Chronicles: Honeymoon over, Yao absorbs undue malice

Honeymoon over, Yao absorbs undue malice

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

We knew it was all a little stupid. But like so much inanity that we suffer with only obligatory indignation, that was the fun. It was a ridiculous but harmless time.

Yao Ming was taken around the country during his rookie season and treated like the cardboard cutout ESPN came up with a year later. He was a walking photo op, a curiosity asked to pose for pictures and speak a few of his favorite English words.

We rolled our eyes. Yao obliged until requests got too insulting. The public — from fans ("Yo, Yao!") to those wacky FM morning guys — was pretty goofy when Yao came to town, but it offered a reminder that the whole Yao endeavor was special.

Sentiment has sharpened
But now, road trips are different. There were judgments then, too, but they were easy to dismiss as reactionary, too premature to interfere with the good mood.

Now, Yao cannot arrive in a NBA city without analysis of what is wrong. There are cheers when he loses the tip, roars when he's dunked upon

He is widely considered the second-best center in the NBA, or at least among the best after Shaquille O'Neal. Apparently, he was expected to revolutionize the game by now.

"When you're a pioneer like Yao was — still is, really — people are looking for the negatives," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said after one of his "what's wrong"sessions. "They want to focus on the 10 percent they would want to change versus concentrating on the 90 percent that is great about him.

"Yao is going through constant critiquing and criticism of what he is doing and not doing, when he should do it, how he should do it. People are expressing disappointment, and I think it's off base. People in the media in particular build people up so they can tear them down. It's important for him to not get really caught up in all the suggestions, criticisms and all that and just try to continue to improve. He'll be fine.

"He's aware of criticism. It's funny. The guy is in 31 minutes, averaging 18 points and eight rebounds, so what would they be happy with? What?"

A third-year Tim Duncan?

"That's what everybody wants, no doubt," Van Gundy said.

Perhaps it is not an unreasonable desire. It might be a bit much, however, as an expectation.

His own biggest critic
Expectation is only an issue if it gets to Yao. As often as players insist they ignore the media, Yao would seem pretty insulated.

"I only read you," he said, "to improve my English."

He does, however, keep up with the Chinese media, which can be almost as critical as it is obsessive and does report the criticisms in the Western media.

Perhaps no player has ever been as conscientious. Yao has not only beaten himself up figuratively when he has struggled; in Dallas this season, he was caught literally beating himself up, punching himself in his left hand after missing a shot inside.

"I haven't been performing to everybody's expectations, and it has been lower than mine, too," Yao said Monday. "I have been trying to improve, and it's definitely getting better.

"I think this is my own problem. I haven't seen much improvement. Everybody is improving, but I am improving slowly, which seemingly widens our distance."

But he has recently become more resilient, more consistent. Look closer, past the expectations and possibilities, and Yao is improving in ways that were considered so important during the innocence of his rookie season.

"His conditioning is improved," Van Gundy said. "Defensively, he has made progress. Offensively, he's been a little bit more inconsistent. I think it's because of tactics the other teams are using to try to prevent his deep catches. We've struggled as a team getting him the ball, catching the ball and finishing.

"He's gotten better in transition. His pick-and-roll defense has gotten better. It's still a work in progress. I think, offensively, the turnovers are the No. 1 thing we have to work on — and the repetitive mistakes he makes that lead to turnovers. You can focus on that or the good. We'll continue to focus on both."

Accept Yao for Yao
If the rest of us look at Yao not as a novelty, as he was as a rookie, or as a superstar in waiting, as he is expected to be now, he is a solid, worthy All-Star. Perhaps to some, that is disappointing. But it would have been celebrated back when he was asked to stand next to ladders.

As for Yao, he can simply rise above the foolishness. On Sunday's episode of The Simpsons — often a source of stupidity smartly done — he pretended to speak only Chinese.

"Hey, I read you speak perfect English," Lisa Simpson challenged.

"Shut up, kid," Yao said. "I've got a good thing going."

He does. But perhaps more than in his rookie year, he needs to avoid the nuttiness in English.

 

LOL

 

amazingly enough yao's comments were pretty consistent with the recent SINA article....maybe there is some truth in the articles after all!!.......

 

Its unfortunate how it just doesn't stop....

We all know about Steve Kerr's article...

But this morning Skip Bayless on Cold Pizza said that its a travesty that no one on the Kings roster made the all-star team.
He hates that Yao gets a lot of internet votes, and that Yao shouldn't be a starter---and added that Yao didn't even deserve to be a reserve!!
He added Chris Webber should be on the team since he's being used as a point-center averaging 22 pts, 10 reb, 5 assists.

And you know Woody Paige wasn't going to say anything to defend Yao since he's hated Yao since before he got drafted.

It really is sad how the media will build somebody up--and then tear them down big time....

 

Of course we all know that Sina have nothing but garbage.

 

SUN's coach has the same opinion, even though he only say "someone" does not even deserve to be start on the All star team...

 

but who built him up? unfortunately, hes been ridiculed and criticized ever since he entered the league. bill walton and mike wilbon (PTI guy) are the only two i can think of that ever have anything nice to say about him outside of houston.

i feel bad for yao -- he actually reads the crap these people say about him.

 

So what, Bayless would prefer Webber than to guard Shaq? I just lost a lot of respect for Bayless. Webber is competing with Duncan, Garnett, and now Amare. Why not replace Ginobli for Webber then? Frickin' idiot. If he's gonna cast stones, as least throw them at the relative targets.

 

You make a good point here, but I honestly haven't seen the bashing as bad as this season...

 

When did the All-Star game become about who has the best stats, or who is even the best on the court player, for that matter.

Regardless, I'll take Yao's defensive presence over pretty much any other player in the Western Conference right now. Anyone who claims he is a bad interior defender (low block numbers for someone his size) isn't paying attention. The Rockets have the softest PF's, especially defensively, in the league. Yao is time and time and time again, the only one preventing dribble penetration, and, he picks up a lot of fouls, but we're winning games.

But there is a lot of improvement to be made, of course.

 

Yao would probably play better if he thought less and paid less attention to the criticism. He will be fine, and I'm not sure why so many people in the media are so eager to ream him. But he should probably borrow something from American athletes, ignore the press, and try to have more fun playing. Also, we should can Ewing. Just because.

 

da**, I even did not vote this year, next year I will vote for Yao. and he IS all-star center

 

If it is all and only about Stats, cancel the Allstar voting system altogether and let the computer to select "Allstats" strictly based on the numbers.

More importantr, call the even the "AllStats" game. That will make all the Kers, Bark-eleys, Coldpizas happy.

 

You should have read my signature.

 

That is good to hear and hell, I'd be the first one to tell you guys how sick and tired I am of "trade yao, Amare better than Yao" threads...

 

he probably picked up those quotes here on this message board.

This board seems to have it all.. latest news, inside info, awesome translators, a one stop shop for Rox fun.

I've heard in previous threads that Rox management have come through this site (Les, CD, as well as some of the players)..

J

 

Here is the tranlation of the whole Yao New Year interview everybody is quoting.

http://www.nba.com/features/yao_050209.html