I would be delighted if we can find out one way or another. Winning cures a lot of ills. It always has.
I think the criticism aimed at Yao is similar to what people said about David Robinson. If he had Barkley's attitude, he would be the best player in the league. I think that can be said about Yao. I've had my issues with Yao because a guy with his size and skillset should be dominate. If he had Shaq's attitude to dominate people, he would be the best player, not just center in the league. Sometimes he seems content with just being good. His nice and friendly style is cool off the court, but on the court he needs to want to rip your heart out. As a lot of old time Rocket fans, we had that in Dream and Moses. Yao has the skills to be like that, but it only comes out from time to time. Even with his minuses, he can and should dominate more often and for longer stretches. don't think the nba is out to promote howard over yao, nor do I thinks its because of the lack of blocks and dunks, its more of a domination/greatness type of thing. I doubt Yao will ever have a attitude adjustment this late in life/nba career. He is what he is and with the right cast of players, the Rockets can win a title with Yao.
i think there is a lot of truth to what you just said. and hopefully, what you posted in the end will turn true. personality, along with cultural differences, is really hard to make changes to. asking yao to have barkley's mentality is just as hard as the opposite. but, i've noticed one thing in my many years of watching yao. outside of the nba, i've also watched many of yao's international games. the level of his confidence (in a sense that he's the absolute leader on the china national team) and passion are quite higher. and i don't quite understand that. over here he often defers too much. i've always said to my wife that if yao has the same level of passion that he has on his national team, he could've been much more dominant.
The best center in the world comes for china! I haven't even see one game or recall one game dhoward have a better than yao head to head YET
the sad thing is, it's highly unlikely we'll ever see Orlando in the playoffs. The Jazz on the other hand, highly probably we'll see them. Great game by Yao though, props.
Because now NBA is is a business, the game is just a play, of cause not a fair play. If you watched those international games Howard or Duncan played, you will easily figure out why Yao will not be the best center of NBA. Rocket will be the at the same position as Yao in the league, one of the top team but not the best ( champion ).
Dwight vs Yao - who's the better center? In a 1v1 matchup Yao has proved to be better than Dwight. Would most Clutchfans prefer Yao over Dwight on the Rockets though if it was a straight swap? Probably not. Yao is currently my favorite Rocket. He has a fantastic work ethic, is morally sound, has a great sense of humor, and to top it off is a pretty damned good player. That said, and it pains me to admit this, I'd trade him for Howard straight up. I'd still root for Yao though. The dude makes it hard to cheer for him sometimes, but I always find myself doing it anyway.
IBM- I've said that a few times about the international players as a whole. I think young american kids grow up wanting to play in the nba. I think the international kids want to play basketball, but I'd don't thinks the nba is as important. Now if they're competitors, they want to win just like the other players. That's why I have a little more respect for Yao,Biendrens,Darko, and dirk more than I do some of the older international players. When guys come over at 25,26 vs 17 like Darko or 21 like Yao, I think its says something about the improtance of the nba to them. Yao couldve easily stayed in china and then came over later, but he chose to compete against at the highest level. I think Yao is a good player even with his lack of whatever. I think Tracy wants Yao to be assertive every night, especially during the regular season. That's why you hear people used the words aggressive, decisive, and assertive. When Yao plays with those 3 things, he battles for position, he scores,rebounds and blocks. My biggest knock on Yao is his offensive output normally dictates the res of his game and that should never happen. Even if he struggles on offense, the rebounding and shot blocking should always be there.
That's slightly inaccurate. Yao usually guards Boozer, who owns Yao because of his ability to hit the jumper and his speed if Yao overplays the jumper. On the other end, Okur guards Yao. Okur has done a decent job containing Yao the past two playoffs. So if Yao is Dwight's kryptonite, Okur/Boozer is Yao's. Therefore, Dwight > league, Yao > Dwight, Okoozer > Yao, thus Okoozer must be the best center in the NBA!!!11!1!
Good point, I was thinking about the same thing. One possibility can be NBA players are much more physical and Yao need to play much more physical here in NBA. He tried to play that way for a while and turn out to be he CAN be very dominant here in NBA, even physically. However he soon got injured. I guess he learned from it and now he is trying to find a balance between the dominant and fineness. When he matches with no names, he doesn't want to play physical because these kids normally have a lot to approve and Yao has to be smart to not get injured. When Yao plays with SHaq, Howard, etc he normally plays in a much more physical and dominant way jsut to show 'yes I can if I want to.'
EXCUSES,EXCUSES,EXCUSES All the talk about whose better as Yao consistently outplays this jump shotless SHAQ wanna be, and yet some will never budge. STILL YAO on my team over DH any day.
I'm pretty sure Dwight now knows he has to front Yao the whole game because he can't guard Yao from behind.
