NOBODY at ESPN watches any sporting events. I'm not even kidding. They get so tired of sports at work, that they go home and do something else. They are all clueless.
Am I the only one that wants to see what Yao would do to their defense if he was 100% healthy? I mean completely, 100%, no ifs-and-buts about it, pre-injury form? You can doubt it all you want but he's still not back to normal. He moves slower than he used to, he's lost the use of his jump hook pretty much and he (again) has the bad habit of holding the ball too low and faster and smaller players... Plus Mehmet Ogre's defensive stances are very like a fish out of water.
If you've actually read Bill Simmons over the years he has always praised McGrady to an almost man-crush like state, and while he did predict Yao to be a bust, he also retracted that statement and called himself an idiot. Since then he has always praised Yao, right now he is just stating the obvious. Yao needs to step up and T-Mac needs to play out of his mind for us to ensure the victory.
I could care less what Simmons says, but Yao does have to adapt. No matter what defense Utah throws or who guards him or what the refs are calling, those are all just excuses. And, I KNOW Yao would NEVER accept those excuses for himself. No doubt he feels that he hasn't been at his best and wants to do better. He's said as much. I'm not so sure why people feel the need to make excuses for him when he won't even make them for himself.
Hey a bill simmons column, what is this 2002? His schtick is now tired and his analysis was never any good to begin with.
You know, the funny thing about all this "Boozer is dominating Yao" and "Yao stinks" stuff: Yao Ming: 24.4 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 0.8 BPG, 41.6% FG, 90.6% FT Carlos Boozer: 23.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 0.0 BPG, 48.1% FG, 65.2% FT Yao Ming: 3 wins Carlos Boozer: 2 wins
Good point. It's just that we hold higher expectations for Yao than we do Boozer. BTW Simmons is wrong, Tmac has had a subpar series and the Rockets are still on top 3-2.
I've said it in other threads- I really respect Yao in this series. He is getting elbowed continuously from Boozer-he is not gettting a lot of calls. The Jazz play more physical this year than any other NBA team IMHO. Yao is not getting credit for playing under combat conditions.
He's veering into talk-radio territory, which is pretty sad, because he loves the game and should know better. The "Whatever"s and talk about the NBA fixing the game to drag it out to seven games. Would the NBA love this thing to go seven? Of course, everyone does. Can that thought go through and alter a ref's mindset as he's making a split-second call? Gob? Come on!
how do they get the open 3s? exactly, from tmac. 75% of their pts come directly from tmac anyways. and he's overly critical yao. sure yao should be killing the jazz b/c they don't even double him that much and it's frustrating to see yao shooting 40% for a big man. but hey, it takes one game to change everything. if yao shoots under 50% again, my goodness, i don't know if he will ever be dominant. he can be very good but he needs to show me he can dominate a white p***y like okur.
it's not just the moves. i'm talking about getting position. i dont think yao lost any of his strength, maybe his mobility. but his initial position of most possession is not very good. he usually is out 15ft from the basket. that's unacceptable. i don't want yao to be like dirk just establish better position. tmac passes to him, yao takes zero dribbles and just goes straight up. it's THAT SIMPLE YAO.
I agree with you. People are easily letting TMac off the hook saying he's still injured, but don't do that towards Yao. They tend to overlook the fact he's still recovering from his knee problems, which could take as long as one whole year to fully heal.
