Do they want to sell jerseys or win championships because a team built around Yoa will do one but not the other.
If they win championships, they’ll sell jerseys. If they determine they can’t win a championship building around Yao, they’ll have to make some moves to find someone who IS worthy of being built around because nobody else on this team has a chance of carrying a team to a championship. Yao is the last hope and if he screws up, the Rockets are screwed.
So, in your narrow little world it's "either or"....IOW, the Hakeem-Rudy-Rockets were only about winning championships and management lost money to accomplish the goal. What a BS veiled piece of Yao-hatred. Here's a piece of enlightment for you. Had the Rockets not jumped from the 6th Lottery pick to the #1, we'd still be in the Lottery. Put Yao on the trading block and Carroll Dawson couldn't get a nights' rest for the phone calls. Even a dumbass like Allen Iverson is smart enough to state that Yao is "a gift from the gods". 2. Jay Williams, Duke Chicago 3. Mike Dunleavy, Duke Golden State 4. Drew Gooden, Kansas Memphis 5. Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Italy Denver 6. Dajuan Wagner, Memphis Cleveland 7. Nene Hilario, Brazil New York (traded to Denver) 8. Chris Wilcox, Maryland Wow, how unfortunate we didn't draft one of those guys. Instead of the Lakers, it would be us playing the Spurs.
Has anyone seen that part in Donnie Brasco where they take the Japanese guy in the bathroom and beat the hell out of him until he's screaming his guts out? After yipengzhao and GATER's post, it came to mind for some reason.
Yao in the right role can contribute but he never be the man, you can call that Yao hate but I call it logic.
Yao sells jerseys internationally huge I'm sure.. I'd like to see how many he sells in the united states. I live outside of Texas at the moment and while I've seen Yao jerseys for sale, I've never seen someone wearing one (outside of texas).. I've seen some francis jerseys, but not very many of those either. I don't think this team is all about selling jerseys. I mean I'm not nieve.. the bottom line is making money for any business. You want to win and be successful.. largely because you want to make more money. If you have equal opinions on yao and x player.. you'd take yao because he provides more marketing etc to the world. I think it comes into play when you are dealing with people that are about the same talent level... but I doubt this team is going to pass up good players to sign lesser players just to sell jerseys.. in the end I think winning will make you the most money
sorry about the double post, but why else would you buy a team other than to win championships.. there are a few cases of huge time fans.. but even those (like mark cuban) want to make money in the end. you can aim for winning championships and making lots of money at the same time.. especially since i think the championships lead to more money.. championships give you more tv time.. which gives you more sponsors, more jersey sales etc..
So by your "logic" we should have just given up on Hakeem after the 86 season. Because after all...he didn't win a championship the first year he took his team to the playoffs.
Yao alone probably can't lead a team to a championship on his own, but I believe that Yao and another superstar can. We just need to find that other player. FWIW, I don't think Francis is the guy.
summer song giver, why don't you just stop posting for a bit. The more you post, the more people will see how stupid you are in just posting before thinking. We all know you don't like Yao, or that you don't think he is good enough to be built around, but let's just give it a rest. Personally, I think Yao can do it; maybe not right away, but he will learn. NOw OFFICIALLY you are on my ignore list with your friends like Juugie and Yetti.
i forgot to add that I too, think Yao needs another superstar to win a championship. Hell just look at the Twolves and KG, and as of now, KG is on a way higher level competitive wise than yao is.
And I suppose building a team around Francis would sell jerseys and win championships. Seriously, in order to win championships you usually need a "top five" caliber player and sometimes two. I don't see any of those guys on the block, so I'd rather try and build around Yao hoping that his skills and work ethic is good enough to put him in the upper echelon one day, than making a rash trade before he shows what he can ultimately do.
"In four years, he could be one of the best players in the world." - Larry Brown “He is soon going to be a great player." - Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson, 1/22/03 "He's just a wonderful player, the real deal. It's wonderful to see a guy with all those skills. You better get him early, because he's going to get better and better as every day rolls by." - Utah coach Jerry Sloan after his Jazz played Yao and the Rockets "He's going to be a big-time force in this league. Those who think differently are few and far between now." - San Antonio Spur coach Gregg Popovich “Only a fool would build a team around Rik Smits part deux.” -Summer Song Giver
Like someone said, they were talking about Yao, not his evil twin Yoa Seriously, these comments were made when Yao was playing at his high level. We have all seen with our own eyes what Yao is capable of doing. There was a stretch during the season that he just looked unstoppable and dominant. The key is he has to be consistent and perform at that level night in and night out. He needs better stamina and mental toughness to achieve that. Give him time, he will be there one day.
I think a team built around Francis could contend for a championship, he is on par with any pg in this league. And the heart and desire exhibited in the playoffs only solidified these beliefs, the question is to me is Yao the right type of player to team with Steve, I think he can be but the offense needs to be reworked to more of the style the playoffs used. Yao setting picks and working in the post only when he exhibits the desire to be down there. That means dropping his shoulder creating some space and going up strong otherwise he can get his shooting those fifteen foot jumpers off of guard penetration. Ideally Yao should be used just as Indy used Smits in their title run years. The one thing we are lacking is the Antonio Davis type player they had who can crash the boards and get some tough buckets inside and maybe a pure shooter who can eat up sizeable minutes at SF or SG.
