I wanted to reply to some of the posters, then decided not to. I wanted to reply to those posters again, then decided not to again. and I see david's word, I decided I have to blow this out of my lung: nicely put davidwu! it bothers me that some of the posters here are so sure that his/her view is so correct that anything different is simply evil and wrong... seriously, take a closer look, while there are a number of chinese fans wanting Yao to go back to CNT for various reasons, almost all of them stated that they understands the american point of view and respects them. -- and they just differs in opinion because they have a different priorities than native houstonian fans. On the other hand, there are a number of american fans are so sure that the NBA way is superior in every aspect to anything else, that if there are anyone don't agree with it, they are evil -- or dictators, or communists, or short sighted bureacrats, or enemy of the state, or whatever they want to call them... disagreement is fine and normal. but pls... pls... try to respect other's opinions (yes, include those evil communist dictator's opinions) even if you don't like it. That's not too much to ask, I hope? and as a side note, I want to point out one possible concern for chinese sports administrations that no one has mentioned yet. -- Please first allow me to say I won't agree with this concern, although I could understand its logics, so don't flame me too hard on that. As we know, chinese basketball system is in a transition state recently. the governing body is trying to commercialize the sports, establish more ties with US and europe, start learning new training method and game tactics from those countries, and attract more basketball fans into the CBA fan base. This is a time for huge and fast changes, and the result of transformation could decide where chinese CNT stands 30 years from now. -- given all these, who do you think is the best symbol to promote new training/game tactical changes from foreign countries? who do you think is the best player to attract fan interest? who do you think is the best to inspire young players to play harder, practice harder, and try to be successful in NBA one day? unfortunately, there is one, and only one player that can achieve all these. and it's hard to imagine the sports officials won't want Yao to go home and help promote the game in whichever way that's possible. Would that be short sighted? I would probably say yes, but not with some hesitation. hindsight is always easier than when you have to make the actual decisions, and I may well disapprove whatever decisions those sports officials make, but at least I would recognize that whichever decision they make, and whatever the result is, their decision has its own logics in it... right now, I'm just hoping their logics will coincide with ours.
Here's a hypothetical question. Everyone agrees that Yao needs to rest and work on strength and conditioning. Most people seem to want Yao to take a break from playing in Shanghai or with the CNT. Another possibility though is that Yao could just decide to take time off from the NBA and do a Jordanesque retirement. This is unlikely but I could imagine something like that happening in 2008. How would people react to that?
Yao needs to hire the best negotiator to join the Team Yao, and lay the whole thing out in front of the Chinese government. Let them know, they can't kill the goose which lays golden eggs.
It is definitely shortsightwed, but Yao's return to China for wahtever international games would removes the CNT's financial worries ... as long as the CNT holds a few public exhibition games in a few metropolitan areas ... Without Yao these games just won't sell ...
maybe there's a compromise solution... Yao can go back to China every summer on a "business-vacation" and play in a few exhibition games. Nothing too intense or rigorous. A couple of weeks of travel during the break shouldn't be too harsh. The Asian games existed before Yao - and will still exist without him. China has an auto-bid for the 2008 Olympics anyways. It would behoove them to have the "best possible Yao" by then for serious medal contention.
What do you mean it's short sighted? If anything I'd say it's very well thought ahead. Let's suppose Yao can play for say... another 15 years. That means with Yao alone, the CNT has to go for gold in 15 years. Well what if they can't? What if they best they can do is silver? Yao is only one player. He's the best one player in the country right now, but sooner or later he's gonna retire. They don't just want to win when Yao's around. They want to win after Yao's gone too. So by having Yao go back, they can have him teach the new kids (Yi, Tang) some new tricks. Have them hone their skills as well. But it's funny some people just assumes that the CNT isn't thinking ahead of none of us know jack **** about what they really want to do.
If this "hypothetical" situation comes true, then we will all just have to accept that drafting Yao Ming was a successful business decision that was short-lived, although we would all acknowledge that the whole deal was a failure from a basketball standpoint. Then the Rockets will just have to act like Yao never existed and go on to try and find another superstar caliber player (which the Rockets have always been able to get) to pair up with McGrady or whomever else is with us at the time. If Yao does that, he would forfeit his contract. This "hypothetical" situation could happen to any other player in the league too, by the way. I think the Rockets will be fine regardless of what Yao does, I just wish he would rest a bit in the off season and take a much needed break from playing b-ball. Otherwise, his constant fatigue will be hinderence to the Rockets' championship aspirations.
