I was reading the Sports Bahr section of SportingNews.com and Bahr mentioned that the media didn't like all the hype surrounding Yao. Other media guys have reported that they don't like the hype surrounding Yao and that is why he has been maligned. Even on this BBS, people have complained that Yao gets a lot of crap from reporters because they don't like all the hype surrounding him. Let's get something straight. THE MEDIA CREATES THE HYPE! This is the classic love to praise them when they succeed love to feast like vultures when they fail. Anything for a big story. It reminds me of that Simpson espisode where Lisa became a vegetarian: Kid (sarcastically): Lisa, now that you are a vegetarian, are you going to marry a carrot? Lisa (VERY sarcastically): Yes. I'm going to marry a carrot. Kids: I can't believe it! She admitted it! Personally, if the media is so sick of Yao's "hype", I say they just leave him alone. Go do a story on Shaq's pinky toe or how the Knicks will once again be great or how cool it would be if the Yankees won the World Series or how A-Rod is overpaid or how Tiger Woods may have the sniffles. Whatever. Just leave us to watch Yao dismantle the next team that comes along in peace. We'll all be better off.
Jeff, I love watching the media bash Yao Ming. It makes it just that much more enjoyable when Yao Ming has a night where he goes 9 for 9 or scores 30 pts with 16 rebounds or gets 18 and 8 with 4 blocks. Every Yao Ming success story is a major slap in the face of every media person that bashes Yao Ming. Soon they will all be claiming that they knew all along that Yao Ming would be this good. But they are only fooling themselvs because we remember. Yao Ming the next Rick Smits! Perhaps some of the media should spend a little time with research before judging players that they have never seen.
Media hype is classic leveraging. If the athlete lives up to the hype, he becomes a god like figure praised over and over. If the athlete fails, he gets pummeled without mercy.
Technically, "new" media but I was a journalism major and I know the difference between cc.net and Sporting News. Besides, this is Clutch's world. I'm just glad to be a part of it. Everyone should EXPECT bias from cc.net, a fan site. We MAY even accept some bias from the Chronicle when it comes to Yao. But, places like ESPN, SI, Sporting News, etc. are supposed to have some degree of fairness to their reporting.
I love how David the fraud Aldridge is already writing "as I've been saying, Ming just needs time". Do these IDIOTS not realize that you can TRACE their comments. What's worse, is the media will always be the mediary, get it... mediary. They can spin their dislike of Ming as even ANOTHER STORY. They can proclaim that "against all odds, against all expectations, Ming has risen to greatness". He HAS NOT exceeded expectations. Tell me the name of one basketball coach worth his weight that did not like Yao Ming last year or the year before last. You put a 7'6" stick out there that can shoot like Yao and every basketball GM/coach will drool. You give that stick tree trunks for legs and you get public masturbation. You give that guy a passable upper body, you have dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria. The media doesn't know crap, other than how to carry the public's attention in 3 second increments.
The public doesnt give a crap what they said 2 weeks ago. The media knows this. Going with the flow is much easier. Think about this: When an analyst upgrades or downgrades a stock, does anyone remember what they said 6 months ago? Hell no.
I left the media because it seemed strange to me to comment on other people's actions. I was more inclined to want to do the action myself, then to watch and write or talk about it later. Some people are DOers, others are WATCHers. DaDakota
Just kidding, Jeff. and I totally agree with you. wow, I am a member now, faster than Ming's development!
Jeff you're completely right, but the whole Yao Ming saga is unchartered territory. Early on it was the disagreement among NBA scouts that have been tracking this guy for over 4 years. I saw Yao play in the 2000 Olympics, but had no impressions except a tall Chinese guy blocked a couple of Dream Team shots and had no idea how to play defense. I watched the WBCs intensely and saw a lot to love and a lot to scratch my head over. The Yao Ming media mantra has been "no excuses" and even people here on this board regard any explanation as an excuse. But the hype has been generated at it's core from guys that "saw" the unbelievable things we're seeing impossibly now . The Dallas scout/asst. coach (name blank) with his view and others that saw he rebounds poorly is 7'5 doesn't block shots and isn't aggressive, and couldn't grasp how well this kid's been coached in so many fundamentals and so poorly in others. Bill Waltons, (um er, argh) in his ESPN article really pointed out something that hit me square in the face, you can't teach aggression to an American kid who's been knocked on his butt 1000's of time playing streetball - either he has it or he doesn't. Yao's aggression was apparently on display sporadically in China to NBA scouts, and the WBCs - well blech, I think every player in it was trying to figure out what the officials were looking at. I was having a hell of a time arguing with a guy on another BBS who attended the Chinese team's exhibition against the U.S. before the WBC's who was saying "he's slow, doesn't rebound, can't block, has no post moves whatsoever, he's skinny too, but he can shoot". It really is hard to believe there were explanations for those observations, but there were. Here's where I commit BBS suicide (Jeff, please read O.T. at the end): Les' quote about Yao being the biggest sports story in history may have been right. But that's gonna enrage every American sensibility that has any kind of grasp of our history. Jackie Robinson was and always will be the most important sports related story in American history. The problem is that's American history, there was no slavery in Europe when our Constitution was written, and the "civilized world" were probably the least impressed by our attempt to live up to our ideals. But Yao is not just another foreign player coming into the NBA. Media types are hearing "redefining the position". Well, that should enrage Houstonians (I believe it has) as much as anyone. E, Moses and, Dream, who at 6'10 played as tough as anyone has and created moves that to this day should still be impossible. Yao Ming? 7'5 skinny 296lb. guy, from China and 22? Well my friends and family members have gotten every kidney- punch in and so has the media. I blame the media less, of course. Les, whom I hate to hear say anything (I'm a native) maybe has been around the world enough to grasp what Yao seems to be. The standard NBA mantra is 7'4 guys and up are at best role players and even Nowitski at 7'0 is not talked about as "redefining the game", despite the fact the guy can play any position (I know, his D needs work). The media should be having a hard time with what I'm seeing. Yao, to me after watching 11 of his NBA games is doing things that would take you back to just after the dark ages of the NBA. Wilt came in after Russell had significantly raised the standard Mikkan had set, but what Wilt did is not comparable to anything that happened afterward. Dream was raw still when he came into the league and wasn't the best player on the team until his 3rd season, and where he went from there is NBA history. What Yao's doing now has got nothing to do with Shaq - he's right that the NBA center is a dinasour - and now this improperly coached kid comes from China who seems to want to desparately play the center "properly". Yao's had a good week, maybe it's nothing more than that, endurance and adjustment issues abound and the certainty more media b.s. is on the way. But this guy is something I haven't seen before and never would have hoped for. And the rumor is Yao loves trash-talk. So far he must be happy, or maybe just on his way to getting there. Scary indeed. O.T., what is up with having several E.C. fans on this board, I came here as declan and now I wonder how many are just thinking too much alike. For the record, I'm in a "Get Happy" phase. That's not a bad thing, but it I]is[/I] somewhat disorienting.
Amen Jeff. Lately there has been a lot of talk in the media (and some on the bbs) about Yao's stamina. Can he play 35 minutes? He looks slow running up the court after a few times up and down the court...etc etc etc. I personally think that its just Yao's way. He is an extremely smart player. He seems to loaf up the court after a miss but as soon as the offense sets up, he is clearly one of the more active guys and seems to be directing traffic quite well.
