[IGN] Game of the Week - Cavs at Rockets

Hayesfan · Feb 13, 2008

Thought this was a sound piece of writing for the most part. Wanted to share..

http://sports.ign.com/articles/851/851675p1.html

Is Yao Ming a star or a cog?
by Dan Jachym

February 12, 2008 - There is a tendency to define a person (including oneself) by his line of work. Few people, if any, see a policeman and instinctively think, "There is a man who works for the police." Instead, people think, "There is a policeman." If the policeman is a jerk, they think, "Cops are jerks;" if he's nice, "That cop's not bad." Never, with his first thought, does anyone think, "Why do so many jerks work as cops?" or "How does a nice guy like that work for the police?" Although it simplifies and orders society, the tendency to define people by their jobs instead of their humanity acts as a barrier to appreciating the full lives of other people. It also acts as a barrier to appreciating a person's struggle to perform a job he was not created for.

NBA basketball players are associated with their profession to the same degree that a policeman is associated with his. But for men who work as athletes there is a unique circumstance that breaks down the association between man and profession, much more so than it would for a cop. That circumstance is sickness.

Last Thursday Tracy McGrady spent most of the day in the hospital undergoing treatment for a fever and possible strep throat. He arrived at the arena in Houston about an hour before the Rockets' scheduled tip-off with the Cleveland Cavaliers, still feeling lousy but still intending to play. He played, but he did not play well.

Looking into someone's sick, bloodshot eyes, a person cannot stop his own eyes from suddenly becoming itchy and watery too. It is the effect of some inherent form of human sympathy. On Thursday, McGrady's eyes were so droopy and bloodshot that I could feel my throat burn and my sinuses fill with mucus. When an athlete, whose identity is based on his physical power, appears physically weak, and, as spectators, we feel sympathy with that weakness; we connect with the athlete on such a human level that we can see him as a man first and as an athlete second. In apparent ill health, McGrady became a man playing basketball.

In the first half he fired up four bricks from long range. On most of these shots he was falling away from the basket. He didn't seem to have the energy to attack. Early in the third quarter he rode Houston's momentum for back-to-back scores, but after that he disappeared again. Once I watched him stand in the same place five feet beyond the three point line with his arms at his sides for an entire offensive possession, during which Luis Scola hustled for a rebound and scored.

A variety of men, and matchups between men, determine the outcome of a basketball game. Two of the biggest men in the league faced off in the Rockets' 92 to 77 victory -- Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Yao Ming. Ilgauskas looked sluggish. Whether this sluggishness was due to Yao's size, or a lack of focus after beating the Celtics, or a fight with his wife, or the absence of Anderson Varejao and Drew Gooden, is hard to say. Ilgauskas just didn't have it on Thursday.

Yao, on the other hand, looked good. He made a number of twelve to fourteen foot jump shots over Ilgauskas, including one off of a reverse inside pivot. Yao's ability to keep his large body balanced is a tribute to his excellent footwork and fundamentals. He plays a very clean game, which is a compliment for someone his size. But, with his playing style, I wonder if he can excite or inspire his teammates and fans, or if he can dominate an opposition. Yao is too steady. He lacks an explosiveness that can control a game's tempo and attitude. He's not so much a game-changer as a very big piece of a team's success. The Rockets continue to hope that McGrady will be their explosive, game-changing player, but he seems to lack the necessary toughness and determination. He played despite being sick, but he did not play hard and he did not try to play hard. He played with good intentions, but not with the will to test his illness inside the three-point line.

Unlike McGrady, LeBron James is developing into a championship-caliber player. The power and the speed that he can generate with two dribbles and then maintain through to the finish at the rim are unmatched in the NBA today. Against the Rockets he scored nearly all of his points on floaters and lay-ups. The most spectacular of these baskets came at the very end of the first period. With Chuck Hayes all over him, James drove into the lane. Stopped eight feet short of the rim, James leaped up in the air, but Hayes and another defender leaped with him; so James held the ball until the last possible moment, releasing it just before his feet touched to the ground and kissing it in off the glass. That play was indicative of both James' strength and the Rockets' sound defense, which was primarily supplied by Shane Battier.

James got his 32 points, but he missed many fading jump shots because he could not, or could not summon the energy to, take Battier off the dribble. In a low stance, with active feet, Battier forced James to shoot from the outside. Also, none of James' points in the paint came off of moves in which he beat Battier one-on-one; they came off of switches, and screens, and in transition. Battier forced James to work hard or to make outside shots, and the Cavs ended up with only 77 points.

On the other end, James continually slouched off Battier, allowing him to spark the Rockets with two deep shots early in the third and to put the Cavs away with a three-pointer late in the fourth. Battier will be an interesting player to watch as the Rockets fight their way into the playoffs against the great teams of the Western Conference. His defense could be a key to their success.

The offense and rebounding of Bonzi Wells will be another key. With his five offensive rebounds, his dunks, and his interior passing, Wells was the player of the game. He supplied the fire that was lacking in Tracy McGrady. Wells does not look like a player who will attack the rim and the boards. His round head and his soft body are not typical of a basketball player. Yet, in the action, he animates his body into that of a basketball player. Wells and Battier, and also Carl Landry (who spent a good portion of his thirteen minutes on the floor after loose balls) provide the Rockets with an energy level that they haven't had in recent years. The Rockets will have to be a scrappy team to make any noise in (and simply to make) the Western Conference playoffs.
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TheBornLoser · Feb 13, 2008

Take that Shane haters.

For those of you who say Shane is a bad one on one defender, get enlightened.

JeopardE · Feb 13, 2008

Good writing for the most part, but it's not at all fair to make an evaluation of a player's level of explosiveness and determination when he is obviously very sick, and then turn around and make a comparison to quite possibly the best athlete in the league right now.

He does, however, do a great job of showing just how important Shane Battier is to this team.

JusBleezy · Feb 13, 2008

JeopardE said:

Good writing for the most part, but it's not at all fair to make an evaluation of a player's level of explosiveness and determination when he is obviously very sick, and then turn around and make a comparison to quite possibly the best athlete in the league right now.

He does, however, do a great job of showing just how important Shane Battier is to this team.
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I think you somewhat missed his point. Yes, McGrady did not have much "explosiveness or determination", but his point was that McGrady did not play hard. It was noticeable in my opinion. The thought of anyone comparing a sick player to LeBron James is ludicrous and doesn't make sense. You have to see that that was not the point he was trying to make.

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[IGN] Game of the Week - Cavs at Rockets

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