Did anyone see the halftime show during the Detroit game. They had a 10 minute segment on all the unfair calls Yao Ming has drawn this year, especially during the Minnesota game. They took footage from all the games this year and broke down Yao Ming's fouls in slow motion, and showed that they were phantom calls. They also showed how when Yao Ming post up, that he is constantly being fouled in the post. I know all of us this know that Yao is getting unfair treatment. But is very frustrating as a Rocket fan. A lot of people say he has to earn respect from the officials. But Yao is in his third season, and his officiating has gotten worse.
Nobody said ALL the calls were phantom calls. But when a substantial portion are non-existent or unfair calls, the issue really must be addressed.
Well, Yao needs to let his voice heard. If he even mention the "racial discrimination" phrase once, Stern would pee in his pants. NBA is gonna loss more than half of existing fans if Yao uses his influence.
He's in his 4th season. And yes, not all the calls are phantom. Not sure if even half of them are not phantom, in fact. But indeed, a much higher percentage of phantom calls are made on Yao than on any other player at least the past 2 decades. So Yao just "getting smarter" isn't going to really solve the problem.
Does it matter if the interview is in Chinese? If Yao had guts, he should voice his displeasure in one of those post match press conference. BTW, citing racial discrimination is least likely to win him arguments.
Do you believe that racial discrimination plays no part in the incorrect officiating of Yao? Given that the review process for the refs involves just about every single play of every game and has been going on for more than three seasons now, I find it very difficult to believe that so many incorrect calls can be called on him night in night out solely due to happenstanced incompetence.
If Yao continues being unfairly treated for much longer, Chinese fans will probably start to lose interest in basketball. The decline in interest may already have begun: in tonight's game against the Pistons, only 85 people bothered to show up on the chat channel; the usual number is about 200. I can definitely see the Chinese point of view: why bother with a game if you know the deck is stacked against you? If the Chinese TV channels start cancelling their contracts with the NBA, will that finally get David Stern's attention?
gimp, that's probably the most serious allegation one can level against the league. It's extremely difficult to prove since you need to establish a distinct pattern where Yao is getting unfair calls (or lack of calls) in a large number of situations, where the calls should unequivocally go the other way, only because the refs don't like his ethnicity. The calls are naturally subjective, and the evidences will be circumstantial at best. David Stern is the ultimate arbitrator, and he's not going to give a damn if it is likely to undermine his bottom line or to destroy league's image. Complaint, yes. Race card, no.
Yes, but I'm only asking what YOU believe the reason is for the chronic incorrect officiating on him...
Whatever it takes to get Stern's attention! Remember, NBA is business, NBA is about $$$. Half of the customers NBA gets follows Yao. Yao can cost NBA huge $$$ if he says "don't support the league because it is unfair to me".
I don't believe it's an issue of ethnicity, but I do believe that the many people in the league have a subconscious prejudice against guys like Yao. He's a gangly, abnormally tall, unathletic, zero-flash guy. If I were refereeing, I wouldn't consciously try to screw the big unexciting guy over. However, I do admit I might be more inclined to allow the smaller, more entertaining guy get away with more....just because. The fact that Yao has a "gentle giant" reputation certainly doesn't help the cause either.
If Yao got the respect from the refs that Hakeem got, he would be unstoppable. I can't believe how many BS calls go against him. I guess Yao is just going to have to put in several more years in the league before the refs finally start officiating him fairly.
Well there is no question the REfs are screwing Yao for some reason. What that reason is remains to be seen. It really is unfair to know even before a game starts that if Yao plays easy or if he plays hard the refs are still going to a way to put him on the bench with fouls. Les Alexander is really the one that needs to step up and do something about this. Van Gundy tried and got fined 100,000 BECAUSE HE TOLD THE TRUTH. Everyone in here just needs to email the nba office and let them know we won't stand for this. Flood them with emails and then go to rockets.com and write them an email. Get the ball moving. This is how change starts by you and me doing something about it. Go Rockets!!!
You don't get the point. This is not a court of law. Nobody needs to prove anything. This is business. Customers can desert you when they aren't happy with you. Yao needs to understand NBA is business and he has a huge leverage in the game. He has more than half of NBA fans behind him. He can say whatever he wants, including assusing NBA of racial discrimination. Half a billion fans from Asia would believe him. Most rockets fans would believe him. That is bad enough for Stern to ignore. Stern can play hardline with JVG, but he doesn't dare to do the same against Yao. I won't be surprised that a lot of Chinese gangs in NYC are also Yao fans and Stern has to be worried about his head.
Nothing is gonna happen, because once Yao voice some displeasure to his huge fan base, Stern will wet his pants and tell the refs to call the game fair.
Okay I will respect your silence.....I was only inquiring since I know you from other forums and can respect your opinion to compare to my own.....personally, from all the games I see, there really can be no other explanation for the officiating problem that I can think of other than some sort of racial bias, either at the league office level or from individual refs themselves....it's sad to post this and I still hope it is not true, but it is really the only plausible explanation I can come up with....there is just too much evaluation of calls going on before after and during halftime breaks for so many incorrect ones to be called so regularly on one particular player...
