Chron: Abdul-Jabbar says Yao sky hook away from great

Jabbar was recently hired as an assistant for the Knicks and was an assistant for the Clippers a couple of years ago.

 

Hmm...all these Dallas Mavs connections...Who knows what Mark Cuban is trying to do behind all these...where are all the conspiracy theorists on these bbs when we need them?

 

If Van Gundy's tenure in Houston ends up as a generally agreed failure, I guarantee you one of the top indictments of him will be that he tried to turn Yao into Ewing, out of sheer familiarity and lack of imagination, instead of into Kareem.

 

My understanding is he was not a full time assistant coach for the Clippers, just a specialist who was hired to coach the big man. Same thing with the Knicks this season.

I think NBA allows maximum THREE assistant coaches sit on the bench during the game, rest of them have to sit behind bench, or in the crowd. Teams used to have no more than three assistant coaches, and several scouts, but the Mavs started the trend having more coaches than the players.

 

Ewing did a very nice job as Yao's coach, IMO...but let's face it, Yao is a tabularasa just waiting to soak up more knowledge. Jabbar offers an entirely different set of skills from Ewing, one that would fit perfectly into Yao's repertoire.

 

How very true!

I envision Yao-Jabbar

 

you're calling ME melodramatic?

alright, you know what, i guess my problem is not with you.

i guess my problem is that since steve's tenure here has become rocky, a lot of his fans are starting a reactionary crusade to criticize Yao, which he does not deserve. and since they've driven Haven away, then someone needs to be the last bastion of reason because Sane and DavidS won't deign to respond to some of those ridiculous attacks.

i'm also working on my thesis which sits me at a computer 24/7 and so i have extra procrastination time. In any case I'm tired of "defending fortress Yao" so I guess whatever happens happens.

 

SamFisher, you just got PWN3D!!!@!@!@!!!!!

 

Haemorrhoids?

 

Fortress Yao

(*please relax, I was kidding, I only noticed later that I superimposed Yao over a busty female, I'll fix that in a bit...)

 

There was an interview on Sporting News and he talked about this. The tone of the interview suggests this...

That Jabbar was seen or perceived to be "too standoffish." Jabbar is a very stoic person. He doesn't talk with emotion and has a very stark demeanor. And since Jabbar has such a disdain for a lot of the "playground style" and such a love for the purity of the game. Some GMs felt that he wouldn't go over very well with the young "stars" of the league.

So, it's been hard for him to land a head coaching job.

In summary, it's not about whether or not Jabbar can coach. He can. It's about whether or not GM's/Owners believe he can *relate* to today's players.

 

Generally, I would say that there is only one play in which Cato recieves the ball in pick and roll situations and that play is a backdoor dunk assisted by Steve that was relatively (loosely termed) ineffective in the playoffs and versus teams such as the Timberwolves.

Is it that Cato is better in pick and roll situations or is it that Kelvin is virtually ignored on the offensive side of the ball which often can lead to easy buckets?

 

Oh, I hope he won't change his name to Ming Abdul-Jabbar after being tutored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

 

Yes because we know before Patrick came along, Yao was a hook-shot-shooting fiend. Damn you Patrick for taking away Yao's greatest weapon - his once-unstoppable hook shot.

 

What? He's a knick coach. Then that surely means that JVG will bring him in. Who's the lone holdover assitant coach from Rudy's staff, because I predict he'll be traded for Jabbar before the deadline next year.

 

i dont think he was hired as a assistant coach for the knicks. I thought he scouts games.

 

Personally, I'd like to see Shaq coach Yao

 

I think the ultimate tutor for Yao would be to hire Mr. Miyagi to be his sensei. A few sessions of "wax on/wax off" and Yao-san will be ready to go Karate-Kid on Malone's @ss for that dirty forearm to the spine. It really p!ssed me off how Yao did not retaliate for that cheapshot. Yao don't need to work on no sky-hook .. he just needs to work on his left/right hook period --- if you know what I mean.

 

You are corrupted by today's NBA. basketball is not about retaliation of cheap shots. It's about fair play and winning games.

No wonder many basketball legends thought that international players (Yao Ming included) might help to change how basketball should be played in NBA.

 

Come on now. His entire post was sarcasm, meant to be a joke.

Atleast that is what I get from it. No way a poster from 1999 would say something like that that isn't sarcasm.