If Yao can say I am too tired to play any games in this summer, Chinese Offices can not do anything for him. Somehow, Yao may want to spend sometime in the summer in China. Some people here drive him ?
You have a point there about Wang being an ranking office in army. However, all Wang did is skip 2 weeks practice (I think), he tried to work it out with the team, since the team doesn't want him back, then it's all Wang can do. I think it's within chinese national team's right to punish him by benching him or something, it's totally wrong to go accuse him being a traitor and such, it's not like Wang sold out his country. I don't know everything and nobody knows everything so it's just my two cents. Let me re-iterate: IMHO, Yao should have the say and not pressured by Chinese officials to go to Asian game. Also, Yao did more than enough for China and national team and chinese people, so don't bring out the patriotic crap.
My reply was to the poster who said "why should Yao give a f*k about Houston?", and I simply tried to explain to him/her why he should give a f*k, in fact, why he BETTER give a f*k. That was all. Then I told him/her that if Yao's priority is not to improve and bring the trophy to the Rockets (which is his employer and the reason why he is driving a BMW and has a nice house/restaurant). Now, it is important to understand that in this case, Yao's obligations to the CNT are NOT in conflict with his obligations to the Rockets. If he wants to bring China "glory" in the Olympics or the World Championship, then he is more than free to do so, it will be during the summer season anyways. So that is not a problem at all. In fact, if he wants his team to do better in the competition and not have China embarassed at home in the 2008 Olympics, he would dedicate his summer time to conditioning and skill development, because this directly leads to him having a better chance to help China do well in those competitions. I hope this makes sense
Yeah I agree that Yao have done alot of good stuff for China national team, but I wouldn't go that far to say he did more than enough for chinese people. He owes nothing to Chinese people as a whole, and he doesn't do any good to Chinese individuals either. At least I won't become a better person because of him. yes it does make sense, I actually agreed with you on that one. Maybe it's just my tone wasn't clear. I was tired of people blaming everything on the Chinese government. I thought there was some misunderstanding and tried to clear it up. Hopefully you and rvpals see my points, nothing personal. Go Rockets!!
Wayne312, I do see your point. I might be a little pissed off in my tone earlier because there's a lot of nonsense regarding Yao's committment. Mostly I'm just angry at the sports officials for taking advantages of Yao's fame. It's not blaming the government, just some people in sports ministry. tigermission1 and me basically saying the same thing, have Yao take time off and hone his skill, that better serve Chinese team for the olympic 2008 than having Yao running around all year playing sometimes meaningless games and other non-basketball activities which Yao clearly doesn't like.
As someone who deals with Chinese officials to make a living, let me assure you , those guys are not "communist dictators" as some of you would have thought . They are nothing more than a bunch of money thirsty business men , just like anybody else. This kind of stuffs happen when a guy is payed much less than the money he is in charge of. That said , I am fairly possitive that Yao has a good chance of staying in US this summer. He has a lot more leverage than what Wang Zhizhi had back then. Right now , the top priority for the officals is for CNT to do well in 2008. It out weighs their "side business" ( making sponsers happy, getting a few bucks in their own pockets) by a metric ton. Yao speaking out to the chron , I gather , is just an effort to avoid direct conflict. "You dont ask, and I dont refuse " will be a win-win solution for both parties.
Does anyone think that what Wang did might've weakened Yao's position? It seems to me that after Wang's refusal to return to practice with the CNT when he was ordered to might've made the CNT more hesitant about cutting Yao, or any other Chinese player, some slack.
if you guys believe so much in individual freedom why can't you just recognise the fact that it's yao's choice to represent his country whenever he can. he can very well follow what wang zhizhi did and have all the offseasons to do whatever he wants, and still be a big nba star. but he doesn't. and i believe that's one of the reasons so many fans love him.
Because Yao has stated that he's prefer to take a couple of months off and work on conditioning. That's his choice. Why can't you accept that?
The NBA season has been 82 games for as long as I can remember and only the playoff format has been modified since the inception of the 82 game season, the playoff format is much more exciting than back in the old days when there were fewer teams, so I don't see them going back on the new format. Anyway, why should the NBA change anything. They were here first and players should have the right to choose whether international play or the NBA should be their first priority. T-Mac, Shaq and others opted to not play for their countries in the 2004 Olympics and that is a right that everyone should have in a free society. Yao lives in a quasi free society and that is the source of his problem, let the CBA relax their rules or let Yao have the choice of when and where he wants to play as he would if he were a US citizen.
