If Jon Barry's interview is true, then I have gained more respect for Yao. For whoever keep calling Yao soft, I only have one word for you: STFU! Yao is more than willing to go one-on-one against Shaq, the most dominant center in NBA, whole most others shy away. He actually embrace it and played at the same level as Shaq when they played head-to-head. Yao is very strong and tall. If he swing his elbow like Mutombo and K-Mart, he will going to HURT/INJURE lots of people. Not like I would mind that. Actually, I would love to see him injure some people with his elbows, foul people hard when they drove to the lane. Then next time when those pesty players try to grab the ball from Yao or drove to the paint would think twice. I am sure Mutombo's elbow to LeBron's face has taught LeBron not to get into the passing lane of Mutombo again, ever. I would LOVE to see that. What the haters and bandwagon fans failed to understand is: Yao is truely a classy guy, on and off the court. He has genuine concerns that if he unleashed his physical body fully on the smaller players, he would cause some real injuries. He never hesitated against Shaq, because he knows Shaq is stronger than him. In CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) where Yao played, the players play to protect each other. That's why he wouldn't understand the existance of players like Karl Malone, who plays with intention to injure other players (vs Boki). Yao played with inconsistency this season. He maybe are in search of some balance between playing timid and playing hard so he doesn't injure people. JVG and the current coaching stuff certainly never bring out the best of Yao. Whatever the methods they are using doesn't push Yao over the mental threshhold of playing as hard as you desire regardless of whether you will hurt/injure other people. Only a good coach brings the best out of his players. I feel's JVG's days at Houston is numbered. If things don't improve this season, Yao may bolt to another city. Les would fire JVG 100 times before letting Yao go.
The sad part is that others are taking advantage of him, and this is hurting Rockets badly. Yao has to understand what is more important as a professional player. Let other teams abuse him to win, or defend as a normal player to win for Rockets? We are not asking him to hurt someone intentionally. We want him just come to play. If other players want to take his advantage and get themselves hurt, sorry for them but that is their own fault. Case closed. If Yao doesn't use his gifted height and strength to play his own game, he is wasting Rockets' time and it is extremely unfair to other teammates. Has Yao ever thought about other teammates when he plays small? Rockets design their game plans based on Yao's size, if Yao doesn't use it, and I don't think Rockets will ever win. Hasn't Yao thought about the reasons that make Francis leave and T-Mac come? I feel sorry for both Francis and T-Mac. Yes, Yao is trying to be a good guy, and all of us like him for that. But in a BB game, you just cannot make everyone happy. If he wants to achieve that goal, he should not have got into sports business. Let's consider Rockets as a family and Yao as one of the big brothers, if this big brother always steal family's money to give neighbors while his own family are starving, do you consider he is a good person? Yao has to understand who and what is more important. The answer has to be Rockets and Winning.
I beg to differ with those that think this thread is something brilliant or original. It is simply a rehash of all the Yao hating threads done in the past, god there is nothing original that a Yao hater could come up with because it seems like every thread on this BBS is about Yao. Five of the 7 threads in the hot topics frame are about Yao and its always Yao sucks, trade Yao, Yao is too passive, Yao is blah blah. Its especially bad timing because the guy scored 25 points Friday by any definition I've heard thats a decent game. He wasn't solely responsible for the Lakers shooting 55% even though I think the Yao haters are going to start crucifying him for not getting out to the 3 point arc because he is too slow. I wish the admins would lock down some of these threads because they are becoming boring and annoying.
Good post, if Kwame Brown played in Houston, he wouldn't get half the criticism that Yao gets. It really is hard to win an NBA championship and just having an NBA franchise player doesn't guarantee you a pass to the big show, the NBA finals. Look at the Wolves with Kevin Garnett, even he isn't good enough to carry that team to the finals. If the Rox put together the right team and yes I think Yao should be one of those five, we can win championships.
blah b;ah blah...same old stuff,this is why I don't read the stuff on here anymore.boring....................
I agree with what Panda said in another thread..but I dont' remember what he said. The pick and roll worked very well. We should have a balanced offense. Try posting Yao and Juwan up...isolating Tmac...setting up a shot for Wesley or Barry or Tmac or Mo or Yao or Sura or whoever. Pick and Roll with Tmac and Yao is great as well. I hope we can make that like an unstoppable play. And I agree with Jack Hammer..Yao gets fouled so much. I'm glad that we are starting to complain when there's obvious BS. But Yao has to play through it and keep on asserting himself and play very well.
I will say give him 2 more years before we give up on him. The guy was stragiht out of China, never played US basketball. He might have to overcome more than someone straight out of high school has to. His weakness and strength are glaring at same time. If he can play to his strength not his weakness, he will be a great one. Ever see Tim Ducan play back to the basket and dominate like Shaq, why Duncan isnt a Center?
