I posted here about six weeks ago stating that Yao Ming was NOT the "unknown" player that everyone was wondering about. That, in fact,he was a well known player with an extensive history in International Basketball. I wondered in the post why, if he was so good, China failed pretty miserably at the Olympics. I also wondered why our national team (Australia) had managed to beat China several times with Yao playing. Well, last night we played them again. The following quote from our press has me VERY worried. QUOTE : Chris Anstey top-scored for the Boomers with 22 points while John Rillie had 21 including five three-pointers. Nine of the Australians scored in a tremendous team effort. Anstey teamed with Wade Helliwell and Ben Melmeth to hold Chinese star and recent number one NBA Draft pick Yao Ming to just nine points, well below the 27 points the giant had averaged in the first two games of the tournament. " Chris Anstey!!!! This is a guy who failed to make it with Dallas and Chicago in the NBA. Ben Melmeth...showed no D at all last season for the Sydney Kings. He is LIGHT YEARS away frombeing an NBA quality defender. For Chris and Ben to hold Yao...AND score on him...damm that's a worry. I said in the original post that Yao will be better than Rik Smits and I stand by that. However...we are not gettting a guy who is going to dominate the NBA. Please be aware of that. There's too much hype on this bloke. People will be very dissapointed if they are not realistic... Anstey and Melmeth (Still in shock)
Full report. The fact we were UNDEFEATED is also a worry. This is an Australian team very much in 'rebuilding' mode. Longley, Bradtke, Heal and Gaze (all made the NBA) retired. To win 3 games shows that Italy, China and Yugoslavia mustn't be very strong IMO. Boomers make it hat-trick From our wire services 04jul02 TAIYUAN, China: The Boomers have defeated China 82-68 to finish with a tournament-best 3-0 record in the four-nations series here. The Boomers took out the Shuang Lai Cup, which was awarded to the team with the best record of the tournament, after downing the highly-fancied Chinese in front of their home crowd despite trailing by 14 points late in the game. Australia raced to an early lead and were up by seven at the end of the first quarter,19-26. China fought back to take a slender lead into the halftime break, 36-33. When the Chinese scored the first 10 points of the third period to open up a double-digit advantage it appeared that the young Boomers might wilt against their World Championship-bound opponents. But the Boomers showed tremendous courage and maturity to trail by just one point at the final change, 59-58, and then outscored China 24-9 in the final period to stun the home team and take out the cup. Chris Anstey top-scored for the Boomers with 22 points while John Rillie had 21 including five three-pointers. Nine of the Australians scored in a tremendous team effort. Anstey teamed with Wade Helliwell and Ben Melmeth to hold Chinese star and recent number one NBA Draft pick Yao Ming to just nine points, well below the 27 points the giant had averaged in the first two games of the tournament. "We built on our newly-established trademarks again tonight, showing fantastic team chemistry," said Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian. "Our defence was the best of the tournament and our team play on the offensive end got us back in the game tonight. "Our bench players right through to six, seven and eight were fantastic. "At stages we swapped over nearly the entire team, bringing Melmeth, Helliwell, (Frank) Drmic and (Matthew) Nielsen into the game and we didn't miss a beat. "We take the confidence from this win into the next tournament in Guangzhou." The Australians have a rest day and will travel to Guangzhou before taking on Yugoslavia for the second time in a week tomorrow in the second leg of their tour. The Boomers defeated Yugoslavia 79-68 in the opening game of their 12-day tour on Monday, and then European superpower Italy 79-66 on Tuesday.
With all the quotes from the Aussie team stated that it was their best game ever and China apparently having a bad game I am not surprised by the result. China has a smaller talent pool to draw from than most internation teams and most likely have sub-par coaching. They need to upgrade their techniques and styles. It has been said by many members that have seen Ming play in the CBA that his fellow players have a tendency to disappear during games and it becomes "Ming the one man show". Now the Chinese NT is a collection of their best players but Wang is still in the US and Bateer has been injured. If Ming is considered the best player in China and Wang & Bateer are considered #2 & #3, Ming is being forced to play on a team who is missing their 2nd best player and the 3rd best player is not performing at his best due to injury. The Aussies played good team defense and had a great run at the end of the game to put the victory away. I give credit where credit is due. Congrats to the Australian team
I wouldn't get to worried over this one game. WHEN he gets double-teamed in the NBA he will have Franchise, CAT, KT, Eddie, etc to pass off for an easier score than the crew he has now. That should lighten the double-team and make it easier for himself to score. We are talking a different class of talent on both sides of the floor !
