The road doesn't matter. The future career doesn't matter. ROY is Rookie of the Year for 2002/2003. Who was the better rookie? Easily Yao. Why? Because he's a true C, which is rare in drafts, and is the 2nd best player at his position, while never dropping below 50% shooting for the season, and leading his team in 2 categories where they lacked. He also outshone all other ROY candidates 95% of the time, and sells out arenas, while drawing constant double team attention and specific defenses to guard him. Amare is RARELY RARELY double teamed, only drives to one side, his jumper is pretty raw, he has faded since hitting the rookie wall and hasn't recovered, and doesn't show up for big games.
But even if suns make playoffs, very unlikely it is because of Amare. Most likely the credit should go to Stephon and Shawn. Amare is not the deciding factor on their team. Whereas Yao is very important for our team in victories, especially in the 4th quarter. Anyway, other sports journalists may not notice this, since they don't concentrate on these two team only. They watch games of all other teams. So they won't catch these intangible traits.
Tom Tolbert is the worst sports analyst I have ever heard. Seriously is there anyone who really likes hearing him, why is he on the air nationally? I loved how Walton maked Tolbert eat his words in the DAL-SAC game last week.
What's amazing to me is that Tolbert would actually imply that Amare is the ROY partially because of his defensive impact. Yao changes the whole game defensively. I haven't seen any indication that Amare has any real impact defensively. I think this is the primary reason Yao should be ROY.
many americans are pro-american players, so of course they favor amare over yao unless yao completely outplays amare, which he has done. therefore, they have to suck it up and hand yao his ROY award. btw, nba players' opinions are meaningless because they know much about these players. sure, they have played against them a few times, and know very little about their games. these players don't watch the rockets and suns games.
Anecdotally, recently I've been seeing and reading more sportscasters/writers saying without a doubt that Yao is their RoY. Not as many people saying definitively that Amare is RoY... at best they're saying it's a two-horse race between the two. If Yao doesn't get at least a co-RoY, we have some seriously screwed up votes.
Amare had a bad night tonight. Yao has also had his share of off games. However, the difference between these two rookies is when Yao has a bad shooting night, he would always find other ways to contribute to his team, such as good passing, attracting double/triple defenders, and intense defensive effort (altering shots, intimidation and shot blocking), etc. Yao is THE ROY.
The way I see it, Yao got ROY locked up. If the Suns are trying to push their last chance getting into playoffs, Amare would most likely at the best be the third option behind Marbury and Marion. Then Amare will have to get his points, stats by grabbing lots fo offensive rebounds, but it ain't easy no more since every team has kind of figured out his game. On the other hand, Yao will be Rockets first or second option most times. He will help the Rox into playoff , and at the same time, he will get his points and rebounds.
walterw - Good point. Now that Penny's back with his playoff experience and leadership Amare is the 4th option while Yao when from 3rd to 2nd option and maybe even 1st. Down the line Amare's game is falling while Yao is raising his. Yao ROY no co.
Amare has a LOT more bad games than Yao. Yao is pretty damn consistent. RARELY does he have bad shooting nights. His "off" nights are when he doesn't get many shots but still makes half of them and grabs the rebounds.
I don't know guys, Amare is coming on pretty strong at the end here...did you see that HUGE 9 point 2 rebound game he just had?