You should post more. Great post!!! Sometimes when I caught the Spurs or Miami game, I often saw Ducan or Shaq got calls when double teammed and got away the "offensive" fouls. I guess Yao has to prove himself first to the league, that's the hurdle for him. Yao's got the tools.
Say you have to work in China for a Chinese company. What will be it like for you. Say you are the first american every to do so. Yao has to figure it out himself. Once he gets it, I still believe the sky is limit for him.
I am frustrated fan who still likes Yao. He is a nice person and I rather have that then some of these punks that play in the NBA. He is considerate and yet, there is fire underneath. It's that he is not as atheltic as the other players in the league. In time, he will learn to play throught the fouls and earn his fair share of calls. Right now, we fans will have to be hopeful that he will not take more time to get better. As for leaving. Yao is worth the max because he is all that and more. His worth is both on the floor AND off. I just fear he will get upset playing here and leave. That will be a very sad day. No trades will be worth the value of giving up on Yao. No, KG, Ducan, Shaq is not getting traded for Yao. Anyone else is major downgrade for this team so why even consider a trade??
Umm, I'm guessing you're not very familiar with Houston sports pre Yao. And Kwame Brown gets the Yao treatment in DC. The Yao treatment isn't some unique hating attitude, for people across the USA criticize their favorite team's underachievers. Almost nobody in the NBA is safe from fan criticism.
It was sarcasm, they would probably tar and feather Kwame if he was in Houston. I just don't think Yao deserves all the hating that he gets on this BBS, his career up till now has been far from disappointing. I am new to this BBS, did SF draw the same criticism and attention that Yao does, were as many threads created on SF as they are for Yao? If not then there is something inherently unfair in how we look at Yao.
Yao reminds me a lot of Ralph Sampson. Both were enigma's and both could completely dominate or completely fade. I think Yao is the 1st player to frustrate fans so completely with his lack of consistency as much as Ralph did. With Yao people claim it is because he was raised in China and the culture their simply is not conducive to the type of aggressive play that we have in the States. With Ralph people said he had no heart. The 2 things I remember most when Yao was drafted was that many experts said it would probably take 4 years or more for him to get acclimated to the U.S. way of playing ball. The other was the wide difference of oppinions about how good he would be....Shawn Bradley, Rik Smits, Kareem Abdul Jabar or Wilt Chamberlain. I think he is already better than Smits but is certainly several steps from Jabar or Wilt. The thing I accept about Yao is that he is not and probably never will be an emotional leader or high energy type of player. One of the main problems with the Rockets IMO is there is no emotional leader on this team at all. I will never forget the Charles Barkley ass kissing game against Dallas. Yao was having the best game of his career up to that point and amazing everyone on National TV, but every time you would see the Rockets get a defensive rebound you would see Moochie Norris running up the court behind waiving for Yao to hurry back down to the offensive end. To me that is Yao Ming...a great player but he needs to be consistently pushed by someone to fulfill his potential.
Yes, SF was the subject of just as many good/bad threads back in the day. Certainly, as time progressed, and it became clearer and clearer that Steve wasn't the savior he was made out to be (Stevie Franchise), and became more and more frustrating - under Rudy and JVG, there were more questioning threads than supportive ones. You see the same thing happening with Yao. People are starting to say it's Year 3, we've seen this from him in Years 1 and 2, will it get better, or different even?
Really? I never knew that or saw Moochie doing that..SO DARN IT MOOCHIE WAS ACTUALLY USEFUL?!? aww shucks Yeah I think we need an emotional leader. We should try to be like the Spurs and Heat..
Agree and disagree. Ralph put up great numbers his first three years... Yao might daydream about doing as well. You're right about Ralph being inconsistent, but part of his problem was trying to do more, rather than less. Like deciding he was a guard on occasion, which drove everyone nuts. But Ralph had heart, just as Yao does. He also played with passion, as Yao does, but with the same lack of consistency. Where I disagree the most, I think, is that Ralph was as inconsistent as Yao. And we may not disagree here, as you were probably painting with broad strokes to make a point. Some of the members here probably didn't see Sampson play. Far more was expected of him when he entered the NBA than was ever expected of Yao. I think he delivered, until he got hurt, and he gave up his position to Akeem, something I think was done with class, all things considered. Frankly, as frustrating as he is, we all need to cut Yao some slack.
I like your analogy to Sampson. He was my favorite player when he was still playing at Virginia. The hype was between him and Ewing at the time. I could still remember the posterizing dunk on him by Ewing during a nationally televised college game. Back then Ralph was perceived as mostly an offensive force, Ewing on the other hand a defensive monster. Sampson received many similar criticisms as does Yao now. He was too soft, passive, and INCONSISTENT. At times, he could easily be outplayed by defenders few inches shorter than him. Too bad he suffered those injuries, we could never know how he would have panned out in his NBA career.
