player on the boston celtics, tony battie, told yao you're the first chinese player in the nba. some people apparently don't even know that wang zhi zhi was first.

also to anybody who has watched asian athletes in other sports such as baseball would know that the stereotype that asians are not athletic follows asians everywhere, whether its baseball or basketball. ichiro suzuki who played for the seattle mariners and eventually won mvp and rookie of the year was doubted by a lot of people as well. on espn, they had their own version of charles barkley say that if ichiro is leading the league in batting average at the end of the season, that he would run around times square naked. turns out ichiro led the league in batting avg and stolen bases and led his team to a 116 win season. only the espn analyst who dissed ichiro didn't pay up. at least barkley kissed kenny's a$$ like he promised. almost every scout in the major leagues said ichiro was overhyped and nothing special. turns out the guy had one of the strongest throwing arms in baseball and was a gold glove rightfielder. when nomo first came to the US and succeeded, a lot of people considered that a fluke. but many more asian pitchers have made it to the mlb and they have also succeeded.

aside from all that, amare stoudemire was a deserving rookie of the year candidate even if he was a jerk.

 

barkley is a jerk! can never accomplish anything BIG in his life. I just despise the guy

 

I am pretty bored. So I am doing a stupid search.

Here are some of the 45 sportwriters/broadcasters who voted Yao for the ROY 1st place:

Marc Stein (ESPN.com)
David Aldridge (ESPN.com)
Ian Thomsen (SI)
Marty Burns (SI)
Scott Howard-Cooper (Sacramento Bee)
Mike Kahn (CBS SportLine)
Sam Smith (Chicago Sun-Times)
Chris Sheridan (Redding.com)

 

I think the ones who voted for Amare was trying to find some reasons NOT to vote for Yao. Yao clearly has better skills, numbers, and impact to his team, and certainly to the whole league and country.

Maybe these people thought that Yao will get the RoY award because of his popularity anyway; so they will vote against him whatsoever. Since Phoenix did win some big games at the end of the season, and got into the playoffs, I believe this provides their perfect "UNBIASED" excuse for NOT voting Yao.

 

imo, the people that did vote for amare did it for two reasons:



1) the suns made the playoffs and the rockets did not; and

2) preference for "style" of basketball. some people prefer the aggressive, in your face, dunkaholic style versus the more "purist" style of play. there's nothing wrong with that. it's just a matter of preference.

 

I'm sorry, I got heat for that in another thread already, but I won't believe you if you say that race did not play a role in this one - especially regarding the people who had both Butler and Stoudemire ahead of Yao. I mean, please.

 

Man, I remember Marty was crucified on this board after some really anti-Yao articles at the start of the season.

 

I agree, i dont' think anyone conciously said "Oh he's chinese, lets go amare" but I think there is are some more conservative thinking voters out there that enjoy the NBA status quo, not unlike the fans that came out against Jackie Robinson, though certainly not as blatant.

Do I think Amare would have won it anyways? Yes I do. I am glad he did, because there has been a Yao Ming blowback because of his immense popularity. This should quiet some people at least for the offseason.

Stuart

 

but he is a white.

 

Only the strong survive the NBA. This will be good for Yao. He'll get stronger and his patience and pragmatic approach will get the last laugh.

 

Yeah.....how can you explain the 18-3 third place vote disparity between Yao and Amare respectively (open your eyes and mind). That was where the battle was won and lost.


I don't mind seeing Amare win but the actual voting turnout make me sick. That disparity is simply hogwash. 18-3? Wow.....something is wrong somewhere.

 

Ah, c'mon, man! I wanted Yao to win as much as the next guy on this board, but why does racism always have to be the scapegoat? Even though there were idiots who had Yao THIRD on their ballots and there was a guy who actually left Stoudemire off the ballot completely and put Manu there, voting for Amare wasn't wrong @ all. It's NOT voting for Yao (@ least one-two) that is really the problem. Like Clutch said, if there was ever a year to have co-Rookies of the Year this was it.

Pau Gasol won it last year and Mike Miller the year before...where is the cry of racism there? If anything I think there were voters that got tired of the hype Yao got and almost held it against the Rox rook'. But racism? That is like taking credit away from Amare and saying he didn't earn it @ all. It definitely sucks that Yao didn't win, but give Amare credit.

 

Well, I do agree with you, Fegwu, that 18 third-place votes for Yao is a joke! There is no way Yao-Amare should've have been first or second on EVERY VOTER'S ballot. Period.

 

Do you feel favoritism would be more appropriate or strictly myopic bias?

 

That should say "There's no way Yao-Amare should NOT have finished @ least first or second on EVERY VOTER'S ballot. Period."

 

please stop the racism CRAP. i'm a big yao supporter (didn't mean for it to sound like that) and i don't buy the racism excuse... AT ALL.

plain and simple the reason that amare won the award is because yao's critics at the season's beginning had to cover their assprin some way or another. what better way than to sabotage the roy award... otherwise they'd look like 'tards.

somebody's been watching barkley, kenny, and magic on tnt too often.

 

Well, I would be more inclined to agree with that way of thinking instead of the "Amare won b/c he was BLACK." I mean, it's just nonsense and a very simple-minded way of looking @ things, y'know?

 

I agree. That is my only beef with the voting with all due respect to the very talented Caron Butler.

Anyway, we cannot win it all - we win some and we lose some as well. I guess I have to rest with the sweet memories of Francis' Co-ROY award. I was very excited for that one but I would have still prefered if he was the sole winner......oh well. Maybe Eddie Griffin or Boki can with either the most improved or Sixth Man awards (in no particular order) in 2003/2004.