Yao's early impact Yao's early impact November 23, 2002 Sports Bahr We are several weeks into the NBA season, and there already are several story lines to follow. For example, the Lakers don't even look like an average team without Shaquille O'Neal, and the Pacers have made their case as the team to beat in the East. As I type this, the Mavericks still haven't lost, and the Grizzlies still haven't won (although both of those streaks could end this weekend). However, the biggest story literally might be Yao Ming. Like most people, I hadn't seen much of the 7-footer before this NBA season because there just aren't many Chinese Basketball Association games available on cable, DirecTV, etc. Other than what I had seen in a couple of international tournaments, I didn't know much about the guy. All I knew for sure was that I was sick of the "Ming Dynasty" headlines after about a week. I didn't expect Yao to jump into the starting lineup, dominate in his first game and grasp every aspect of the NBA game. When he had a slow start (four points, nine boards in his first two games), I wasn't surprised. The Rockets played it smart by bringing him along slowly and letting him get a feel for the game. Yao didn't score in double figures until his seventh game, a 10-point, four-rebound performance against Phoenix. However, as his minutes have increased, so has his production. He has scored in double figures in four of his last five games, and his 30 points and 16 boards against Dallas recently were a part of his breakout performance. The Rockets are off to a very good start, and things only should get better. I fully expect Yao to progress and improve the rest of this season and in upcoming seasons. He just has too many positives to ignore. His size makes him a scoring threat around the basket, but he also can step back and show some range. Defensively, he will be a monster. Yao can pass and run and has a very good feel for the game. Once he adds a little strength and bulk, he will be even more dangerous. Obviously, it is very early, but I like what I have seen so far. Yao's critics have been eating their words -- and it has been even more severe in Charles Barkley's case. Yao might not dominate the game like Shaq, but he should be the next best thing in a season or two. What do you think of Yao so far? How much will he improve? Send your thoughts to fans@sportingnews.com, and look for them in my next column.
LAYDEN'S ON MARK November 23, 2002 -- KNICK NOTES NEW ORLEANS - Not every GM claimed to adore 7-5 Yao Ming, feeling he'd be a risk, wondering about his adjustment and eligibility. Knick GM Scott Layden never had a doubt, pegging him No. 1 long before anyone else. He went to China twice to scout Yao, feeling he was a future franchise center. But the Knicks finished seventh in the lottery with the Rockets winning the top pick. Yao's adjustment lasted a few games. Now he's tearing up the league, scoring 30 points vs. Dallas' 7-6 center Shawn Bradley Thursday night and shooting 81.5 percent in his last five games. Yao, who made his first start last night andscored18 points, faces the Knicks in Houston Dec. 27. Layden said "in time" he'll become an All-Star center. "There's a talent in the league and it's a skill - the ability to get off shots," Layden said. "He's one of those players that any time he wants to get a shot, he can get a shot because he's so tall, can shoot over people and has a soft touch. With that, he's really a gifted passer too. He's going to command the double team. Sitting down in Houston, you have to be awfully excited." * With Antonio McDyess their franchise player, owner James Dolan admitted he's worried about the long-term health of his power forward's knees. Dolan said, "I'm concerned about injuries but what do you do about injuries. Are you asking me if I'm concerned if Antonio is going to get injured again? Sure. I'm also concerned Allan [Houston] is going to get injured, and every star player." Chaney appreciated Dolan making the trip. "It's not a fraud, it's 100 percent honesty," Chaney said. "He's 100 percent behind the team. Owners should be. Owners should not be sitting back on the upper floor saying negative things about the team." On the $4.5M injury exception he has until Dec. 2 to trade, Layden said, "There's no guarantees. We're working. Teams are aware it's there. Because you have it, you don't want to use it in a bad deal. We'll use it in prudent fashion." For the second straight game, Lee Nailon was benched in the second half. In his least eventful game, he played just five minutes, missing his only shot against his old club.
