Being Del Harris

tell Del Harris that if this ever happens again... just call me and i will help him. i can't believe they only have one interpreter. sigh...

 

Your #2 question was right on, but Del has different experience and expectations. Just like in NBA, CBA stars are the ones who score the most points, but with average defense. In each of their own teams, the offense was designed around them, so they got tons of touches. But with the national team, their roles have changed. Everything they do has to be around Yao, and it's very hard for them to adapt. Just look at the US team's performance today.

In another word, both US & Chinese NT are a collection of stars, not the best team.

 

First of all, thanks to Dan Trader and Del for this awesome thread. It's been great fun reading it. I think though that there's only so many interesting questions you could ask Del and now is probably the time to thank him and let him concentrate on his work. If you ask him too many questions, he'll be more relunctant to answer your questions in the future if it came up. So my advice, send him a thank you email, maybe include a last set of questions if you think they're good ones.

 

I agree.



When you e-mail him back to say thanks, be sure to tell him that he looked good during the opening ceremonies and to have fun.


Thanks again Trader Dan.

My favorite post.

 

I let this thread go by a few emails before I realized what it was about. I thought, "No, I don't want to be Del Harris". But the curiousity of it being in the GARM and the number of replies, made me check out this old Rocket coach who I didn't have a high regard for when he was here. I now have a better respect for the man - and a few other points thanks to your emails with him.

Great work Dan.

 

Great stuff Dan. Thanks.

I agree with TL and Blatz. Send him a big thanks from all of us and ask if it will be ok to get a nice summary of his Olympic experience after the games.

 

Man this is one of the only treads that I have kept up with....I really enjoyed this one....U did a great job....sucks it is going to end...but tell him Thanks

 

I almost didn't wanna toss this back out since you did already say you were feeling bad but...



I think it is probably time to let him get back to focusing on work, it has been an incredible opportunity to get to hear directly from Del and you've done a fantastic job orchestrating it Dan, but I'm thinking it would probably be for the best to thank him for offering so much of his time and experience with us and wish him the best of luck in the Olympic Medal tournament.

Oh and as I said in the Yao in Athens thread, the picture isn't a hit on you or your questions Dan, just a nod at the inquisitive nature of all of us die-hard rocket fans.

 

Del, my friend, buy a laptop and Vegas (Sony software) and you're done in five minutes. TraderDan when the smoke clears after the Olympics you need to give the old guy a head's up. We still owe him for '81.

 

Sounds like a good plan. Thank him and wish him luck.

 

And then a couple of days after his olympic matches end, ask him about his feelings about the whole experience. That will be worth hearing about.

 

TDan hey great work its been an awesome read and to really get some "insider" info has been great.

I agree maybe we should let up on Del (since his last response seemed a lil rushed) .. to stay on good terms I would thank him for his time from all of us at CC.net and wish him good luck in Athens and look forward to great things from him his team in China and Dallas.

J

 

I agree that it is probably time to end the interview. A big thanks a one last really good question seems in order. BTW, even though Del didnt answer that last set of questions direct, it was still cool to get insight from him in other regards. Speaking of which, this was the first time I noticed a closing on his letters. I think he likes talking with you, TD. Exellent work!

 

I agree with the consensus here that we should let Del take a break from answering our email questions...



...only until the Olympics is done though.

 

By the way, good job Trader Dan. The quality of this thread is one of the reasons why this site is so great.

 

Yeah, I'd do one last question - Which medal do you think you guys will take home?

Then thank him a zillion times and mention you'll try to get in touch with him after the olympics for a recap if he's available.

 

It's not quite that easy unfortunately.

You still have to import the video, and since it's probably not recorded straight to hard-drive this will have to be in real time.

you also need a much larger and faster drive than the internal laptop drive to run the video files (such as an external firewire drive) when editing, especially when you are talking about really, really long footage relatively speaking.

When they are done editing you still have to output the edited video somehow. Easiest would be to play it from the laptop and s-video it out to a television of projector.

If they aren't going to hire additional interpreters I doubt they are going to hire a video editor. As easy and intuitive as Vegas is I still doubt Del has the time or patience to give it a go.

And apart from me being a smart-ass, this thread will be missed.

Cool stuff Trader Dan! That was good fun...

 

Great thread Trader Dan... if you wanted to start a "Thank You Del Harris Thread" you could send him an email that links up to it so he could be thanked by everyone who enjoyed the commentary.

 

Hi Trader Dan, just wondering if you are going to ask one final set of questions to Del after the olympics is over now.

a couple of questions I feel would be insteresting to listen to Del talk about:

how does he rate this CNT experience? what's the best and worst experience he had with them? what's the biggest difference between this and his previous international experiences?

We have heard Del talking about how respectful and hard working chinese players are. we also have heard Mo Ke and other chinese players opening saying Del is such a nice guy and sometimes sounds like a father figure or something (I remember Mo was talking on chinese media about Del asking them to use his bathroom to take the shower and implying that was a big motivation factor). There seems to be a nice mesh of the two cultures. On the other hand, was there anytime that the two culture clashed and produced unexpected results? if so, how did he solve it?

CNT had a nice olympic run and surprised the world when they beat Serbia. But Yao's performance has been relatively inconsistent in some of the games. It seems he's still having some problems with fronting defense. would he credit some of yao's subpar games to the oppsoing team's defense? or the international rules? or CNT guard's inexperience in beating fronting defense? or does he think Yao still has a lot to learn on dealing with this kind of defense?

again, thanks a lot for making all the email Q/As possible. I have enjoyed it throughout the summer. Great work Trader Dan!

be sure to thank Del as well. the appreciation for his thoughts can't be overstated