Magic brace for 'gentle giant' ---Rockets hoping Yao will be more aggressive

Interesting article.

Here is a link:

http://www.floridatoday.com/NEWSROOM/sportstoryS0125YAOOO.htm

Magic brace for 'gentle giant'

Rockets hoping Yao will be more aggressive

By John Denton
FLORIDA TODAY


ORLANDO -- This, more than anything, is what confounds and confuses the Houston Rockets and makes coach Jeff Van Gundy look as consistently haggard as he does: Yao Ming, all 7-foot-6, 310 pounds of him, ranks third in the NBA in field goal percentage, yet he attempts just under six shots a game.

The Chinese center is the ultimate definition of a gentle giant -- one far too eager to defer when he should be looking to dominate. He bows to foes instead of bowling them over. When teammates such as Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley jack up ill-advised 3-pointers, Yao is too quick to drop his head instead of flexing his mighty muscles. He is too willing to blend in when he could so easily stand out.

Without question, Yao has all of the makeup of greatness, from his ability to score on the low block to his soft touch on the mid-range jumper to his ability to pass out of double teams. But his leap from being very, very good to greatness has been r****ded somewhat because of Yao's refusal take command of games with awesome arsenal of weapons.

His scoring average is up from 13.5 as a rookie to 16 points this season and the rebounds (from 8.2 to 9.2) and blocks (from 1.74 to 1.88) are up, as well. But with a full NBA season already under his belt, quantum leaps were expected from Yao this season. Van Gundy, for one, sees greatness in him and is determined to get it out of him.

"He's just got to be more decisive in the post. The best players I've ever had have been both coachable and stubborn," Van Gundy said. "You've got to find the right mix. Too much stubbornness is a hindrance, but too much cooperation can be a hindrance to greatness, as well.

"A lot of (Yao's legacy) will be determined by how Yao sees it himself, just what he wants out of his career. To get to where players like Shaquille O'Neal have gotten, you have to be a special talent, but you have to have an unbelievable determination to get to there."

Yao has had no such problems attacking the Orlando Magic, tonight's opponent at the TD Waterhouse Centre. He averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds against the Magic last season and had a similarly dominant performance when the two teams played earlier this season in Houston. That night, he had 16 points, but broke the Magic's will with 11 rebounds -- six of them coming on the offensive end.

It's that kind of fire and determination that the Rockets and Van Gundy are looking for from Yao on more of a consistent basis. During one down stretch earlier this month, Yao looked more timid than talented. He passed up shots, rebounded with little zest and looked too much like a lost soul. The low point came in a 97-93 loss in Boston on Jan. 11 when Van Gundy benched his center following a 2-for-5 shooting night. Yao's play was so passive during the stretch that a Houston Chronicle headline referred to him as the "NBA's Player of the Meek."

Francis, the Rockets' captain, has done his part to stay after Yao and keep him engaged in games. When Yao was floored by a Stephon Marbury forearm to the throat Wednesday, Francis chewed out his center for falling sheepishly to his knees. And Francis is constantly harping at Yao to demand the ball more.

"Even when he's not hitting his shots, I want him to keep shooting," Francis said. "He has to learn that as we continue to feed him the ball, if they play him one-on-one, he absolutely has to dominate."

Yao seems to have taken those words to heart. In the six games since the debacle in Boston, Yao has averaged 20.5 points and 11.5 rebounds a game. More importantly, he's taken double-digit shots in four of those six games.

In Friday's impressive win in Indiana, Yao converted a key three-point play late in the game off a nifty, fading turnaround shot. And he was never better than in Wednesday's 29-point effort against the Knicks. During one sequence, he deftly spun past Dikembe Mutombo for a layup and then on the next possession he drilled a 15-footer when Mutombo dared back off.

"What we are seeing," cooed ESPN analyst Bill Walton, "is the future."

Part of the credit for Yao's newfound aggressiveness could be due to the work he has done with legendary center Patrick Ewing. Ewing spent his final season with the Magic and was more effective as a mentor for the younger players than he was a player himself.

In Houston, Ewing is more than just a typical coach. He dresses out for practice as if he's still playing, battling daily down low with Yao. He bangs on Yao, elbows him and tries to get him to fight back with similar treatment.

"I'm much more concerned with how Yao does day in, day out, practice-game, practice-game, practice-game," Van Gundy said. "If he does the right thing in all of those, eventually over time, we're going to see improvement. And like most improvement, it's not going to be stark. It's going to be a little bit at a time, so hopefully at the end of the year we'll say, 'Man, he's come a long way,' without making people realize it.

"Yao's got greatness in him. It's up to myself and it's up to him to bring it out consistently."

In fairness to him, Yao is still making the adjustment to living and playing a half a world away from his home in China. In his culture, he stresses, it is immodest and improper to want to stand out above the group. His background goes a long way toward explaining his humility and deference to the spotlight on the court. His desire to be great is there, he said, even if it's not always evident in his gestures and expressions.

"To get that kind of success, you have to have the desire to get there in the first place," Yao said in his improved English. "I can only say that I don't want to lose. Every time I play, every time I go out, I don't want to lose. This is basketball. It's not soccer. There are no draws.

"I don't know what that feels like (to dominate and change a game). I don't think I will until the day that actually is."