I really tire of these debates. In my own humble opinion, the central problem is the following: Yao-Only-Fans believe that Yao should be dominating the NBA and putting up similar numbers to his CBA days. These fans believe the reason he is not doing so is the fault of the Rockets. Here is what I believe needs to happen: YOF's need to realize that the reality of the situation is that Yao (at this point in his career) can not dominate the NBA in the same manner as the CBA. Never happen, regardless of team. There is a quantum leap in talent between the leagues. We all want Yao to dominate in the NBA. I for one, am very happy with his progress, find him a joy to watch, and believe he will develop the consistent dominance we saw in games like Phoenix or Toronto this year.
Yao is at a great place in his career. the team has been built around him. CD traded dribble first Steve (who was good not great) for a Great player TMac. Then he brought in a great back up Mutumbo for those time when Yao gets into foul trouble either by making a couple stupid fouls or the ref's making some bad calls. Then after watching the horrible pg play with Ward and Lue at the begining of the season they traded for Barry and Wesley the Sura got healthy. When Sura went down they traded next to nothing and got Mike James. With these new guards Yao gets the ball in much better position than he ever has before. And all of these moves have gone on to change the Rockets from one of the teams with the least amount of depth to one of the deepest. Look... I'd like for Yao to have better stats but I thinkt those will come with time. Yao is lucky to have the trust and respect of his team and the City of Houston. If he had been traded to NY he would be torn to shreads by now and his confidence would be shot. Give Yao (and the Rockets) time to mature and soon we'll all be having arguments about how may titles the rockets can get in the next decade with Yao, Tmac and the rest.
A team with a bunch of losers that have no hope and worship at the alter of their lone star: Yao Ming. That is why when I tell you guys that YOF don't give a crap about the Rockets winning or not, and only about Yao looking good, you guys don't believe me. I have said it and will say it again: YOF are (with few exceptions) NOT loyal Rockets fans (meaning rooting for the team because they love the team, not just one player), they could careless about the team, and their biggest enemy is ANYONE (be it T-Mac, Sura, James, or anyone else) whom they perceive is taking away the glory from Yao. I think this thread shows it clearly. But I applaud Himalayas for being honest, it is refreshing for a change. At least you know where his opinions are flowing from, so you expect them. He is not hiding anything, and I applaud that. I love Yao Ming, I hope he is on the Rockets for the rest of his career, despite his shortfalls. But I love Yao as an END to make the Rockets a better team, because my loyalty is towards the team, not any one person. I love T-Mac for the same reason. But at the end of the day, they are players, and what matters is the brand: The Houston Rockets. I would never put one player above the team. But that is just my opinion, and this thread seems to be an appropriate place to discuss this, since it has been brought up.
YOF's put the blame everywhere else except for where it belongs...on Yao! A trade wouldn't give Yao the thing that he lacks most, and that's R*E*S*P*E*C*T! Refs don't respect him, players don't respect him and if Deke keeps up what he's doing, the Rocket's should play him off the bench. Don't put the blame where it doesn't belong, have you even watched the games? Yao misses point blank looks, has terrible hands and scares the hell out of all of us when a 6'1 player is launching right in front of him and the flash bulbs start to go off. If Yao is going to be posterized, I'd rather it be in Houston because we love him here. It's not all about his stats or his play, we like having him (and you guys) part of our community. YOF's it could be a lot worse, what if he was in New York?
