It's a nice commentary on Yao fighting through a flu and poor offensive play early on to help win the game. It sheds some light on why his turnovers were high and his offense was not very efficient overall. I thought even when Yao wasn't doing well offensively his defense was solid. http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2007/12/sick_and_tired_and_tough_rocke.html The guy didn't just get hard all of a sudden, he's always been hard. Always stood up and gave his best even when his best wasn't enough to get the team to come through. This team has a good number of hard guys that have too often gone unrecognized. Battier and his face first defense. Haye and Scola fighting-- and succeeding against more physically gifted and maybe more skilled opponents. Even Bonzi and his previously lazy ass has been very hard for us. He struggled with shooting but rebounded the ball hard and played after getting that shoulder injury. I've criticized him, but that's a hard man. Rockets may not have the most talented guys and may not be "championship caliber" but it's not because they are not hard. Anyone who throw around the term "softness" after every loss is just tossing around sports cliches.
Now if only Mike James and Steve Francis can play hard. We cannot go far into the postseason with an Alston/Brooks combo at the point-guard position. Alston cannot make shots at an high percentage and Referees will give no respect to a rookie. We need James and Francis to step up and provide some veteran experience.
It's really good to see AD's system is working well with every one in the team except T-mac. Wondering whether he is able to accept that and do some changes to himself. Yao's performance in the second half and crucial time is perfect. Should give him applause.
For as skilled as Yao is for his size, and as nice a guy as he is, its all HARD work that gets Yao through games. There's NOTHING about Yao that would indicate speed and conditioning, but there he is every game busting his rump getting up and down the floor keeping up with the action. Agree that the "hardness" level of the team gets overlooked and its surprising cuz this team has so many scrappy players on it, most notably Battier, Scola and Hayes (maybe they add up to 1.5 offensive players total but you can't fault their grittiness), I think its cuz Tracy McGrady super charmin soft tendencies were able to seep in, and its affected the identity and approach of the team. Really do wish Yao-led Rockets without McGrady would have generated more success. One more win before McGrady gets back would be VERY very encouraging. As of now its just regular encouraging, but thats better than past history of Yao w/McGrady would indicate
The only reason I could see anyone saying Yao is soft(or was in the past) is the fact that he wouldnt dunk close range shots. He would lay them up softly, and miss too many of them. Thats changed so IMO you cant say that about Yao. This mean spirited Yao against Utah last year and the Rockets win that series in 5.
That is such a sweet story. I love how we have all these less talented players that work so hard to overcome their weaknesses. It sound like the Special Olympics. Pause... wiping the tears off my face. In my opinion, I think we need more talented players surrounding the good players instead of so many hard-working scrubs. Leave the overachievement stories for the r****ds.
You don't need to read between the lines to know how Blindbury feels about T-Mac. He says it bluntly plenty of the time.
