Dear Erik Zhang, I am writing to you , on behalf of many Yao Ming fans, hoping that you can bring this matter to Yao Ming's attention. Yao Ming seems a very good and caring person but as regarding Basketball priorities he still seems to be a little off course. Please let him know that when his career in Basketball is over he will essentially only be remembered for only two things:- a] How many championships he won and b] How many points he scored. No matter how much he helped his companions to improve their game or how loyal he is to his Club and his Country, all of which will be quickly forgotten and his heritage in the game will be mainly limited to the two aforementioned items. If Yao Ming cares about his heritage he should not be avoiding any opportunity to score because he feels embarrassed to be the one demanding the ball and the one scoring a large total of points. I ask this of you because Yao Ming has fallen into the habit of having long stretches, when he is on the court, where he if either attempting to be a playmaker or avoiding the action of the play altogether. As this has gone on for a long time and the Coach hasn't done anything about it I feel compelled to speak up about it. Y NB. This matter was brought to my attention by members of the Texas Chinese Community.
Wow. You're absolutely right. Yao can't listen to too many opinions. I'll pass this along to him immediately. -Erik Z.
Good letter, and two things: 1. You shouldn't be writing this to Erik Zhang. He's an agent, and I am not sure Zhang will give too much basketball input to Yao. If anything, write the letter to JVG, Ewing ,Mutombo or even his parents. 2. If Yao indeed have a wholesale personality change based on your letter (0.0000314159255358% that will happen), you could be encouraging Yao to demand a trade to the Lakers/Knicks.
Yup, so Yao should: 1) Demand the ball much much more; 2) If he cannot have enough touches, then don't be afraid to ask managment to trade him to Lakers, since Kobe and PJ will surely help him to win championships, even if he might get even less touches, while Tmac and JVG can't do the same. Oh, LA is a bigger market and has much more Chinese. So at least he will make more money.
Erik and Yao Ming are very close and Erik as family is very concerned with Yao Ming's heritage. I was not expecting to see a change in personality , resulting from my note but the possibility that Yao Ming might[ small %] get to know these facts, which in turn if they were to be digested might help his confidence to score. All Rockets Fans want to see a confident Yao Ming score big numbers ! Y
NOT COOL!!! You don't give Yao Ming credit that he is a very loyal Rocket and money is not his focus!
Well Yao Ming will no longer be shy to demand the ball more from his team mates or deferring to his team mates or becoming the top scorer in his team even when Tracy McGrady returns to this team healthy and sound next season. Just wait for a couple hours more, and you'll know why. I am in the process of translation of an article that will explain why.
yetti please!! We are in need of unity in this time of troubles for our squad! Togetherness is what is needed here! Not call outs and distractions. UNited we stand - Divided - well I don't want to talk about it because it is a grisly fate!!!
I am lookin forward to reading the article and may I take this opportunity to thank you for all the great work that you contribure to this forum, it is most appreciated. Y
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yao is a very loyal Rocket, without a doudt. but what if T-Mac could not come back healthy next season? Yeah you are right money is not his main focus, but what if his dream of the NBA Championship is fading away from him in the next few years? So at this point we truly do not know if he will be retiring here in Houston, but one thing is for sure, Yao will never ask to leave this team until T-Mac really was next Penny Hardway or Grant Hill. Nontheless I love your letter to Zhang Ming Ji, hope he could relay your message to our big guy.
You never know...Yao might actually take over T-Mac's scoring role quicker than some people think, or on the flipside, Yao will stay with the stats he has and just have a bigger role in the offense. The more Yao has to score, the less his team mates do, now the problem with that is Yao will be tired as hell come playoffs and I doubt he'd be able to keep the intensity up during the playoffs when everyone is going all out. I can't think of one championship team nowadays that has one player above ~27 ppg and the rest of their team doing anywhere near as bad as our role players. Yao Ming needs to play like a madman just to keep this team afloat, and either he's tanking right now or all the effort he's putting up is taking a huge toll on him. As long as the Rockets get theirs, I don't care what Yao Ming or Tracy McGrady average. Eventually, I want them both to win an MVP award, that would be so cool. Oh, and 3 or 4 rings wouldn't hurt, either.
I believe Yao has more basketball IQ to deal with it than the persons here. His unselfishness is exactly one of the important champion calibers. Kobe and PJ will guarantee him the ring? who knows, it is championship, everybody believed the big four in the Lakers would net it, they didn't. Let alone the Rockets management won't let it happen. As a Rocket, Yao still has two ways to bring back the championship. One way is that he "dig" it, if his developing will finally bring him to the height of "The Dream", the other way, a health T-Mac will give him a good shot. Many stars are remembered without any ring.
Yep, last game against Blazers, Yao only had 11 shot attempts. This is definitely not enough. Yao should demand his teammates made an effort to feed him the ball on every apportunity.
I don't think it is true that all the previous players, Mike James and Derek Anderson were all gotten rid of from the Rockets just because Tracy McGrady does not like them, and Jeff Van Gundy cannot be fired because he and Tracy McGrady are in extremely good personal terms, that TMAC will use all his influence to make sure Jeff Van Gundy stays. That's WHY I said this article was NOT creditable.
