Geez, you are just now hating Marbury? I've hated that smug little frikker for ages... I'm glad he got traded to a team that sucks worse than the one he was on. and elbows are a part of the game..I agree that maybe this will teach Yao that he must stay aggressive and make them pay when they treat him rough.. He is getting a crash course in how others are going to treat him...and he must respond by killing them in the game... The best revenge is making sureto beat the hell out of the team that thinks they can take him out with some physical play.. "Ah..you want to beat on me? Watch as I torch your team for 30!"
I'm pretty damn sure this is more Isaiah Thomas' doing than anybody else - it's no secret that he wants to rebuild the "Bad Boys" mentality, and he's been feeding Marbury that crap.
Guess he just got tired of SF and co. running him into Yao while watching Yao torch them. What's a ignorant spoiled thug to do?
Steve called Marbury out in the papers today... saying it was an intentional elbow. It definitely didn't look like an accident on the replay. But I loved the way Yao came back in after getting jabbed in the solar plexus to continue playing extremely well. The classy way to respond.
I didn't watch it in slo-mo or anything, but to me it looked like hard basketball. When I play and someone's trying to pick me, sometimes I try to go through the pick instead of around it. It looked to me like that's what Marbury was doing and he just kinda caught Yao in a bad spot. That said, I'm still not against someone setting a HARD pick on Marbury to retaliate the next time down the court. Get an offensive foul called if that's what it takes to send a message back.
Interesting that the Chron recap chose to lead with the Marbury-Yao run-in. Also interesting that Francis asked to leave Jackson in the game. Rockets break Knicks' streak Felled by a forearm, center still delivers season-best 29 By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOSXCORE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The pain raced upstream against the adrenaline as Yao Ming fought to stay on his feet before finally collapsing to his knees. Yao was well into one of those nights when anything seems possible. A vicious Stephon Marbury forearm crashed into Yao's chest to send him to the floor and, eventually, the bench. The Rockets' offense went with him, and a win that had seemed certain appeared to be following. When Yao came back, he took over one last time, flying past Dikembe Mutombo and shooting over Michael Doleac. When Yao was through, he had been more unstoppable than in any game this season, and the Rockets had pulled away for an 86-71 victory over the New York Knicks before 14,976 Wednesday night at Toyota Center. "The big fella wasn't missing," Rockets forward Maurice Taylor said. "We rode him today. I mean, he was hitting shots from 17, 18 feet. He was dominating the paint, and he was rebounding. When he plays like that, we're tough to beat." Yao has rarely played quite like Wednesday. His 29 points (in 29 minutes) were a season high, one shy of his career best. Making 12 of 15 shots, he had more field goals than he ever had in a game. He added 10 rebounds. Most of all, when he came back from first-quarter foul trouble, he triggered a 31-9 roll through the second quarter. When he came back from the nausea and pain that sent him to the bench late in the third quarter, he and Mark Jackson keyed a 10-2 run that sealed the win. "He was obviously the dominant force," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said of Yao. "He was great. When he makes his jump shots, he's very hard to guard because he can take the other size away from the basket. Mutombo had a hard time closing back to him." With Yao too quick and agile for Mutombo and too deft from the perimeter for the 6-11 Doleac, Marbury seemed to find a solution his teammates could not. "It was illegal," Rockets guard Steve Francis said. "He did it on purpose. But (Yao) is too big to go down like that. That's what I told him. I told him to get back up." When Yao did get back in the game, he brought Jackson with him. The Rockets had led by as many as 18 points. Yao had spun past Mutombo to a reverse for a three-point play, then hit his next three shots. And the Rockets seemed in complete command. But with the lead down to 12, Yao missed two free throws and then took Marbury's forearm, and the Rockets' offense shut down. "I got hit," Yao said, "and I felt like throwing up." The Rockets immediately shut down, making just one of six shots with four turnovers to begin the fourth quarter. When Marbury stole a Scott Padgett inbounds pass, his dunk cut the margin to nine for the first time since the second quarter. But with 8:15 left, Yao and Jackson -- in his first game playing for the Rockets -- came back, and the Rockets were well again. Cuttino Mobley passed to Taylor for the jumper that began the turnaround. Jackson bounced a pass to Yao for a 20-footer. Jim Jackson set up Taylor -- who had 21 points off the bench, including eight of the Rockets' 16 in the fourth quarter -- for another jumper. But the clincher came fittingly with three sharp passes -- from Mark Jackson to Yao to Jim Jackson and back to Yao -- ending with Yao hitting the 17-footer that pushed the Rockets' lead to 17 points with 3:59 left. The Rockets were going so well that in the subsequent timeout, Francis -- who had made just four of 14 shots -- asked Van Gundy to keep Mark Jackson in the game. Jackson played15 minutes and controlled the decisive run. Yao moved from impressive to dominant, finally following the advice of teammates and coaches who had implored him to look for his shot. "He played great," Taylor said. "The thing I like about him was once he got going, he kept asking for the ball. And that's what we want from him." Yao gave them everything they wanted and just what they needed.
Ditto. As others have said, a hatchet man could have come in and delivered retribution at that time. That is 'old school', and perhaps not a bad thing. I am glad Yao returned and did well after his return. I hope Starbury (sic) gets fined by the Association.
a shot to the ribs is a shot to the ribs, it doesn't matter if your 7'6 or 5'5, the pain is just the same.
Isn't that what we said when Yao took the elbow to the throat when we played the Nets last season? Incidentally, both cheapshots against Yao were against teams Dikembe Mutumbo is on. The Rockets should circle the calendar for the next time we play Mutumbo's team.
Well, you know what. I think this is bad to say it, but I'm glad Marbury gave Yao a cheap shot. Yao thinks being the paint, he can be nice and let other people box him out. He needs to retaliate and get AGGRESSIVE!
The answer to this is for Yao to set a stronger pick/screen next time. Make the guy pay for trying to play thru the screen. And for those saying two wrongs don't make a right, it can all be done and still be legal and not dirty.
This isn't the first or the last elbow Yao should expect to get. He has a big bullseye target on him for all the other NBA players to hit. Everyone wants to dunk on him, elbow him, etc. That is just the way it is when you are a foreigner dominating a league full of hard ass thugs playing ball.
It was a cheap shot and that is just Stephon Fagbury game...He sux so bad that he has to resort to this type of play... He won't get fined, but we won't see them bastards again...I do hope it serves as a wake-up call though as Yao needs to get physical to ensure crap like that doesn't happen again...
