It seems Yao getting vastly different treatment by refs game by game, and imo it is not just flip flop between home and away court. Do the fans here actualy recognize these NBA refs, and clue us from the game opener if they are friendly toward Yao? I remember some sina article posted here that Yao *hated* a particular ref in bobcats' game. That guy even gave Yao a hard time 3 years ago in international college basketball matches.
Here is the evidence: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3599/splits FG 3PT FT Rebounds Misc Situation G Min M A Pct M A Pct M A Pct Off Def Tot Ast TO Stl Blk PF PPG Total 25 31.8 6.7 12.8 52.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.5 7.0 78.4 2.5 6.2 8.7 1.0 3.0 0.5 1.6 3.7 19.0 Home 14 33.6 7.7 14.0 55.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.9 8.7 79.5 2.4 7.1 9.4 1.2 2.5 0.4 1.5 2.9 22.4 Away 11 29.5 5.5 11.3 48.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.7 4.9 75.9 2.6 5.2 7.8 0.6 3.6 0.6 1.8 4.8 14.6
According to a Chinese article, Yao said there is a ref in the league holding some grudges against him since '02 World Championships. In a game of WC Yao was called travel he was pissed and said to the ref "Do you know what travel is?". He didn't know that ref is from the NBA. He says now that guy is always giving him hard time.
wow... if what wireonfire said is true, yao should make it public about this... and let david stern has some discipline to this ref!!!
every team has refs that like or dislike them and thier players. most NBA officials have heard much worse from many players during nba games than waht yao said to this guy in china. i wouldn't worry about it.
