MVP is one part herculean effort, one part popularity contest. It's early in the season. Can we pick this up in April?
In a only somewhat related manner - I happened to catch a bit of NBA Fastbreak last night on ESPN and they were talking about Yao's emergence, and Kiki Vandeweghe (sp?) was saying words to the effect of - "Yao is finally doing what he should have been doing the whole time since he entered the league." I guess that's more of that whole he's tall so he should dominate with no concerns about silly things like coming from another culture, learning a new language, playing in a league that is light years better than any competition he has seen before, etc.
I agree 100% I might be in the minority here, but I didn't see any hate in anything posted. I think you guys are reaching for something that's not there.
Yes, that is pretty stupid. Everyone expected him to be a bust when he entered the league. Combine that w/ the fact that no one has foolishly expected a rookie to come in and immediately dominate (including Lebron), I think Kiki is just trying to cover up for how wrong everyone was in doubting Yao.
They played that clip during Sportscenter as well and I couldn't help but laugh at that comment. Yea, because Garnett, Duncan, and other top-flight big men came in dominating from the start as well. He at least finished by saying, because he is learning how to defend and block shots better, he is now the most dominant big man in the league. About the rankings in quesion, it's a little frustrating seeing a guy like Randolph ahead of him, but we all have to just accept that Yao is viewed in such a different manner than any other player. Combine the massive sentiment that he would be a huge bust coming in, the feeling he SHOULD be dominant because of his size and a little bit of unfortunate racism that exists; he will always suffer from the "yea but" statements from the media until he puts together a few consecutive seasons at this magnitude and/or carries his team to a chamionship. On the bright side though, how many of us even thought he would be in the top 5 on any MVP list going into this season? I thought he would have a great season, but never thought he would get that kind of love early on.
Considering the fact that early on when Yao was 2nd in the league in efficiency he WASN'T EVEN IN THEIR TOP TEN nor was he in honorable mention, I think there is some Yao hate going on. I had to write the guy myself and blast him for using a "secret formula" that would exclude someone of Yao's caliber and statistical rank. Glad to see him included now but face it, a lot of people are looking to blow up any Yao mistake or write his emergence off as "what he shoulda been doing all along"... and this guy's one of 'em.
Agreed, but I am hardly being foolish and oversensitive. This is the only time I have posted a rant about how the media treats Yao, after nearly everyone else has had their say about it. In a way, you can say that I got fed up, and I just wanted to blow some steam. If you can ignore the skewed rankings, fine. But how can you ignore the backhanded compliments? Which other player has ever had those? If it was Yao posting Randolph's numbers on the Blazers, do you think he'd even be in the top 10? If it was TD who got blocked by Robinson, do you think the comments would be the same? If it was only a "few" biased writers, why should many people complain about it? Heck even JVG complained about it. Rick Kamla also called out the Yao haters. It's not us being oversensitive. It's real. and you keep treating it as if it's nothing. I just didn't think I'd get crucified as oversensitive and foolish in a Rockets website...
Yao posted 35 points and 17 rebounds (and 7 blocks) against the Knicks on 11/10. He also had a 34/14 game against Miami on 11/12. And a 33/16 game against Detroit on 11/18. As dumb as it is to use a stat line from a single game as evidence, it is even dumber to try to compete with Yao on big games. Duncan's only had that one 30+/10+ game this season and Yao has had several.
Just caught the tailend of the Rockets/Timberwolves highlights, where they showed Yao's stats since he entered the league. They actually tried to show a positive side! They mentioned he's reached a 25 pt avg in 5 years and Hakeem didn't reach that until his 9th yr. No one is implying he's better than Hakeem, that would be ridiculous. But it shows Yao's improvement is on a pretty incredible pace. Not to mention, thanks to the poster on here who compares Yao to Garnett in his sig, that Yao has also outpaced Garnett. I can't believe some people expected Yao to do that in his first year.
Just try to find some kind of explaination to justify their ranking, since all three have the near identical stats on points & rebound But again, why take it so serious? That's the life in this country, nothing is fair.
the MVP has never gone to a team with a losing record. you might as well take "Z-Bo" off the list. boozer is a fun new name to throw around but lets remember how the jazz play a team game. if you take any of thier starters out they would be toast. the race at the end of the year will be james, duncan, yao, and maybe dirk if they have a great record again.
"Yao may be the top center in the game, but Duncan showed why he is considered the best big man Sunday, when he posted 35 points and 14 rebounds against the Kings. " Duncan maybe the best big man, but the reasoning is stupid. If Duncan dropped 35/14 against Kings is the reason to be claimed as the best big man, how about Yao dropped the same number on Heat which has Shaq and Zo? Pardon me but who is Kings' center/PF? I don't give a **** about their ranking, they can put Yao anywhere they want, just don't try to make it sound like they know bball.
totally agree with you.... i thought the exact same thing regarding the Duncan quote. Yao put up better numbers against Shaq and Zo, but Duncan remains the "best big man" because he had a decent game against the big man-less Kings??? i'm not disagreeing with the author that duncan is still the better big man (as of now, but not for long), but if his point was to compliment duncan, why mention Yao at all? and vice-versa... i'm not one to get upset over discriminatory issues such as this, but it really is frustrating reading a lot of these so-called "experts" putting Yao down every chance they get, regardless of the situation.
I think everyone's forgotten about the massive hype before he was drafted and after his breakout game in his rookie year. Has he lived up to the hype? No, because the claims were he was going to change the way NBA ball was played. Yao has improved but IMO he's still improving they're only two or three little steps but necessary steps before he's MVP calibre.
Oh really, other than Bill Walton and maybe some rocket coaching staff at the time, who has hyped up Yao Ming when he came in? It is probably like a 20 to 1 ratio of negative to positive comments. Go dig up the newspaper articles from back then if you don't believe me.
I swear some of you have been Houston fans for something like the last 5 minutes. If you haven't gotten used to the bias against all things Houston by now, you just aren't a real Houston fan. Nothing compares to the "hate" SI gave the entire city of Houston when they did what they did with the Championshiop edition in 1994. How about Fox still using the dildo logo? The Astros were in the freaking World Series just 1 year ago and Fox was using the logo from the Astrodome days. It's a fact of life. If Yao were in NY or LA, he would be leading that poll. The fact is, he's a Houston athlete and that subjects you to 2nd class status no matter how succesful you are, period.
