The same way a raw akeem did the same. There used to be a time when teams didn't have to wait 4 yrs on a rookie. Dream and ewing was drafted 1 overrall moreso for their defensive impact than anything.
Scouts may have thought both Dream and Ewing were raw offensively coming into the league, but those scouts were sorely mistaken.
You sure were singing a different tune earlier with all that urban legend crap. Until.. MD_in_Training broke you down to size and now you're singing a whole different tune.
I don't understand why you insist that results are the sole indicator of a player's hard work. You state that you don't believe anyone is a harder worker than Ewing, who is a HOFer. Again, I ask you. What do you base this on? If the only thing is that he went from being "raw" to being skilled, then I don't see how that translates into an indicator for the amount of hard work. For some players, each hour in the gym just yields less results than an hour for other players. The fact that Ewing was able to improve dramatically simply means he improved by working. It, in no way, demonstrates HOW hard he worked. We can all agree that Chuck Hayes wouldn't be able to touch Ewing's abilities even if he worked double the amount Ewing did. But, like you said, no one cares about what goes on off the floor. The fact that Yao Ming works hard doesn't really matter for us fans unless that hard work translates into better play.
Jerome Solomon consistently writes negative columns about the Rockets. I read him to make me feel better that at least I know better than him. Morey is mad because Solomon is implying the GM should be doing a better job of recruiting talent. Solomon doesn't get it. People LOVE the Rockets even if they're not on top of the standings. We love them because they fight against all odds, without a lot of complaints or excuses. They know themselves, know the limits of their talent, yet try to improve each game. They win sometimes, lose sometimes, but always carry themselves with such honor and humility. They're the kind of people we all want to be in life.
you must be a closet solomon lover because the guy is an idiot, we could throw a 12 year old in their to do his job and do much better
Can't see JVG or Ron-Ron blowing smoke like that. I remember one quote from Artest last year especially. Something to the effect that it surprised him when he would come out 1.5-2 hours (something like that) before gametime/shootaround to get in extra practice, and he would find Yao already there 30 minutes before him working. I think that's one of the reasons he respects Yao alot.
dont really get why morey chose to respond to Solomon. The way I see it, it only made me read an article by him, which i try to avoid.
Well, there is one big reason. The no. 1 and 2 draft picks respectively are hard workers. The difference the media of a country that inhabits 1,3 somewhat billion people is covering what Yao does in the offseason and during workouts so folks are only watching Yao Ming working out or rehabbing. Kudos to Amar'e for his conditioning and coming back from microfracture surgery. It's unfair but that is it. Yao draws more attention and is a cash cow worth more money.
MD, when u work hard and have talent you see results plain and simple. I'll use this and i'll let it go because of the sensitivity on this board. Shaq and Stanley Roberts. Now if you've watched enough basketball, you could say stanley had as much talent as shaq. Both 7ft and over 300 lbs with cat like quickness and agility. Shaq couldve been like stanley and stanley couldve been like shaq, but somewhere in there shaq worked hard and stanley didn't. How do I know? U guys with equal talent and one guy goes to the hall and is a all time top 5 pivot and the other did minimum damage in the league. When u have talent and work hard u get results. You mentioned chuck hayes if I remember correctly and his work ethic. It would be foolish to think chuck hayes could become mchale,barkley or whomever,but is it too far fetched to think with repitions he couldn't be a charles oakley type of offensive threat or micheal cage? Maybe chuck is comfortable in his role and dont want to expand his game, but I know if he did we would see it. Just like landry has gone from a inconsistent mid range shooter to you're surprised when he misses. That's not by accident. Back to yao, I've never said he wasn't a hard worker,but maybe he's not a smart worker. I say that because even minus the injuries and the physical limitations, I haven't seen that growth. Make no mistake, yao is a talented player,but I don't see anything he does better now than he did in his 3rd yr.I say the same about shane except he's been the same since his rookie yr. Maybe its unfair of me to expect yao or others to get better all the way to their early 30's like dream,jordan,maiman, and now kobe. Those guys worked hard and we saw reults as clear as a day in may..
I'm sorry, but the majority of what you wrote is irrelevant. You still haven't demonstrated how the amount of hard work translates directly into the amount of results. You can't show that Ewing was one of the hardest working players in the league. You simply saw the results, and assumed it. There's nothing that prevents me from saying that he was actually a below average worker, and that his results was just due to his extreme talent and ability to use effectively what he practices. I can subsequently make the claim that had he worked as hard as the rest of the league, he would have been a better player. I'll use my student analogy again. An intelligent student can achieve more with less studying than an average or dumb student can with more studying. Likewise, Yao may be the hardest player in the league, but he's just a "dumb kid." The yields of his training are small, and that the effect of his work only maintains what game he does have. Any decrease in amount of work would only cause him to become worse.
MD, no matter the talent, you can't be a hof player minus being a hard worker. There have been a lot of talented players come in this league and the only thing that seperates avg to good to great is hard work. I can site a guy like tim thomas or even lamar odom as super talented players that never put in the work to be great. I can see that as well as others. Like I said maybe guys work hard but not smart,but I just fail to the title "hardest worker in the nba" label when guys like kobe will work till he blackout.That's similar to guys being amazed at how hard jordan worked. Even dream teamers were amazed his regiment. I highly doubt anyone outworks kobe,lebron,wade,dirk and dudes like that. Players may work as hard,but not harder.
So you are saying that Chuck doesn't work as hard as Carl Landry. Is that what I am getting from you? If so, you sir, are a boob.
Charles Barkley and Karl Malone are both HOFers. Did they work equally as hard? I'm talking off the floor development and training.
at mid-range jumpers? I doubt he does. I'm sure there are quite a few things that Landry works at much more than Chuck Hayes. I honestly don't care much for how hard someone works when watching basketball on the nba level. I care about the results, players like Chuck are just considered hard workers but that's selling him short, imo. He has a wealth of defensive talent, passing ability and understanding of the game. Carl Landry's talent just happens to be on the offensive end. Although, I think the flip side of that is people who have offensive talent not ever getting considered as hard workers is also selling those players short.
no... leebigez stated that Landry works more on his offensive game than Chuck does because he can now shoot that midrange jumpshot in game with confidence. Landry could hit that mid range jumper at Purdue prior to getting to the NBA.. so while I agree that he still works on improving it saying that because Chuck doesn't take them in the game means he isn't trying to improve is selling him short.
you mean all those others who declared this a championship team before he even put on a rockets uniform
Thats what i'm saying and the proof is in the pudding. Its easy to read and see. I don't know what chuck does during the summer as far as shooting, but i can tell you its not much. Maybe he lifts weights and watches film, but he doesn't do enough shooting drills to be comfortable shooting. Look at someone like Chris anderson as a example. When he first came in he was terrible at doing anything other than dunking. Now, he's a respectable free throw shooter and he can actually hit a shot from more than 10 ft. Now are you going to tell me coming off his suspension he all of a sudden woke up and had the ability to do that or did he have shooting drill after shooting drill working on that shot?
