Exactly. For the first time, his upper body is starting to look proportional to the rest of him. Last year he still looked a bit awkward. If you look at the pictures of him now from the waist up he looks like a normal guy (as opposed to tall and lanky/scrawny).
The link will give you a 'the page cannot be displayed' error message. You have to go to the address bar and replace the asterisks with 'yao ming mania' without the spaces. Then go to the threads.
Wow, Yao looks <i>considerably</i> bigger. I don't understand why some see this as a problem. It's not like he was running the break last year or scoring due to Olajuwonesque quickness. He is dominant because he is 7'5 and is quite possibly the best passing big man the league has ever seen. He can improve his conditioning without dropping weight.
are these the same people that are convinced shaq has always been "fat"? while shaq may have been about 15-20 lbs overweight last year, i don't think he's ever been "fat".
It looks like Yao can actually jump in this picture. I am quite amazed. AIR MING will bring us a RING!!!!
i dont know...it looks like he is only a foot or so off the ground. hell, i can do that! of course, he has the whole 7'6'' thing going for him. i dont know what some are complaining about. he looks great and has obviously been working out and conditioning himself. his legs were really big last year, but his arms were skinny. now he looks more proportioned. im sure all his work will benefit him tremendously this comming season.
I heard that Yao's field goal percentage goes down quite a bit for some reason. But 40 minutes looks like a good sign for his stamina. That means he's on the court for the entire game(International rule).
Yao has calves like a New Zealand sheepherder. Is that good? Matt Maloney had "big calves" MJ has skinny calves
Yao scores 17 in exhibition win Posted: Wednesday August 06, 2003 3:50 PM HONG KONG (AP) -- Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming scored 17 points as he led his national team to a 85-75 victory over Australian team Melbourne Tigers in an exhibition match Wednesday. Yao, the top pick in last year's NBA draft and runner-up to Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire for NBA Rookie of the Year, also grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots before a near-capacity crowd of 10,200 spectators at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Chinese teammate and fellow NBA star Menk Bateer contributed 11 points and two rebounds. "I was pleased with my performance and the match went well," said Yao, whose participation was in doubt after he cut his eyebrow during practice about two weeks ago. Yao wore a bandage over the cut during the match, but he said earlier this week the wound had healed and didn't pose any major problems. The 7-foot-6 Houston Rockets star took time to settle down, missing five dunks, but he came alive in the second half as China overcame a 44-38 halftime deficit to claim victory.
I remember lifting weights and playing games last year. At first, its pretty hard to shoot if your arms are really sore. I airballed a few big time. But after you get warmed up, it gets a lot easier. If he was sore, the warm-up should get him going. He may still be a little off, but it shouldn't drop his % off that much. Then again, I never have shot like 75%, so going 12 to 10% wasn't much of a difference to me. edit: I didn't even think if you meant the new muscle would mess up your shooting. I don't know for sure. If you don't play basketball much, I suppose you may look silly when you go to lay it up and the force breaks the backboard. I think as long as Yao is at least shooting when he also workouts, I would think his touch wouldn't be affected majorly. No expert though.
it looks like he's put on quite a bit of muscle on his upper arms. i'm sure if you bulk up that much your muscle memory will be off.
well in all honesty, i'm pretty sure that yao's stats is affected by playing basketball ALL YEAR. i mean before he came to the NBA, he actually had some down time. Hasn't he been playing like basketball for a year straight now? I would cut the guy some slack. I mean, playing 40 minutes and getting 17/9 is still remarkable considering he played what...80 NBA games + the China games and countless amount of practice games?
Dude, I love Yao and all, but what's up with making all of these excuses for him? He's 7'5 and missed FIVE dunks....IN ONE HALF!!! Muscle memory?!! Fatigue?!! How about just admitting that Yao is not a god and is capable of having a bad game. You don't need to make excuses. That is all.
What does it tell you when a player missed 5 dunks in a half? Was it fatigue? carelessness? or ...? Was Yao trying to do some fancy dunks in an exhibition game and missed most of them?
