Official Thread on Yao Ming's Summer Activities 2006

"A television commercial shown at Yao's news conference features the 2.16-meter (7-foot-1) center jumping up from a basketball court to block a bullet fired at an elephant."

OH MY GOD we HAVE to see this!!

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/5838590

Yao says he's likely to play in Worlds

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Houston Rockets center Yao Ming says he is mostly recovered from a foot injury and is very likely to appear with China in this month's World Championship in Japan, a report said Wednesday.

"Now I am 80 per cent OK," Yao was quoted as saying in an interview with the official newspaper China Daily.

"I think the recovery has been quite good and better than we expected," said Yao, interviewed in Beijing where he has been working on his rehabilitation.

The 2.29-meter (7-foot-6) Yao broke the fifth metatarsal in the foot on April 10 in Utah and had surgery four days later.

The 26-year-old anchors the Chinese team and fans have been anxiously watching to see whether he would be fit by the tournament, which starts Aug. 19 in Sapporo, Japan. China's opening game is against Italy.

Even if he's fit, Yao said he still needs time to gel with China's other players, most of whom he has little on-court experience with.

"I feel I am getting closer to my best shape. Now what I need to do is train with the whole team. We play in different leagues and have different styles in the games but we have to get used to each other in a very short time. It won't be easy," Yao said.

Yao will skip next week's warmup against the United States, but has been placed on the roster for the Aug. 11-15 Stankovic Cup in eastern China.

Coached by Lithuanian Jonas Kaslauskas, China has stumbled in its preparations for the championships, losing to Spain last week by 47 points during a European road trip that saw them lose six out of seven games.

The team's performance hasn't been helped either by the absence of NBA veteran Wang Zhizhi, who has been benched since pulling a ligament during China's 76-57 loss to hosts France on June 24.

Wang is also expected to be healthy by the time China heads to Japan and Yao said the presence of the 2.16-meter (7-foot-1) center should help improve China's chances of making it to the quaterfinals.

"Our goal won't change. We need to play with more confidence when competing against strong rivals," Yao said.

 

Yao is getting well now. Go rox!im looking foward to your next season

 

I don't know about you guys, but I love shark fin soup. It's a damn tasty dish.

 

I stopped drinking shark fin soup when I was like 6-7 years old. I saw a Discovery Channel programme where they simply cut off the fins of the shark and dump them back into the water, wasting all the other parts. The seabed was shown to be littered with shark bodies. Swear off shark fin soup!

 

I wonder why Team Yao got Yao to be involved in this campaign... it's a good cause and all, but does Yao really care all that much? His quote on "animals being our friends" is pretty ridiculous... i love animals, but that just sounds funny

 

actually a pretty cool commercia, thanks pryuen

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2537453

here's a recent Yao piece on espn:

Yao swears off shark's fin soup in wildlife campaignAssociated Press

BEIJING -- Yao Ming pledged Wednesday to give up eating shark's fin soup, a Chinese delicacy, as part of a campaign to promote wildlife protection in his homeland.

"Endangered species are our friends," Yao said at a news conference organized by the San Francisco-based conservation group WildAid.

The group said China is the world's biggest importer of shark's fins, which conservationists say are cut from sharks that are thrown back into the ocean to die. WildAid put the worldwide trade in shark's fins at 10,000 tons a year.

"As the human population increases, many wildlife species are decreasing, and the primary reason is that humans fail to treat animals as friends," said Yao, who played for the Shanghai Sharks basketball team before moving to the Houston Rockets.

The campaign promotes the protection of animals besides sharks. A Chinese television commercial shown at Yao's news conference features him leaping from a basketball court to block a bullet fired at an elephant.

 

Wow, that's the best commercial I've seen Yao in. It was kind of like a scene from an action movie.

 

Lol Yao Ming is going to singlehandedly destroy the chinese shark fin industry... LOL
Now what is he going to serve in his resturant?

 

Man, it's pretty tough to give up shark fin soup. That's good stuff!! But I only eat it during Chinese wedding banquets and very special occasions.

Very cool commercial, though.

 

Well I've seen documentaries of what they do to cows and chickens in the food industry, and it's much worse than what happens to these sharks. I'm not about to give those up either. There's meat in every meal I have so why should I make an exception for sharks? Because we don't use enough of their bodies? That's a weak line I'm not going to cross. If sharks are officially on the endangered species list then I'll stop eating them. Otherwise, they're just like the other myriad number of animals I consume.

 

since only a small part of a shark is actually consumed, that means 1 shark produces a lot less servings than a chicken and far less servings than a cow, meaning sharks are killed in a very fast rate to satisfy the demand compared to the number of sharks born, which in turn accelerates the possibility that they will be endangered in the near future..

 

The Dream said he wants to teach Yao how to dominate the court...this is nice... =)

Before that time comes, Olajuwon would like to spend time working with one particular student.

"Yao Ming, of course," he said. "He is mobile enough to be a force. He runs the floor very well. He has a soft jump shot, good skills. For him, it is just the concept, the job description, that he must learn. That lane, it belongs to him. Everybody has to go through you. You reject everything that comes in there. It is your house.

"It is more of a mental picture for him to get in his mind and then extend out to other teams. 'Oh no, we have to face the Rockets and Yao Ming! We have so much to worry about!' He needs that mentality. Everybody talks about his skills. But he is a gentleman on the court. No. It is not a place for gentlemen. Not in the lane. He must be a force.

"It is about so much more than stats. It is that toughness, that image, that force that all big men must project. Tracy McGrady is a great player. But this is Yao Ming's team. It should be. He has so much more to offer. It is not out of reach. I am a realistic person. He has what it takes. But he is trying to fit in when he should be making everyone fit in around him.

"Maybe you say it is cultural. I don't know. But he can change. He can be taught. Let him see how it's done. I know he has obligations this year (in China) with the world tournament. But next year, maybe he is free. I plan to be here. Hopefully, with a bigger camp. I would like to work with him."

Yao and Hakeem. Some teacher. Some dream.

fran.blinebury@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4093612.html

 

Thank you for that info.
It is great to know that Dream has those willingness to work with Yao. And I DO believe that Dream will do better than Ewing. I think a lot of people here agree with me. Then I am wondering why the hell the front office doen't give **** about this.

 

This deserves to have its own thread

 

Yep, and here it is:

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=116289