Oh man, there is absolutely no concrete evidence that criticism of Yao is racially motivated. None! Total B.S. People are looking for excuses. This is a defensive tactic - not about Yao - but about minorities insecurities.
Dream didn't get his due (dominant center) until the Rockets were winning and kept appearing on TV during the playoffs. With Yao, many people don't see him other than a few games. So they rely on their quick judgements and their memories of him as a rookie when he was overexposed. Another slant is that Yao's personality and play doesn't match the NBA culture. He's not going to show up on the good end in sportscenter recaps, and like it or not, that molds people's perceptions. There's an intial assumption that an outsider doesn't belong. It happened w/ European players a decade before. Regardless of the reasons, it'll become a moot point soon. Most of the reception will change when the Rockets go deeper in the playoffs and when people eventually recognizes Yao's style.
then why do you suppose that, out of the recent 3 #1 overall picks who play C (K Brown, Yao and Bogut)---exclude this yr's Borgnani---Yao (by far the most productive performer) has received the most criticism.
Because the other two are irrevelant and nobody cares about them . I think there is some bias, the black quarter back analogy is right on. It's happening in part because people aren't used to seeing a dominant Chinese basketball player who does play the game differently than the "norm". Look at Vince Young, best college player the year he was drafted, is turning Tennesee around, and what do you see? Hoge and others saying it's Tennesse hiding the quarterback rather than highlighting him all because he can change the field by running . Heck even in baseball, I remeber reading an article a while back that says Ichiro isn't really that good because while he can get a lot of hits, he doesn't get enough extra base hits to help his team. People are just used to/expect players to play a certain style, and when you don't, your style becomes the point of attack rather than actual results.
I don't know if it is racially motivated or the fact he comes from communist China. I always thought Hakeem never got a fair shake, not because he was black, but because he was from Nigeria and a Muslim. Hakeem though managed to overcome it all and I hope that Yao does too.
You have got to be kidding me, right? Yao gets more criticism than Kwame Brown? Whenever anyone starts bringing up lists of busts, Kwame is one of the first ones mentioned. It's deserved, but he gets much more criticism nonetheless. Yao may get more criticism than Bogut, but he also gets much, much more praise.
The problem isn't that Yao gets criticized. It's just that he gets "discredited". No matter what he does, how hard he works, how great he plays, he STILL gets jabbed at. Kwame Brown just plain sux. Ya he gets more criticized than Yao but you can't compare the two. Yao's playing level is that of Duncan, Garnett, Lebron. They CLEARLY do not get criticized or "discredited" as much as Yao. Statistically speaking, there should be no reason to jab Yao more than Duncan, Garnett, Lebron. Rockets are doing great but STILL you see comments about how "Yao isn't the best center yet"..."D-Ho is better than Yao"...."OMG Yao got blocked by a small guy".... Then there are the disguised comments like "Yao can do better"...."Yao hasn't lived up to his true potential".... Is this due to racism. I think yes. If Yao was not chinese, he wouldn't be ragged on as much. There is only one way to prove this. When Rockets win the championship and Yao still gets hated on, I just can't think of any other reason than racism.
no one has ever said that against K Brown. whereas, for Yao, before he ever step on a NBA court, Dick Vitale (in his column and radio commentary) declared that Yao is the second coming of LaRue Martin, the poster child for #1 pick bust. Mark Cuban publically opined that Yao could only wish that he could be as good as Sean Bradley the question is why is that, when Yao has been dramatically more productive ? when you juxtapose the articles written, as well as radio and TV commentaries, on K Brown, Yao and Bogut, one would think that Yao is not as good as the other two. Why the other two are getting free passes? i supposed one can rationalize that K Brown is native son. Let's just compare the two foreigners, Bogut, thus far, has gotten a free pass despite being a pedestrian performer the non-white Yao is getting dissed despite performing at all-star level
You can never hide the racism factor here in the US but I don't blame anyone for that cuz it's just built within us, in the historyof the US. It's part of everything we do here. Some are obvious some not.
