If I were management, I would NEVER let Yao go oversees during the offseason after what everyone has witnessed these past couple of weeks. I think its clear that those 20 games off might be doing Yao some good. It really added to his time off in total. In my opinion, I think that if Yao rests during the summer and just works out 2-3 hours a day and sleeps/relaxes the other hours, he can be fresh for a whole season. Well, as fresh as someone can be at his height and weight. I don't know if anyone has stated this before. But to me, Yao needs to spend his summers sleeping and in the US.
Well luckily for Yao, the Rockets have absolutely no say in that. He isn't actually the property of the Rockets. He's free to do as he pleases in the offseason, and it just so happens he loves playing for his country. I understand, as a Rockets fan, wishing Yao spent his offseasons resting and preparing for the next season, but he isn't just a Rocket. He's also a man who is proud to be Chinese. Do you really think he even wants to spend his offseasons here? Hell no. He wants to be back home. If for whatever reason, your job required uou to spend the bulk of your year in Shanghai China, would you want to spend the part of the year you were free to go home there too? Somehow, I doubt it. Seriously, what do you think Yao is? A slave?
You guys are not understanding my point. Rest in general is what I would like to see. He can go to China. But you know he will be publicly hounded 24/7 to do appearances, etc. Relax. Nobody likes slavery except for my wife.
celebrities all do apperances. Yao just does a bit more because he is only available to Chinese part of the year. I think he will limit that because he knows how important resting is now. He had also made abundently clear he wouldn't participate in more than 1 commercial matchs in one summer and escaped the lengthy camp training of the NT last year by going through a minor surgery.
We think we're focused on Yao's latest tear? The chinese government probably have 100 people in a room creating charts more complicated than Tango's graphs. There's a daily briefing on what Yao does and a summary of our rants on Clutchfans.net. These guys want Yao to be a monster in the 2008 Olympics, P-E-R-I-O-D. Everything else is secondary. Those guys know that Yao is benefitting from the rest. From a pure self interest standpoint, they'll back off. If not, they're a bunch of idiots.
I understand that perfectly, and we'd all love for Yao to get more rest, but you said... So you say you wouldn't LET him do it and are surprised to see people say "It isn't up to Rockets management, it's up to Yao." We all get it. We'd all love to see Yao get more rest in the offseason. I don't think anybody who is a Rockets fan wants him to play for China, but it's all up to him. That's our point. Management has nothing to do with it.
Yao's not the only NBA player participating in the world championships this summer. There's nothing we can do to stop them, it's entirely their choice. Mark Cuban has let it be known that he doesn't want players he contracts to play overseas, but Dirk and Nash played anyways.
Yes its Yao's choice, but truthfully I don't see why he would want to go back(China). He had accomplisment everything he had wanted since he was freakin 14, winning a bunch of national titles and won like 7 asian championship trophys for his team. Why can't he focus all on just the Rockets for several more yrs and win us a title and then he could always focus on his national team afterward? Is that too much to ask out of loyalty for the Rockets? He admitted, the Rockets is just as much his team as is the national team.
So you think people should put loyalty to their employers above loyalty to their country? I don't actually oppose that view as strongly as some might, but nonetheless it's a bold pronounciation.
Let's not get carried away with this summer rest thing. The main reason fot Yao's improvement is that he was able to study his game during his time off from the surgery. The application of his study to his game have brought about the recent results.
I doubt he really wants to. But there're 1 billion people that expect him to. Bottomline is he needs to do the "right" thing.
I said it long time ago. Yao has two conflicting jobs. One job is here, the other job is overseas. It is going to be tough.