I think some posters on this board are optimistic but not realistic. Cato is better prepared to start at the beginning of the season. Ming will need to learn a lot about how the NBA game is played. Im hoping he plays about 25 min. a game. Maybe by next year, he will be ready to play 35 min. a game. It will be a long developing process but hopefully in the end it will be worth it.
<i>However...we are not gettting a guy who is going to dominate the NBA. Please be aware of that. There's too much hype on this bloke. People will be very dissapointed if they are not realistic... </i> One game and the guy is overrated!? Stephon Marbury was DOMINATED, absolutely DOMINATED by Damon Flint in the NCAA Tournament a few year ago. Several unknown PGs handled Jason Kidd during his days in California. There are several games where Duncan and Iverson were out-played in their college career. Those guys were fine, and a lot of the players that out-played today's stars are much worse then Chris Anstey.
Anstey and crew kicks Mings Butt!!! There is No way a bunch of Power Forwards pretending to be Centres should be able to hold him to 9pts ************************************ Boomers deny hosts, take China tournament 4/7/2002 The Australian men's basketball team, the Boomers, have defeated host nation China 82-68 in Taiyuan City on Wednesday night to finish with a tournament-best 3-0 record in their four-nations mini-series. The Boomers took out the Shuang Lai Cup, which was awarded to the team with the best record of the tournament, after downing the highly-fancied Chinese in front of their home crowd despite trailing by as much as 14 points late in the game. Australia raced to an early lead and were up by seven at the end of the first quarter,19-26. China fought back to take a slender lead into the halftime break, 36-33. When the Chinese scored the first 10 points of the third period to open up a double-digit advantage it appeared that the young Boomers might wilt against their World Championship-bound opponents. The Boomers showed tremendous courage and maturity however to trail by just one point at the final change, 59-58, and then outscored China 24-9 in the final period however to stun the home team and take out the Cup. Chris Anstey top-scored for the Boomers with 22 points while John Rillie had 21 including five three-pointers. Nine of the Australians scored in a tremendous team effort. Anstey teamed with Wade Helliwell and Ben Melmeth to hold Chinese star and recent number one NBA Draft pick Yao Ming to just nine points, well below the 27 points the giant had averaged in the first two games of the tournament. “We built on our newly-established trademarks again tonight, showing fantastic team chemistry,” said Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian. “Our defence was the best of the tournament and our team play on the offensive end got us back in the game tonight. Our bench players right through to six, seven and eight were fantastic. At stages we swapped over nearly the entire team, bringing Melmeth, Helliwell, (Frank) Drmic and (Matthew) Nielsen into the game and we didn't miss a beat. We come away from this first series of the tour having established our team trademarks but this is early days for the new Boomers era. We take the confidence from this win into the next tournament in Guangzhou.” . Assistant coach Brett Brown saw the win as one of the better performances during his involvement with the national program. "I have been fortunate to have been part of the Boomers program for the past nine years and this effort definitely ranks amongst the best," said Brown. Brett Joyce, the Boomers other assistant coach, spoke glowingly of the Australians' efforts. "The players showed tremendous character after being behind and this Boomers team has begun to re-establish respect in the basketball world," said Joyce. "The players have started to achieve this over the past three days and I am proud to be involved." Boomers veteran guard Brett Maher also saw the victory as one of the most exciting during his time with the Boomers. "Over all the years I've been involved with the national team, this is certainly has been one of the best wins," said the Olympian. "It was great to back up on our other wins and take out the tournament," said Rillie after the game. The Boomers players and staff were all complimentary of the hospitality and efficiency of their Chinese hosts and the fervour of the huge crowds during the first leg of their tour. Approximately 6,000 patriotic Chinese fans packed the sold-out stadium to cheer their team on against the Boomers. The team now have a rest day and will travel to Guangzhou before taking on Yugoslavia for the second time in a week on Friday in the second leg of their tour. Australia downed the powerful Yugoslavian national team in the opening game of their 12-day tour of China, 79-68, on Monday night and then defeated another European basketball superpower, Italy, on Tuesday, 79-66. The Boomers play two games each against the national teams from China, Italy and Yugoslavia during their 12-day tour of China.