"That's not under my control, if I go or not," Yao said. "If they want me, I go. But I really hope I can have two months, or 1 1/2 months of practice in Houston in the summer. I want to work this summer on conditioning, post moves, anything." I'm afraid you are wrong. YAO clearly states that he would REALLY HOPE to have 2 months off or 6 weeks of practice in Houston. He doesn't believe going back and playing on the Shanghai team is best for him or his country, other wise why would he express hope to take time off?
There are a lot of US players on foreign teams trying to improve their skills enough to make an NBA team. I'm not sure it would present as much of a problem as you think. Somewhat beside the point, though. The two main points are: 1) most American sports championships are not decided by one game between two teams and 2) the US basketball team that goes to the World games or Olympic games is not always a "Dream Team" (for instance Shaquille O'Neal has bowed out due to injuries) and doesn't play together as long as most of the national teams from other countries. I mainly didn't agree that a "World" championship should be considered more valuable than an NBA championship, which is what barryxzz was expressing. If it is to him, great for him. But there probably isn't a foreign basketball player playing that wouldn't jump at the chance to play for an NBA team. It has always been considered the top of the basketball "world" and will be for some time to come. If the NBA ever becomes truly international (God knows the road trips could become really brutal!) then I expect the championships would be modeled after the current system and be a series of series. Even the world chess championship is a series of matches; not just one game and you're out. If Argentina (or which ever team wins the World championship or Olympic Gold medal) can win a seven game series against the reigning NBA championship then I'll agree, they really are World champions. If you were to ask all those foreign players you refer to who are playing in the NBA which championship they would rather have I think they'd pick the NBA championship. Final point being, for Yao to be expressing that he "wishes" he could stay here and train here this summer pretty much says how he values the goal of getting an NBA championship.
You assume it's 15 bad shots before they were taken when the fact is, you can't predict the future any more than the rest of us. If otherwise, I'd like to know tomorrow's lottery numbers. Also otherwise, we can tell our players which shots not to take tomorrow and which one to pull the trigger on. In general, I found too many people always assume they know what's best for other people, when they are not in a position to make an informed decision in the first place.
You are very tiring. I'm trying to make a point. The point is that quality beats quanity. Instead of trying to wring every bit out of Yao...every Shanghai shark game, every asian game championships, every world championship and olympic championship...pick a few and let the man rest so he can compete in 3 olympics instead of 2. No, you can't predict the future, but that doesn't mean you should put all you money into the stock market either. It's all about risk management...and it's very risky to make a human do the same excercise year round. Any physical therapist can tell you that. GO ASK THEM. Whether it's typing, running, skiing or playing basketball - you've got to mix it up and get rest or you will get injured. Finally, Yao has said he wants to take a few months off. I'm not deciding for him, I'm listening to what he is quoted as saying. So you people got to stop with this no one knows what is best for Yao...Yao knows, and he has spoken.
I agree that Yao doesn't really want to play for the NT this summer. To make an analogy, the situation is like I don't really want to spend a week of my vacation time in some boring little town in the middle of no where, but my grandma wants me to be there with her and I don't want to disappoint her so I'll go if my grandma asks me to even though I'd really much rather spend my vacation sitting on the beach in some tropical island. I'm sure Yao would much rather take the summer off to rest and work on his skills than playing for the national team, but he doesn't want to let his country and his fans down so he'll play for the Chinese NT over the summer if the CBA asks him to play. Just like I have the choice of saying no to my grandma at the risk of hurting her feelings, Yao has the choice of saying no to the NT at the risk of damaging his relationship with the NT and alienating some of his fans. But just like I would not want to hurt my grandma's feelings, Yao would not put himself above the needs and wishes of his coaches, colleagues, and teammates on the NT.
The point of this is that it seems to be that posters like yourself are looking at this from the Rox POV when the CNT is looking it from their POV. I'm sure they like all the money and fame Yao is earning from the NBA but to them the NBA is a sidelight for what they see as Yao's main purpose. Playing for the CNT.
Wrong. If you go with your grandma, it's only because you don't have balls. It can't be about feelings. It's just like Yao can only prove he has balls if he refuses to go back. It's all about balls, balls, balls and more balls. Some stupid people are just addicted to balls. Actually, I like your post. Nicely said.
Read the fans' comments on sina.com.cn (ok, you may not understand Mandarin), it's pretty obvious that most fans think that the basketball officials are rubbish. One of the reasons that China is not so great in basketball (compared to other sports) at the world level IS because the Chinese officials that are in-charged of basketball development are incompetent. So don't expect them to make the correct/logical decision regarding Yao. They should bring in the management team from other sports and fire the whole CBA (and Chinese soccer association too while they're at it).
