I just think people want to take their shot at the Chinese government in this situation. If an American athlete would have said this about his teamates, he would be ripped by the media, and no one will have a problem with it. That's pretty much a value in American sports. But since this is the Chinese, we're making this into a larger argument about freedom of speech. When really it is a unity of team, etc. type of situation.
If Duncan would call out Team USA, none would rip him. He has the respect from fans and media. You can't say that for Kobe etc. if he were on that team.
Seriously, isn't it in Yao's hands? What are they going to do? If he doesn't like what they do, he'll retire and they will have ZERO chance of doing anything for the next 6 years or so. He is their hope. It's a one-man team. Yi is very far from being able to carry this team, he still has a LOT to learn. Once Del Harris leaves, then how is Yi going to improve? Yao is a gigantic part of this team. Without him, they can't win. Aside from that, he has experience against the best players in the world more than anyone in the Chinese media, the basketball federation, and all the Chinese coaches combined. He, more than anyone, knows what's right and what's wrong, and how his team should play against certain teams. Only Del Harris is better suited than Yao to direct his teammates.
Good point. Pretty much no one in China can say jack to Yao about basketball at this point. He's surpassed anything ever achieved in the sport in his country.
Actually, in Rome's defense, he doesn't just rip American athletes for slamming teammates. He rips athletes who rip their teammates without taking responsibility themselves or trying to shift the blame off of themselves. I've heard Rome several times compliment a coach for tearing into his team the same way Yao tore into his teammates.
Vaho Iagorashvili - Modern Pentathalon - Team: USSR 1988 Team: Republic of Georgia 1996 Team: United States of America 2004 As you were saying. . .? (and that's one of many many counter examples)
Well there are examples of basketball players such as Tim Duncan and Carmelo Anthony that couldn't play for two different countries during their Olympics careers (Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico respectively). Maybe it's a Fiba thing. I'll dig up the articles if you won't take my word.
Only in this situation, Chinese "officials" are supposedly getting themselves involved. I mean, can you imagine Tom Delay denouncing remarks made by Tracy McGrady about his team. It would just be ridiculous. But it sounds as if the Chinese are drop dead serious. I have no clue how reliable the Chinese media are, but its far from an unthinkable thing for that government to do.
Yao is just a competitor player and hate to see guys that aren't competing on the court. He wants to go to war with warriors and from what he seen, the Chinese players just don't have that fire. His cristicsm of his teammates is a good and bad thing. The good thing is he could wake them up and try to help them be more of a competitive players and play with more heart, afterall, that's how Yao succeed in the NBA. But nobody likes open criticism to the public because it could bring a player spirit down, I understand that, but at the same time....what else do you do to motivate the Chinese players to be competitive??? One way is to get embarrassed by Yao's comments in public ...this will send a message to their head to be competitive for the rest of their career, this only help them. They should accept what Yao said because he speaks the truth because afterall that's how Yao succeed in this league. Stop being so passive and stop following the Chinese way of playing ball but play with attitude and be more aggressive...play dirty if you have to....be more competitive.
It might all due to lost in translation, but I see just American propaganda, the writer speaks out his baseless crap, with freedom.
Wow, the Allen Iverson of 2-3 years ago must be the absolute epitome of leadership in Jim Rome and Jeff's world.
Yea, but part of the reason he has that respect is because he wouldn't call out team USA for a crappy game when he under-performed himself. Would he? Let's keep it real, here. Everyone in the world knows that the Chinese National Team is Yao's team. Yet he shows up for the CNT a good month after his NBA season is over, out of shape (and remains out of shape). He shoots poorly, plays poor defense, fouls out of the game, doesn't rebound... and then screams at everyone else for failing, and says nothing about himself except "I also played poorly". Does that sound like typical Tim Duncan reaction? Is that what you call leadership? It doesn't sound like typical Yao Ming either, but I saw it happen with my own eyes. Now, he's still young, and hopefully he's learned from this. But I totally agree with pgabriel, American media has its typical double-standard on this issue.
Nap! TD would have got ripped as well if he himself played terrible. There are two parts on this issue, one is that Yao didn't play up to the standard himself, and that was the biggest factor CNT lost the game; the other part is that he shouldn't blast his teammates in front of public, that's what locke room is for.
But it seems like Yao biggest gripe was that after Spain built their big lead his teamates stopped running the plays that Del called. If that's the case then I don't know how anybody should fault him for that.
yipengzhao .. I wasn't being serious.. more of a response to our american del coaching china.. so I jokingly was saying yao can go ahead and play here... I know it wont' ever happen.. wasn't aware you could only play for one team in your career though..
yeah i'm not 100% sure but i think there was something about Duncan never being able to represent Virgin Islands because he's played for USA internationally... also, i think i heard that's why people can't defect over and play for their new country... but then again... maybe it's also because they don't want to get killed by the teammates they abandoned.
wow... i stand corrected. i mean the USSR --> Georgia is because the USSR ceased to exist and I'm sure their athletes were allowed to play for their former soviet republics... but I didn't think you could defect and play for another country. interesting... who are the others?
The Chinese officials in question are sports officials with the Chinese Olympic team. They're not exactly members of the Politburo (Tom Delay equivalent). The best US analogy would be NBA execs or members of the US Olympic Committee.
Athletes change countries all the time. I know a lot of Chinese table tennis players are representing other countries.
