sorry if this was posted already. http://www.msnbc.com/news/749488.asp Next Ming dynasty could be in NBA Yao Ming will face a couple of unique opportunities when he begins to play in the NBA as the top overall pick by the Houston Rockets. The first is that he has the possibility to develop into a franchise-level player. Secondly he has a shot at becoming a significant historical figure both on and off the court. THERE IS NO player, past or present, who can really be accurately compared to Yao Ming. He’s got size, proportionality, fluidity, and a sculpted physique. He is light and nimble on his feet. He has terrific mechanics to every part of his game. He uses his left and right hand extremely well. He has very fluid footwork and good lower body flexibility. He has demonstrated good composure on the court and posseses excellent court sense. Yao Ming understands the concepts of positioning and where and how to play. He is also a very good passer. He is competitive, has a high basketball IQ and you can look in his eyes and tell that this is a real player. Yao Ming is not a mercenary. He plays the game with energy, enthusiasm and passion. There are some things that the 7-foot-5 Yao Ming is simply not, at least at this stage of his 22 year old life. He is not a power player. We are not talking Shaquille O’Neal here. He is not experienced and has not played against any real competition for much of his life. He has relatively short arms and suspect explosiveness. He is not Kevin Garnett-like. Yao Ming’s lateral mobility is still something to be determined. NO WANG OR MENGKE HERE Remember Yao is also going directly from a culture where everyone told him “no” to a place where everybody is going to be telling him, “yes, whatever you want.” Even though he is from one of the major cities of the world, Shanghai, it is going to be an eye-opening experience when he becomes involved in the cut-throat nature of NBA basketball. I want to also emphasize that Yao Ming is a totally different player than the two other Chinese players in the NBA, Dallas’ Wang Zhizhi and Denver’s Mengke Bateer. By sending Wang and Mengke over to the U.S. first, the Chinese did themselves a disservice. These two guys are not really ready for the NBA and are at best marginal role players. For Yao Ming’s sake I hope the Rockets take a real team approach and help him mentality develop. The team should be a perfect fit for him. I remember when I first joined the NBA. The quality of my life actually went down even though I became at that time the highest-paid player in the history of team sports. In my first year with the Blazers the club was suffused with selfishness, greediness and a lack of commitment to the team. In addition there was no awareness of what it took to become a special basketball team. If Yao Ming gets into a situation similar to that, combined with all the other obstacles he is going to have to overcome primarily culture, language, diet and lifestyle, it could prove overwhelming to him. GOOD COACH CRITICAL FOR YAO MING The first and most important key for a raw player like Yao Ming is to be drafted by a team that has a top tier coach, which Rudy Tomjanovich is. While Rudy T will be very important to the initial success or failure of Yao Ming, I think it is important that he also hire a consultant, one of the “really old guys” like John Wooden, Dean Smith, Pete Newell, Tex Winter or Jack Ramsay (sorry Jack I know you are only 77 and just entering middle age). Yao Ming will need a veteran coach, like those above, who can school him in some of the basic fundamentals and impart some of the wisdom they have accumulated by being around the game for 50-60 years. YAO MING’S DEVELOPMENT CAN’T BE RUSHED You have to bring along a player like Yao Ming very slowly. You have to treat him as if he were your son. You are not going to be able to force feed this guy. Yao Ming has not had good coaching up to this point. When I saw him play, the guards on his team were gunning and jacking up shots from everywhere. It could end up making all the difference in the world for Yao Ming to get on a team where there is going to be ball movement, where they are really going to try and maximize Yao Ming’s abilities as opposed to him having to battle the selfishness of other guys trying to establish themselves through their own personal agendas. Yao Ming will also need his teammates to accept him as he is. They will need to try to help him because on the bad teams there is always this level of greediness where the thought is, “I have to get mine and to heck with everybody else.” If Rockets say, “we want to help you Yao Ming,” it will help his success immeasurably. Before his one day tryout in Chicago I got to spend two hours with Yao Ming and his manager from the Shanghai Sharks, his interprester from China, and a local family friend who lives in Chicago. I spoke to him as a dad. I have a son Luke who is exactly the same age as Yao Ming. I imparted to Yao Ming the same messages I give to Luke and my other sons in terms of what it is going to take and how hard it is going to be. I also discussed with Yao Ming all the different things you will have to deal with both in life and in basketball. After the conversation was over, I asked him what questions he had for me and he said, “can you give me your son Luke’s and Coach Wooden’s telephone numbers.” That was really touching.
I like Bill. I was so happy he was not harping on the Griffin-Jefferson trade during the finals ripping the Rockets. Just because this guy is roomates with his son and he's in the NBA finals doesn't mean he'll without a doubt be better in the long run. And Walton made sure he stayed pretty neutral.