<b>There is No way a bunch of Power Forwards pretending to be Centres should be able to hold him to 9pts </b> It never stopped the Sonics from doing the same thing to Hakeem.
Stop duplicate threads! http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37073 http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37107 Whatsup, Smeg? First tod the bod, then thacabbage, now Smeg. Where are these trolls coming from??
Nice find, smeggy... I wouldn't worry too much, though. International play is different. Gasol had very lackluster numbers in Europe last season. There's less top level talent, so defenses can more easily double and triple team those guys. There's also more of an emphasis on the team game, and depth is more frequently used, so I wouldn't be surprised if Ming didn't play a lot of minutes.
Ummmm...it's NOT one game. It's several years of International games where he hasn't dominated to the level you'd expect a number one draft pick to do. We have beaten them four times now with Yao playing...and we aren't that good. Italy beat them by 26 at the last Olympics if I reclall correctly. He'll be good. Just don't build him up too much.
What's his average in those international games? I'm just asking because top picks can't dominate every game. Duncan didn't dominate every game, and in fact tended to struggle in big games, and his last year in college his team lost to an inferior team in the 2nd round of the tournament. In fact, except for one run in the tourney, Wake Forest tended to fade and Duncan didn't alway dominate. And isn't Ming playing 2, or 3, or 4 games in a row? I'm pretty sure he is getting tired, or having his playing time reduced to give him some rest.
1. Yao's teammates are not that good. In International play Im sure they're double teaming him every play. 2. Yao's coaches are probably not very good. Look at Wang Zhi Zhi. He's refusing to go back to China because he thinks the coaches and the government stink. He wants to be a player in the NBA and knows that playing in the summer leagues are the only way to go. He scores 27 points and people wonder why he doesn't score 40. He scores 9 points and everyone starts panicking. I don;t think anyone belives Yao will step in on day 1 and dominate with 1/2 month of training camp. Add in fatigue and home sickness, youre probably talking a learning curve of at least a year. The Rockets will not win the NBA Championship next year so none of this matters. What does matter is that Yao gets good coaching, a healthy environment to learn, and support from everyone. Sometimes it just takes a little patience. Let's stop with the melodramatic BS.
Spot on Smegg. I think a lot of the guys here are really getting carried away with Yao. From reports I am getting this morning off a mate reasonably well connected in Australian B-Ball, they felt he could be ‘pushed around’ and he was. That Chris Anstey and Big Ben did the pushing is bloody scary. I am 5’11 and 82 kilos...and I doubt I’d even be too worried about being pushed around by Chris Anstey. I shudder to think what the stronger NBA guys will do. I think the most worrying thing I was told is that they believed they could push him around...and that it wouldn’t “light a fire”. Ie, he wouldn’t get angry and drop 40/20 on them. People here need to be realistic. This is going to be a long road. Maybe a few years before Yao can dominate in the NBA. Maybe never. Just be patient and give the guy a chance. If the Rockets fans start to turn on him after a month averaging 8 points and 6 boards, it will destroy his confidence. Everyone would be better off expecting little at the beginning.
I geuss when somebody is triple-teamed all night, it will hurt there game. Hopefully when Yao is here in the NBA, people will triple him and that way Stevie, Cat, Eddie and Mo will be able to light it up. i'll take it. Who on China's team can have the talent to chip in and help Yao. This is true in any level. Yao is not Manute or Shawn. He will help this team, Cato, Stevie and anybody else who wants help. I see 12 pts, 9 rbs 4 blks in 30 Min a game. Forget what you see now, when he gets here and learns whats going on, Yao will be an asset to everyone.
