I am not a HUGE fan of Jeff Van Gundy, but dang it, that man is funny. I love the little barb he threw i about the NBA office. Classic. His is kinda like MArk Cuban minus the style.
I think it's justified - even in wins, the game threads are stuffed with posts b****ing and whining about Yao's shooting % or turnovers. It's ridiculous. Yao's having an MVP year, but posters are being little snots about him getting tired in the 4th. Evan
i don't think he's talking about hate from fans, or this bbs. it's more from the media in general. he's funny as hell though.
I think he's talking about the media in general, I mean, yes the Nate Robinson-Yao block was notable and should have been on Sportscenter, it's the equivialent of Muggsy Bogues blocking Hakeem Olajuwon...but they ran it about 150 times....
with all due respect... you just joined the site in march and only because we signed v-span i believe. to come in here and act like you followed the rockets all these years, especially the van gundy rockets is crazy. your upset cause he doesn't play your guy. even though we're winning your still upset. i know that the rockets always start slow, especially the tmac/yao era. and this start is actually better that duo have ever done. so i'm happy my team is doing well. the members who root for specific players interest over the rockets really piss me off.
if he was responding to a question I understand. other than that, it sets a bad example, first complaining about refs, now what the media thinks about yao. who cares. just play ball.
I wonder how many people think Yao's face looks special other than he is obviously a Chinese? I personally think he has above average looking among all these NBA players.
well he does have valid points you know. I mean he says people complain about us having no 4 and a crap pg. Even if the media don't say it, this board says it like at least three times a day.........
thats absolutly not true! I have been following the forum since early 2005, maybe since march as I joined the RealGM forums first..... and buddy, I did not join the forums because of VSpan, lol.... I've been Rockets fan since 96 brother...thats 10 years..I've seen Olajuwon play, I've seen Barkley, I've seen Francis and Yao I used to wake up at 2-3am in Germany and Bosnia to watch Rockets games, I was what 13 years old, I've played basketball most of my life Francis was my favorite player back then...I watched the draft...I loved his athletic ability, explosiveness I've been there, even so far away from my rockets....so don't say something you don't know talking about VSpan, of course I am going to back him up, thats natural, I posted his trade first, I worked with some greek fans to get the info....it wasn't easy to get the information I provided during the transfer.... I felt proud, and I will back him up you can call me a VSpan groupie...I love all our guys the same...but my fav right now is of course VSpan...I am his age, I can relate what he has been going thru, since I am also from europe and went thru the transition.... of course my reactions are sometimes crazy, but I guess thats natural, I can critisize but also praise Van Gundy...again, I think he is a great coach, but his stubberness is what makes me go nuts
You may want to sign up a certified yao hater on this board for this event on Dec 22. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/19/GLOBAL.TMP Peace.
Yao is being so politicially correct. That's just another way of saying. "The media hates me because I have a chinese face, and they are racist."
Now the NBA is doing it. On NBA.com the slideshow thing it says MEMORABLE MONDAY! "From Nate Robinson's block on Yao... blah blah" IT WAS AFOUL
this is why i like JVG. he tells it like it is. sometimes the fans don't like to hear it. sometimes the league doesn't like to hear it. HE'S RIGHT! name another player that people don't like because he's "not great"? who else gets judged like that? I hope this will fire up our team. "we don't have a 4, we don't have a point, we don't have a bench", our team is mentally weak, our team is soft, JVG can't coach offense or make adjustments during the game. you know what? if i was a player on this team, i'd make it my duty to shut people up!
After four years of denial, I've got to say that Yao isn't getting a fair analysis partially due to racial stereotypes. After four years I'm still hearing 'because he's from China, because of his culture, etc.' he still isn't there, he still hasn't made it. Even if they don't say it, in the back of their minds they're thinking it. I finally realized this after watching Cold Pizza today. I know, I know, Cold Pizza is crap, but they're saying the same thing the rest of the media keeps spouting. Look at Yao's skill set. Look at Nowitzki's. Look at Ben Wallace's. Look at Allen Iverson's. People have accepted what type of player Dirk is. He's not going to bang in the post. He still gets consideration for mvp (rightfully so). How about Ben Wallace? He's a dominant defensive player. And he's one of the least 'dominant' on the offense. I never hear any criticism about that. And why isn't every point guard considered a failure because they aren't like Allen Iverson? Because Iverson is a one-of-a-kind anomally that we rarely see ever? And Shaq is any different? Meanwhile Kwame Brown gets a pat on the back for not being a total bust like we thought before. I agree w/ JVG. Every single 'analysis' is on what Yao isn't doing. Don't mention his 26 pts 10 reb game, ignore his domination of Shaq/Zo, ignore the fact he's scored 30+ in 4 out of 11 games. Ignore that all opposing teams focus their defense on Yao now. Why? Because the 2 seconds where he got blocked (I'm not arguing it was highlight material) by a short guy is the real indication of a player.
Can JVG stop complaining and do something more constructive?! This article reminds me of our collapse in our last playoff series. I felt the timing of JVG's protest on how Yao was officiated was a big distraction on the team's progress. Cetainly, what the coach is saying in this article is another distraction to our team's success because the natural of complaint is an unconsious self-destruction to both the coach and the players. In a nutshell, let our actions speak for ourselves. Just focus on finding new ways to motivate the team to winning a playoff series or winning a title. Then we will see how little time we have in complaining about what others say.
These days I'm thinking Yao is turning into a modern day jackie robinson. Modern in the sense, that its not as extreme and blatant, but more subtle and subversive. No one will outwardly say its for race unless they are dumb like shaq, but they will always be looking for him to fail. Lucky for him, he's strong and doesn't bother himself with that. He just stays himself, and silences his critics with his game. I think that's why some of his fans are such big fans, he commands a respect that doesn't come along much in professional sports.