Basketball's latest star can start a new Ming dynasty where is yao-hater? Art Spander's States of Play Of course there were sceptics. There always are. Yao Ming was tall. Yao Ming was smooth. Yao Ming was the first pick in the NBA draft. But when he went scoreless in his first game and when he tripped over his own long legs in his third game, the cynics were everywhere, emphasising what the man hadn't done rather than what Yao Ming might do. Charles Barkley, the Dream Teamer turned announcer, even went as far as promising if Yao Ming scored at least 19 points in a game he would kiss the behind of a broadcast partner. When Yao Ming a few days later had 20 against the Los Angeles Lakers, there was Barkley, his face pressed up against a donkey, which as we know from the bible is called an 'ass'. Better an animal than Yao Ming himself, laughed the Chinese player, who missed something in translation and thought Barkley wanted to kiss him. 'Then I stop at 18,' Yao Ming said through a translator. When it comes to predictions, most basketball anoraks will stop at nothing. Three weeks into the season, 7ft 5in (or is it 7ft 6in?) Yao Ming, late of the Shanghai Sharks, has become a presence, and could become the most dominant player in history. Blasphemy. But also honesty. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Americans who are acknowledged to be the best ever in the only game invented in America -- if by a Canadian who had crossed the border. Now from China arrives a player who virtually is unstoppable. 'He shouldn't be doing the things a man of his size is doing,'' said Rudy Tomjanovich, Yao Ming's coach on the Houston Rockets. Meaning shoot from the outside, sprint down the court, be as graceful as, well, a 7ft Baryshnikov. 'When you see a man of that size with that ability,'' said Brett Brown, the personnel director of the San Antonio Spurs, 'you start to think he has the ability to be a franchise player, and you don't throw that term around loosely.'' Yao Ming, who is learning English, who would rather eat steak than dim sum, who had to pledge allegiance to the Chinese team, who was the first international player without US university experience to be taken No 1 in the draft, has come to America. And America is impressed. Twenty points against the three-time champions Lakers, who were without Shaq O'Neal, out with a toe injury. Then 30 points against the Dallas Mavericks. Off the bench. Finally, two nights ago, Yao Ming was in the starting line-up, against the Washington Wizards of Jordan. Jordan, 39, the NBA as it was. Yao Ming, 22, the NBA as it will be. In the opening two minutes, Yao Ming hit a jump shot, blocked a Wizards shot and grabbed a rebound. He finished with 18 points. 'Once he gets adjusted,'' said Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavericks, who, coming from Germany, knows about adjusting, 'he's going to have a nice career.'' And help others have nice careers, even if they don't play. A beer company in China is a sponsor of Rockets broadcasts. The NBA have begun a web site in Chinese characters. Think of the jerseys and T-shirts that can be marketed in a nation of 1.2 billion people. Yao Ming was on the cover of the weekly Sports Illustrated mag azine for the annual pro basketball issue, a place where, through the years, Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Joe Montana, Tiger Woods and Carl Lewis have been. They were champions. Yao Ming very well could join them. Someone pointed out the scam involving off-track betting for last month's Breeders' Cup races at Arlington Park near Chicago, in which results were rigged by a computer programmer who admitted guilt, was similar to the plot of the 1973 movie The Sting. In the film, con men played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, make use of delayed results to dupe a wealthy crook. In real life, Chris Harn, Derrick Davis and Glen DaSilva conspired to use Harn's work computer at Autotote, which processes horse racing wagers, to produce six winning Pick Six tickets from the Breeders and apparently win $3 million. The three were fraternity brothers at Drexel University in Philadelphia, a campus claiming to be 'the most wired'' in the US. Harn, like the others, aged 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud. He could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. Harn implicated Davis, the man who held the winning tickets, and DaSilva. The winnings will be divided among others. So the crime has been solved, but now the $14 billion horse racing industry in America has to persuade punters nothing like it could happen again. To that end it has enlisted Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York. From helping rebuild a city, he has been asked to rebuild trust in gambling, which may be more difficult.
