"China will always be my home court"

haha "Tomato" = Ta Ma Du = His Mother's = Chinese cursing

 

The right pin-yin is Ta Ma De !!!

 

In an ideal world, I would rather Yao be the man in crunch time, but Yao too often passes out or gets passive once he gets the ball. During much of the season, he lost the ball when pressured by double-teams (and of course, so did Francis). In crunchtime, if you get the ball and you're the man, you take the ball to the hoop or manufacture a shot. Yao still hasn't shown he's the man to do that ... yet. I'm hoping I see more of that in him this season.

 

well Kobe took the crtical shot for the Lakers.. JVg once stated that the pull up off the dribble is one of the hardest things to guard.

I dont think its easy for the big guys to take the most critcal shots. you could get double teamed pretty easily and quickly.

J

*great read thats why I love coming to thsi site

 

Nap. It takes time for Yao to establish the good position, and then you need outside players to feed the ball to him at the spot. It's much easier for an oursider player to have the ball, make a decision with the shot clock running down.

Plus, as someone mentioned, Yao was too passive to be handed the ball with 4 seconds on the clock. Hope he can change that this coming season.

 

What Francis said has been translated from English to Chinese then back to English. My educated guess is that most likely he was trying to say that Yao is not a franchise player now but he "may be or may be not" one in the future. I don't think Francis would be so blunt to say that Yao will never be a franchise player, especially when he was being interviewed by a Chinese reporter in China.

 

LOL !!! Why you have to guess ??? Heech did an excellent translation on this one, except for Chinese names/terms that he did not know (e.g. the Chinese name for Patrick Ewing; hot pot means block shots etc.)

Francis' response (as written in the original Chinese article) was as Heech had translated: "Maybe or maybe not; if just based on the present, he won't; but I cannot guarantee the future."

And IMO, Francis is not blunt to say that as he is telling the truth, and Chinese fans can appreciate that.

 

LOL I have never questioned heech's ability in translation. I was just saying something might have lost in translation since what francis said has been translated back and forth between two different languages. I don't care if you are a professional translator but it's always difficult to perfectly translate what someone says from one language to another. And I did say it was an educated guess. so it is just my own opinion. Any probem?

By the way, thanks for the translation, heech.

 

Thanks for the translation !

 

Here is another very informative and moving interview of Steve Francis in Shanghai by another Chinese reporter that just released today in the various Chinese websites.

http://2004.sina.com.cn/cn/bk/2004-07-31/46208.html

This interview told us from Francis' own mouth:-

* What happened during that 5-day period when he first refused the trade and then accepted the trade. He was at first very reluctant to agree on the trade; in that 5 days, he tried to do everything in his power to try to salvage and change the Rox management decision. He did that because his career has been with the Rox for the past 5 years. He loves Houston and the people/fans there. He thought he had made sufficient personal sacrifice on court to prove himself worthwhile to stay and win the championship together with Yao Ming. But the Rox management thought he is not good enough; and after the 5-day struggle, he finally gave up as he was left with no choice.

* When asked what is his future plan at Orlando, Francis gave the moving new house analogy, and said he needs to adjust and adapt to a new team, new team mates, new city. He thought it could take a while for that adjustment; "It is easy to move your body there but it is difficult to move your heart there as well".

* He also talked about what he thought about whether Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady can get along in Rox, and how long it will take for them to lead the Rox to NBA championship. When asked whether Rockets could become NBA champion in 2 years or 5 years time, Francis refused to predict but he thought they should have the chance, but it could be a waiting process; the team just needs to work and learn to be better, as now Rox gets 2 big "trump cards" with them.

* When asked who is more important, Yao Ming or Tracy McGrady ?? Francis gave a diplomatic response first, saying both are great players. Further pressed by the reporter, he said if he has to choose amongst the 2, he will pick Yao Ming. He thought it is not uncommon to get players like TMAC in USA, but for players like Yao Ming, it will be very difficult to get, not in another 100 to 1000 years.

* In the interview, there were also sections where Francis talked about his feeling about China, its people and about the 2 modern cities of Beijing and Shanghai. He also talked about why he donated US$ 20K last year in the SARS Telethone initiated by yao Ming. There are also interesting stuff like he tried but could not find time to buy DVDs of his idol, Bruce Lee; that he was curious about snake-eating but had not the chance to do that; as well as he had a 90-minute foot massage/therapy with Chinese herbal medicine.

In summary, a very great and moving article.

I hope Heech will do us the favor for a full translation of this one.

 

There's numerous times Yao shown he can produce in the clutch. He has the skills, all he needs is more confidence and be willing to step up and take charge more in clutch time.

I remembered he almost single handedly bring Rox back in a game vs. Trail blazers, and that game on TV against Mavericks, in crunch time, Steve made a great pass deep down into Yao, and Yao was surrounded by 3 or 4 guys, he still managed to put in a shot plus one to seal the victory. There's a lot of times Yao sinks the free throw in crunch time too.

 

The look on Mark Cuban's face was PRICELESS!

 

Actually, I was thinking about the same thing as RocketForever did, so I went back to read the Chinese version again.

Heech translated exactly what the original Chinese version of the interview wrote, but read from the context, it seems "Franchise Player" there has the different meaning from what we understand here.

In the Chinese version of the interview, Francis went on to talk about that Yao is too nice to boss players around. It seems he meant locker room leader, instead of franchise player, just like Tmac was a franchise player for the Magic, but not a locker leader.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I wish Les would have stayed true to Rudy. No matter what issues he might have had at the time with his health. I know it's a touchy subject, but the guy could have proven himself once again over time. I truely believe that.

sorry for the derailment