From Ming's interview "Fransis told Eric that what he likes me to join Rockets is my passing ability. He said that he was very tired at Rockets because everybody depends on him there. When he passed the ball to the inside, the ball would never come back again. If I was the center of Rockets, I could pass back 50% balls to him. He will feel much more comfortable in this way than the way that he had to run the ball on the floor and try to tear up the defence by himself." Sorry, I have to leave for a while. Sorry about the bad translation. Anybody can help me? http://www.sportsweekly.com.cn/data/news/new_news/2002/9/4/11495.html
The part about wanting a center to pass him the ball is believable. The part about passing the ball to Cato makes no sense. The only passes Cato has ever seen have been ally-oops for dunks. Perhaps this is a translation problem. Maybe he said "Cat." Instead of "Cato."
Cuttino and Cato arent translated into Chinsese. The names stay the same. Steve is only saying what we've been saying all along. Cato is a bad excuse for a professional basketball player.
If everyone will just stop and think what Francis said is true since he has been a rocket. In his last years here Hakeem looked to shot everytime he got the ball, unlike his best years when he would pass out. Cato, well if he catchs the ball he will turn it over before he can pass it out. How many times does Mo Taylor pass after he gets the ball? How often does Thomas pass the ball after he gets it? Francis does not seem to be saying he is going to shot it but he might be able to reset and get someone a decent shot. Sounds to me Francis was saying what is best for the team.
Oh, God. Stop the hating before it starts! A-Train is right. And Steve is right. We need some ball movement on the team. Maybe Steve needs to work on this aspect of the game, too, but the fact that he recognizes what must be done is good enough for me. Could he be recognizing how much Yao will actually help his game, and the team? I'll be Pollyanna-optimistic and say yes. Last year Tracy McGrady told Grant Hill "I wish you were out there 'cause I have to carry the team too much." Hey; truth! Honesty! It doesn't mean Tracy dislikes his teammates. He recognizes that one player ain't gonna get it done. You know, Floppy Divac has his drawbacks, but I love his passing game, and if we can get that out of Yao....imagine Yao and Steve in that regard. (drool)
I'm sorry but I can't imagine Steve would say that to anyone unless he was 100% sure it would never get out in public. Steve has always gone out of his way to support Cato, even when he didn't have to. I can't believe he'd be stupid enough to make such negative comments about a teammate that he will probably have to be playing with for at least another three years. If I was Cato and I found out that Steve did in fact say these things I would probably punch him in the grill for saying that, and probably Ming too just for repeating it. And I'm not a Cato fan. I'm very skeptical of some of these sources.
He'd be right to talk bad about another teammate and let it get out in public? I don't see anything good about that if it was true (which I have a hard time believing). These things shoulds stay in the clubhouse. I didn't like it when TMac started b****ing about his teammates, I didn't like it when Pippen started b****ing about Barkley, and I wouldn't like it if Steve did the same thing to one of his teammates...even if it is true.
Francis, or whomever made this quote, stop assuming Yao always needs to pass it back out again. You might make an ass out of you and Ming.
I have edited my thread and deleted the "Cato" quote. Maybe it's better for Rockets and for this forum. This story came out this way: Steve to Eric- Eric to Ming- Ming to the reporter- reporter to us. So don't take it seriously. At least what we know from it is: Steve likes Ming (at some aspects) and Ming wants to do something with Steve in the future games.
ass u ming hehehe...good one. Note that this is a 4th hand quote. Francis told Eric who told Ming who told a reporter. I believe Francis could say that about Cato. Everytime I've ever seen Cato establish low post position (which is few) and Francis actually passed it to him, Cato would always make some hallucination move with visions of grandeur....and miss. I'm also skeptical of some of the sports journalism from China. But would someone invent a Ming quote like that and risk Ming freezing him out of any more interviews. Maybe this is just a sign of Ming trying to be funny and actually saying something that he'll regret.
That's what I figured. It just sounded like the reporter may have done a lot of word changing and rearranging in some of those quotes. I don't doubt that Steve did talk to Zhang, and I'm sure WindAndSea's translation is near perfect.