Great Article! I do think it was partially influenced by the fact that Walton's wife is asian. Not saying that it isn't his truth but rather that Walton is familiar enough with the Asian culture to understand that part of Yao and not to feel threathened by it and thus he is able to judge Yao on his real merits. It seems many reporters are threatened by foreigners coming into our country and dominating our sport. I mean it's okay if you are a late first rounder but once you actually are picked ahead of a lot of our college stars and high school phenoms than their is a definite resentment by much of the American media. I believe that is why their is such a discrepancy between what scouts report and what the media reports. Yao is head and shoulders above the rest. But as walton pointed out he must be put in the right environment to prosper. The team must be striving for a unified goal of wanting to win above all else and understand that Yao can and will be a big part of that given the chance. But if the remain a selfish looking for their personal achievements above all else than Yao will fail and so will the Rockets. I hope the team as whole truly wants to be sucessful. And if there is one or two bad apples that's okay for now at least until they change or we can get fair market trade value for them. So accolades for Walton for being educated enough at least in this area to see the truth.
That's because he saw Griffin score 25 points get nine rebounds hit the big three in the clutch and get a couple of blocks including a big time one on Kobe. And said this is a 19 year old boy playing with men. He could not help but see that Griffin had tons of upside and potential stardom.
Well, at least we can look forawrd to Walton exclaiming, "throw it down, big Ming. Throw it down!" everytime ming dunks.
Bill is clever. He saw the problems with Rockets. This article is the best on Yao Ming. Touching. A consultant coach is actually crucial. Yao will feel he can get help from him at any time.
I can't stand Bill Walton's commentary...but this is actually a very well written peice. Good job Bill. Now there is one fiber in my body that doesn't hate you.
I was impressed with the article (sans spelling). I remember liking Walton as a "rebellious intellectual" when he was with the Trailblazers (dating myself, oh well...). However, since he became an "analyst" (defined as a jock who can talk) I have abolutely HATED the way he rides the jocks of every player with game, especially Kobe and Shaq. Walton may have sounded fair and impartial in this letter, but in the broadcast booth, he has no clue what those two words mean! I wonder what his comments were when Chicago won all their titles without a "real" big man as he would put it. The point about guards who run and gun, and are only concerned with getting their own at the expense of the team was IMO, a deliberate message to Stevie and Cat. And, a sorely needed one at that. I wonder how many times next season we're going to lose games due to poor field goal %, because Steve/Cat won't pass the ball into Ming for either a high % shot, or to get it back for a wide open look! Thanks for the message Bill - I hope you continue to display evidence of a conscience, and stop being such a jag-off while broadcasting!!
Personally, I've always hated Walton. One thing I've noticed is that when he is commentating with a couple of other guys, he is always the one that disagrees with the others. He always seems to think he knows it all, which I'm sure he knows a lot, but hey, you gotta admit the guy can get annoying. Constantly hearing him say things like "Throw it down big man, throw it down," and "You gotta play _____ if your gonna win the nba championship." Little nitpicks have always made me hate Walton. Now that I'm done bashing him, I have to say that I am very impressed by his article and some of the things he said. He actually sounded like he may have known what he was talking about! Some of the things he said stood out to me, one thing in particular. We all know Cuttino, and at times Steve can be very selfish, so I just hope they see this and are willing to help him. I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but I've always seen Mo as a pretty selfish player, I'm not sure how many assists he usually averages, I'd guess about 3, but I remember when he was playing for us constantly bashing him because he would shoot it almost every time he got it. This is the same with Kevin Willis. I love Willis and even though we don't really have room, I hope we keep him because he is a very good person to have coming off the bench (obvioulsy for scoring), and I'm sure he will motivate Cato and Ming, and I'm sure he will put in that extra effort to help Ming develop his game. This all goes back to Steve and Cuttino though, they handle the ball most of the time for us (along with Mooch) so it will be up to them to do what is right for Ming. If they want to win then I believe they may have to sacrifice their games a bit to make their team better. Pugs
Sounds like Walton is dissing the Rockets in a round about way. First he claims that Rudy T isn't the right coach. Next he claims that the Rox guards (Mobley and Francis) are selfish, have their own agenda. Finally he says that the Rockets offense doesn't have the right ball movement to nurture Yao. To me this is a good article but he is obviously digging into the Rockets.
If anyone gets a chance, go to the sportingnews and listen to what eddie johnson had to say. He basically said Ming has a nasty streak to him.He basically dissed the Bradley comparisons saying Bradley played because he was tall while Ming plays cause he wants too. There is a big difference.
Sounds like Walton is applying for a coaching position with the Rockets. leebigez i've seen your sig. for a while now what exactly does it mean to you? ahhh ya just changed it...
I actually think that if Steve or Cat cause problems that Rudy will trade one of them and stick by Ming. Rudy likes players who LOVE the game, and are mature, I am sure that his patience with our 2 talented guards is running thin. Francis, and Mobley need to learn a team game soon, or one will be shipped out. DaDakota