Another one: YAO ABOUT THAT? MING IS MAKING BELIEVERS By PETER VECSEY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ November 24, 2002 -- MEMPHIS - Yao Ming is almost making me forget about Priest Lauderdale. In less than a week, the hottest import from China since duck sauce has gone from a universally mocked stumblebum (after crossing guard Stephon Marbury faked him into an mortifying freefall) to the anti-scrimp toast of the town. There hasn't been this much excitement in Houston since Ricky's remodeled. How is it possible to complete such a cosmic conversion? "Big men are like that," said Doug Collins whose Wizards got whacked, 93-86, in Yao's first start Friday, an 18-point, eight-rebound, four-block, massive-shot-altering experience that had Washington's coaching staff rolling their eyes in admiration. "All of a sudden they get comfortable and once they believe, they believe, look out below." It also helps, I suspect, that Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley (put on IR Friday), the Rockets' two leading scorers, began including their main man in the offense. Yao's coming out party took place against the Shaq-less Lakers whom he demolished for 20 points without fudging a field goal or free throw. He followed that up by erupting for volcanic proportions (30 points, 16 boards) vs. the 12-0 Mavericks and said afterward how energized he was to have the opportunity to play against a player (Shawn Bradley) who'd been more maligned by the press than he's been . . . something like that. "Yao has great lower body strength," Collins said at breakfast late yesterday morning prior to his TV analyst showdown with Hubie Brown whose bummed out and bickering Grizzlies are 0-13. "He has a great touch, great hands and a great feel for the game." That's probably what surprises the experts the most. Instinctively, Yao knows what to do, when to do it and, most importantly, how to do it. Wizards assistant Brian James couldn't believe what he was seeing when he watched tape of Rocket games in preparation for their meeting. "As soon as a play was called Yao immediately went to the spot where he was supposed to be. I asked Rudy [Tomjanovich] about it before the game and he said Yao is just so incredibly schooled. Plus, he's got 70 percent of the English language down pat." "The only reason he probably still uses a translator is to keep the media at a respectable distance," Collins interjected. "I'm telling you, the guy is an awesome inside force. What he does is compromise the defense. Glen Rice (16 points), Juaquin Hawkins (14) and Kenny Thomas (12) fed off Yao from outside because we had to pay so much attention to him. "Yao intimidated us defensively and wore us out offensively (league leader in FG Pct. at a gaudy 70.5)," continued Collins. "Our young big men, Brendan Haywood (0-1 FG in 21 minutes) and Kwame Brown (1-5 in 27) combined for four points." What impresses no-nonsense assistant Johnny Bach the most is the strength, accuracy and urgency in Ming's outlet passes. "He doesn't throw with his arms, he throws with his hands. I also love the way he gets up right away after getting knocked down, unlike a lot of guys in this league as you well know." Bach paused and reloaded. "We're sending Kwame and Brendan to China this summer to work on their games." The last part was very funny
Thanks. They are indeed great articles. It seems like cc.net should collect all these articles from different sources and archive them, whether being positive or negative. Then the history of greatness in the making will be recorded.
Ricky's???? Is he referring to <b>Rick's</b>, the strip club? If so, then not only is he a moron, but he's a classless moron. Oh, I forgot. This is Peter Vescey we're talking about.
A thoughtful article on Yao from NJersey Man, I didn't realize that our #1 pick meant sooo much. http://pub119.ezboard.com/fbasketba...picID=248.topic
sorry, this is the correct link to the article. http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_3_id=126&page=5755445
love this line here: "And then the game comes, and he gets fouled very hard, there was no whining, no complaining. All of a sudden, he got more aggressive, lowered his shoulder and almost sent Bradley flying into the basket support before he scored on a nice lefty shot. And as far ahead as Yao is offensively, he's not nearly as good defensively yet. They'll teach him that, but right now, he is very, very impressive."
damn, how many articles are there in sunday's newspaper throughout the nation?! it is the 3rd one I read and all been good
good article, by the way is that the same article from the writer in Arizona that said Yao would bust that someone posted here.
Speaking of articles, anyone have a link to the moron mentioned in this one??? I'm dying to load that guy up with email.
link to article Here is where the "author" can be reached: randy.brickley@arizonarepblic.com Give 'em heck Jeff. That guy is an idiot.
I was thinking the *exact* same thing when I read that. WTF is Ricky's? He has to be referring to Rick's. I hate it when people who don't know what they're talking about try to come off sounding like local experts.
