pre-draft Lebron James is being hyped up to be a hybrid of the next michael jordan and magic johnson combined. pre-draft yao ming was being labeled the biggest bust in nba draft history. that's the difference. yao not only dominated the chinese basketball league. he actually briefly dominated the US dream team in the olympics defensively and i remember him shooting a long range jumper over alonzo i think it was?. alonzo mourning wasn't able to shoot over him and yao rejected vince carter if i remember correctly and gary payton as well i think. i forgot the details of who the players were. but he played well against the us dream team at the age of around 19 or 18. China was actually leading in the game by like 10 points when he was in the game. then yao fouled out and the US took over. as for whether i would trade yao. the ANSWER IS YES!!!! i would. i'm kinda hungry right now. i would trade yao for some coupons and an all you can eat buffet.
Totally agree. Whoever posted this trade has no chance to be a GM I would trade Yao for Curry and Crawford though. Houston trades Yao and Marketability for Curry and Crawford. Crawford is long and atheletic. Curry is an offensive machine and a center.
That's exactly my question, not the answer. Why is James being hyped to be the next MJ or Magic while Yao was at best being compared to Smits or Shawn Bardley? Can anyone tell me why?
a) because more footage of lebron james is available b) because lebron is the quintessential nba, all flash player c) because yao is chinese and chinese are considered non-athletic.
the funny thing about that non-athletic stereotype is that china actually wins gold medals in gymnastics and swimming and other categories frequently. just not in basketball and soccer yet. their training techniques in those categories suck.
Who said that? LeBron gets the hype because NBA players have played against him during summer games, he's been hyped by ESPN like crazy, and because Jordan hand-picked him to attend his summer league/workouts/games. LeBron supposedly takes NBA players *right now*, and not just scrubs (Stackhouse at the Jordan workouts?). No one was sure of that with Yao.
There have been successful transitions from high school to the NBA that have resulted in stardom (KG, Kobe, Moses... now Amare?). Meanwhile, how many foreign players have jumped from international play to NBA and made an *immediate* contribution? (Yes, I know the immediate part is unfair and not balanced, but that is the difference in outlook.) If you discount the current influx of speedy foreign players (Pau, Parker, Nowitski), you're left with Smits (good, never considered a star or someone you'd build around) as the person most similar to Yao. Hmmmm...
actually, yao played against nba competition on the dream team and he proved he could play against them. yao also played against jordan in his basketball camp. and jordan reportedly made a comment/joked at the time that the chicago bulls should sign him right away after jordan dared yao to shoot a three pointer which yao swished. jordan was teasing yao by shooting threes and saying, big guy can you do that? the question about yao's ability has always been his strength and whether he had the mental toughness to play in the nba. lebron, they just assume he has the toughness. they also assumed bostjan nachbar would contribute more to a team than yao even though nachbar never played against the US dream team like yao did. shawn bradley if i remember correctly, before he even played against nba competition when he was drafted was compared to larry bird. bottom line: yao lacked a racial comparison they could use for their scouting report. so they just believed he was a bust until he proved he wasn't.
Rocket104, but is their difference in "potential" that big like a MJ to a Smits? Is the transition from highschool so much easier and so much better than from China like it's a MJ vs Smits? And when did Kobe make a more "immediate" impact than Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker? Also, Yao has played against teams coached by Rudy T, Rick Barry and George Karl and they all praised him. So some NBA players (supposedly Stackhouse and company) and MJ's opinions are that more reliable and correct than Rudy's, Rick Barry's and George Karl's? Sorry I don't get it.
Its because Yao played in China, no one every really saw him play, and how many Chinese have become stars in the NBA. thank you. Furthermore there was no hype about Amare, Kobe didn't receive that much hype, he was drafted 16th, and no one has received as much hype as LeBron out of high school since Kareem.
b) is not really fair or accurate. If LeBron was merely a scoring dunking machine, he wouldn't get as much attention. It's the fact that he has been ungardeable by NBA players at the age of 17. It's the fact that he took a team of comlete bums and by himself has beaten every prep school team of all americans he played this year. The ability to not only get his own shot, but also to get his other players involved and make them better is what has people so excited. He already has amazing passing skills. Also at 6'8 240 he has an NBA body and can play any position on the floor except center - maybe even there in a pinch. If he came out last year, he would have been the number one pick as well. Players with that upside just don't come along very often.
i don't remember any players from brazil or spain becoming nba stars either. but they were never scrutinized the way yao was either. pau gasol being from spain and nene hilario being from brazil but nobody went as far to predicting they would be busts before they played either. i don't remember anybody calling frederic weis, a frenchmen, a bust when he was drafted either until he decided to not even participate in the nba. yao didn't just play in China. he played in the olympics at age 18 or 19 against the US dream team. they saw it. they just couldn't believe it. people say there was a lot of hype. but hype is something that's unproven. yao was proven. he's not about the hype. there were also questions about whether he would get along with his teammates and whether the language barrier would prove too much for him to handle. my question is why they don't ask those same questions about a guy from brazil or spain?
No offense but... Aren't Americans supposed to be "proud" of their equality and no discrimination? Aren't NBA supposed to be the place where "real basketball" is played?
He averaged 10 points and 6 rebounds in the Olympics so that wasn't much to go on. And secondly, HE WAS STILL DRAFTED #1.
no, america is well known for its racial discrimination. no other country deals with as much prejudice as the US.
At least one of those bums has a major division 1 basketball scholarship. Remember, youre talking about private high school where they "recruit" kids. As far as the other foreign players like Gasol, European teams are better than any Chinese team. Also, Yao's upper physique resembles Shawn Bradley, one of the biggest busts in the NBA draft. The next tall Chinese player will be compared to Yao - which means he'll get more of the benefit of the doubt. This is what happens, when youre the #1 pick from a country that has produced very few viable basketball players.