The guy is committed to his country, leave it alone already. We preach patriotism in this country and how it trumps money and other things, yet when a guy form another country is loyal to his country, we get all mad. The Rox gave him the contract knowing fully well that Yao was gonna have offseason commitments.
Good post. You're absolutely right. Tigermission, not everything is about money. Yao is not in Houston because of the money. China didn't allow Yao to switch to the NBA because of money. Yao is here to improve so that he can better represent China in international games. If he doesn't actually play in those games, they've lost sight of the original goal. As for whether Yao wants to play for the national team, I think it is obvious that he does. As "dictatorial" as many thinnk China is, the truth is Yao does have a choice. If he doesn't want to play for China, he could simply not go. China can't recall him. The US won't deport him. He does play, because he wants to play. Personally, I want him to go play in the Asian Games. (1) It won't significantly hinder his growth (and JVG agrees with me on that); (2) It will significantly improve his team chemistry with the CNT, something they will need for the Olympics; (3) Elite players (including our own) should represent their countries in international play.
The chances are high that Yao will stay in US this summer (based on my prediction)... This (the Asian Championship) is the best time for Yao's CNT teammates, especially those who are very young, to grow up by playing the best out of them without relying too much on Yao (like they did in the 2004 Olympics).
Firstly, Yao WANTS to represent China in events like olympic games, he is just not that enthused to play in smaller events. Secondly, if Yao plays hard ball , CBA will cave in, simple as that. Whether he is ever gonna do that I am not sure, my guess is he will try to resolve things in a graceful manner first and see how it turns out.
Some comments after reading all this: 1. In Yao's mind, as I guess, he wants to play for 2008 but take full or half break for the next three years. That's what I hope him to do too. 2. For the summer break, Yao wants pure rest as much as work-out/honing skills. This NBA season is just too long and I don't think Yao is a workaholic. 3. Even Yao is paid big to play for Houston, he is not obliged to tune his game during offseason. The organization sure wishes so but in no place to force him, just like lakers cannot force Shaq to stay in shape during offseason or even take surgery outside of company time. 4. This summer if Yao goes back, he is representing Shanghai for a national championship. As I am not from Shanghai, I don't give a dime if Shanghai wins or not. But I don't blame Shanghai for wanting Yao back during the summer. Hey, Shanghai has taken a nosedive in CBA since Yao left after the championship. 5. I want to see the sports in China commercialized, and get rid of all those national games (teams from each Province), not mentioning there is even a stupid national game for big cities. But I don't expect it happens over-night, and neither should you (I hope at least). 6. As much as I understand and respect individualism, it's not pleasant to read all this assumptions that systems in NBA/USA are always superior compared what's in China. I don't like the idea the other side is to be blamed when there are conflicts between two systems in negotiation. For example, I think NBA team should be allowed to pay more than the current 500K fee to oversea teams if NBA wants their top-notch players (OT, I think NCAA players should be paid too).
Great post overall David. I just want to add a few things to your No.2 point. 1. Yao needs serious weight training which requires a lot of rest. It cant be done during the season . Summer is the only window for it. 2. Correct weight training will do wonders. Yao has tree trunk legs which are dead weight when it comes to jumping. A couple of months of program designed for olympic weight lifters can partly compensate for that. He also badly needs those special hand strength programs designed for centers .
i'm afraid you're wrong here. the reporter stated in his article that yao prefers ... at the end of the day you can only judge what he really wants by his actions, not what the reporter said, or what you said. there is a balance. you sacrifice some and you gain some. it's the same for everyone, including yao. if yao goes back to play for his national team it means he believes that's the best for him, and his country, and that's his decision to make. accept that.
An Olympic championship vs. an NBA championship is apples to oranges... As you know, NBA championships are determined by playing a seven game series between two teams. Most of the national teams that go to the Olympic games are made up of players who have played together just like NBA teams. The US Olympic team is a mix of players who have not played together, or only rarely. Even though the US team is put together as a temporary collection for the Olympics, and even though the Argentinian team won the Olympic medal, I doubt if any of the entrant teams in the last Olympics would have beat the US team in a seven game series. But to make the comparison even more fair the US should send IT'S national champion -- the reigning NBA championship team to the Olympics. And the games should then be played as series -- best of five or seven. Then you could truly call the Olypmpic gold medal a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP... until then..., sorry... it's not. Even the NCAA chamionship tournament uses teams of players who have played together for one or more seasons. The NBA schedule, though long, and it's playoff system, is a truer test of which team is the best any given season. The Olympics and NCAA championships can't mean the same thing because the test criteria is different.
