If you were stalling for the World Championships to gauge Ming to choose your # of extension years, read up on the quotes from the NBA stars. Tell that stupid friend of yours who used to post here to read up, too. Oh, and the belated, "I am excited to play with a great center" is something I'm sure all Franics, Ming and Hakeem supporters would be glad to hear, finally. Enough with the "<i>Cato is our center</i>" nonesense, and "<i>I've never been able to play with a guy like that. We'll see.</i>" Get ready! Ming is ready! Sign now! We need you to be excited, Steve!! If you are excited, we will get a 4th seed, and Ming will be 20/10ppg first year, just like Johnson, Robinson, Hakeem, Ralph, Webber (well, at same age--2nd yr), Mourning, Ewing, Duncan, Shaq. Yao can't be stopped if you're happy!! btw: anyone still want to bet me that Ming starts the first home game??
Preach it, my brutha! 7 years, Steve, a gajillion dollars. Sign it. Enough of this sitting around. Of course, there could be other reasons he hasn't signed yet, but if he had any misgivings about a long-term future with the Rockets, they should be cleared up now. Yao Ming is the real deal.
Francis is not waiting to resign dependent on how Ming looks. His agent is doing all the delaying and don't forget he still has a year left on his contract. Francis will resign no matter what.
LOL! Ol' Troy Baros...wonder what he has to say now. Wish he was around so he can tell us what Steve REALLY has to say about Ming. Actually if anyone was to retract their statements I wish Oelipere would...remember when he said this 6. For the diehard Ming Dynasty Fans: Playoffs and beyond this coming season …. Ming will NOT get us significantly closer this year. Maybe not even next year. Anyone who thinks so … should give up their day job and go back to watching WWF and Maury P. 9. Anyone who thinks that Ming ... who is wrapped in a (NBA "scrawny" a la Bradley) 7 + foot frame ... with very limited contact basketball, and EIGHY PLUS frigging games is going to turn around this franchise needs their head examined. Maybe not even by year two. End of my OPINION. I guess he knew as much about Ming as the average NBA fan did at the time...
I may be reaching a bit, but do you think Steve & the Rockets (in particular) are waiting for the Texans to get going, as well as signing Yao, before they announce his deal. I get the feeling that the contract is ready to be signed and sealed, but they're just waiting to give Steve his 'time in the spotlight.' If I'm not mistaken, don't they have until Oct. 31st to have him signed, anyway?
Close your eyes and invision last night's game. Remember how the defense would collapse on Ming. How he would kick out to an open shooter for a brick. Now imagine that open shooter is Cat or Steve or Mo or Rice. Remember how he swatted six shots and generally closed down the lane. Now picture Stevie or Cat gathering those stray swats for breakaways or being able to gamble on defense with Yao backing them up. Remember how overmatched his teamates were and unable to get him the ball. Now imagine his teammates are Stevie or Cat or Mo or Eddie or Rice or Nachbar. Imagine the playoffs. I'm there right now. Yao. Now. Wow.
Exactly. I don't know about anyone else but I thought of this all night and finally went to sleep around 2am. It hasn't been that hard to sleep in a long time! But it sure was worth it!
I'm so happy. I was kind of worried about this game. I really LIKE Ming as a person, too. Seems like the average IQ of the Houston Rockets got a boost when he got signed as well.
Looking at your funny sig Severe Rockets Fan I was just thinking how stupid the rockets would look right now if they had traded Yao for Odom back on draft day. Wow, just to think that at the time it seemed slightly feasible. I'd like to see Lamar get thrown in with four chinese stiffs and try to score 13 points grab eleven boards and block six shots. The stat that boggles me after watching those chinese guards was his three assists. That would be like 12 with steve and cat.
Francis has until Oct 31st to sign an extension. If he chooses to delay beyond that to gauge the "direction of the team" as his agent said (and Steve said last summer), that's bad news, imo. I am worried. I'm fine with 3rys or full extension, whatever Steve wants. I just want him happy and thrilled to be playing with Ming. Ben Wallace has recanted. Davis and Finley praised him. Frigging Karl compared him to Wilt. Time for a quote from Steve. The silence is deafening. I can't bare it, anymore. Steve...we are waiting.
HP, I agree with you. Rudy T's head must be spinning like a CD. Somebody said close your eye and imagine. Well I can imagine a Texas oil well just gushing. Talent and possibilities all over the place. HP, I am still willing to bet that Ming does not start the first game. If he did I would have no problem with that but I just do not think it will happen.
The bet is first HOME game. I'd do first game, but he's missing 1/2 of camp. besides, I made the bet before schedules were put out. I'll bring it back up. The bet is tip jar money, this time. To play, you put $5 in the tip jar, and I double it. The winner gets bragging rights. For $10, you get bragging rights and a "Shut Up Heypee" coupon, redeemable for any 24-hour period this season, so you can get in the last word anytime you want...lol.
HP, That would be incredibly stupid on Steve's part, I mean what if Mineares is not cleared up? I think Francis will sign very soon, he will not risk losing all that guaranteed money. DD
okay, EASY folks. First of all, HP is right, in that Stevie Francis needs to eat crow and show a little respect for the big guy. Sorry, Steve, its been the Steve Francis Show for three years and it has not been pretty. You need a sidekick. You need a Bullwinkle. Get used to it. ----- But look, one good game from Ming against these All Star Ballot players in an exhibition does not mean the Houston Rockets are ready to beat the ptooties out of Dallas and Sacramento and LA and San Antonio and Minnesota and even Seattle and Utah and Phoenix and whoever else I am forgetting in our conference. Actually, I think Phoenix sucks now, I have not really followed them since that Barkley guy got traded. But one good or bad game from Yao or not, we still have a zillion question marks, and oversized expectations will a) make us lax on pre-emptively fixing our flaws b) make us crazy when we or don't make the playoffs or whatever. ("Fire Rudy!!" // "Cuttino Must Go" // "Francis Not A Franchise" // "Bench Ming!!" threads will shut the CC.net server down...) What we may -- MAY -- have here is a rock-solid foundation, from frontcourt to backcourt. But it is not as simple as running these guys out and expecting them to play for home-court advantage through the second round this year. Eddie is young. And I am telling you, Steve's health problems are a potential problem (Mengiere's is not for-sure curable). Yao has proven himself in ONE exhibition game -- a whole NBA season is a waaaaaay different story. Cuttino is Cuttino. MoTaylor spent a year consuming Munchos, Sunny Delight and "Sunny Delight." Boki is a Rooki. Glen Rice is... is Glen Rice still here? Either way, Glen Rice is still appearing in posts on Rocket Fan Sites... In other words. Let's relax. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. We have questions marks -- lots of them -- but we also have time. Lots of it. CBFC
it all depends how yao holds up thru 82 games. i see him getting winded and hitting a wall real fast. it will take 2-3 years for him to get accustomed to the physical aspect of the nba. but then it will be destruction for the other teams.