I am a Houston Rocket fan first, and as a result, a huge Yao fan. I love the guy. Has he done all I expected? No, and he may never be what I expected or hoped. He has the potential to be one of the best to ever play the game. Whether he does that or not has to do with what is in his head, not which coach or team he plays on. What team he plays on WILL determine how many NBA championships he wins, but not how great a player he becomes. What I love most about Yao is his intelligence and high basketball IQ. When he came to the Rockets, they had built a team around Steve Francis, who was very athletic. That team was a bunch of young gym rats, and they loved playing the game more than anything in life. But, it was more of a street game. Francis was very sincere and genuine. He loved the city and the city loved him back. The problem was that he wasn't very intelligent. He made lots of foolish decisions at key times in a game. He didn't have great court vision, and he wasn't a TEAM player. Not that he was selfish. He just didn't have the training. From high school through college, he kept moving from place to place, and really didn't learn the game, especially at the PG position. The best thing that the Rockets could have done would have been to bring in someone like Oscar Robertson or John Lucas to be his personal coach and literally teach him the fundamentals of the game. What Steve knew about the game came more from the streets. The guy is an amazing talent, and has a huge heart, but he'll never lead a team to the championships, because he just doesn't know how. When Yao came, this became quickly obvious. Now no one truly fit with Yao, because of his intelligence. Yao knew how to play the game right, but the others didn't. The Rockets tried for a couple years to see if it could work, but it became obvious it wouldn't. When the opportunity came to pick up McGrady, who is one of the top 5 players in the game, who has a similar basketball IQ and humility as Yao, it was a no-brainer to make that trade, knowing that the two could lead us to many championships as they grew up together. But, we had to trade most of our key players to get McGrady. It took much of the year, but CD was surprisingly able to trade for other players who also had high basketball IQ's, and who played the game with heart, passion, discipline, experience and a team approach like JVG wanted. Now that the team is gelling, they are surprisingly becoming one of, if not the best team in the NBA at the moment. Yao DOES know how to play the game. I credit that to the training he got in his country, and his countrymen can be very proud of his heritage and character. What his trainers were not good at though, is physical training. The didn't know how to push him to the top level. They don't understand the principle of rest. They have him working hard all the time. Anytime you are building muscle, you work it hard to the point of tearing, then you give it rest. Yao's stamina is directly due to having to play all year round. If his countrymen want him to reach the top, they'll allow him to rest in the summers, except for something like the Olympics, where he'll be able to represent his country better, if he is better. During the off-season, players work on key parts of their game. Yao has not been allowed to do that, and as a result, his progress is slower than players like Stoudamire, who has dramatically improved each summer. The other thing that Yao doesn't know how to do yet is dominate. When these three things change, he'll be able to grow into the player he can be. Yao plays less minutes for two reasons. One is stamina, the other is fouls. Many of his fouls come from a lack of stamina. His lack of stamina is partly due to his height, but is also due to playing and practicing all year round. Another thing I love about Yao is that he always learns. He has overcome more obstacles than any player in the NBA, in my opinion. He learns from his oponents, and the next time he plays them, he plays them better. I hope he figures out how to persuade his countrymen to let him rest in the off-season, and grow into someone who is dominant, without so many beleiving he has lost his way. Even if Yao doesn't become the dominant player he could be, he is great enough now to command a max contract. He isn't leaving Houston, regardless of whether Yao fans think he could have bigger stats on a team of lesser players. In the NBA, its not about who has the biggest stats that determine who is the greatest, its about who wins championships, and that takes more than a great player, it takes a team. Yao knows this. If he is traded to another team, he won't have another dominant player like McGrady who is unselfish like he is, probably won't have a coach of the intelligence, game strategy and undestanding of TEAM that will push Yao to his greatest. I doubt he'll get better endorsements, because his endorsements have come from national and international sources, not local ones. His Team Yao has done a wonderful job of marketing him, and he's making more money than almost anyone in the NBA now, as a result. Houston is a class organization, and Yao has seen that, and will reward them when the time comes to renew his contract. At first, it was hard on Yao to lose his close friends when they were traded, but now he knows it was what it took to build a team around him who could win championships and make him the greatest player. Everyone wants to pass to Yao, and they want Yao to dominate. When he does, they pass it to him, but when he doesn't get in position, they don't. So, those arguments don't hold water. Its up to Yao and his countrymen to determine how great Yao becomes. If they let him rest in most of the off-seasons, except for the most important events, then with proper training and conditioning, he can get his stamina up. If he has time to work on improving key parts of his game during the off-season, he'll improve as much as any other player, because he is probably smarter than them all. Only Yao himself can figure out the key to making himself more consistent and dominant night in and night out, like the great ones do. I'm hoping he becomes a great one, and proud he'll do that as a Rocket, and believe he has the best chance possible to do that as a Rocket. If Yao only fans realize this, they might become Rocket fans themselves, and stop posting on our BBS that we should trade him.
good post. Leave Weatherspoon alone tho. He actually had 1 decent game. And I think Padgent(sp?) was with us last year. I'm actually just messing with you so don't get offended. This YF or YOF is actually quite funny On a serious note....I think Yao would be much better if he didn't have to play every second of the offseason. Remember how Olajuwan would learn a new move every year. Yao doesn't have the oppertunity to just learn and practice in the offseason.
Cmon Sherlock, you shouldn't waste posts like that on threads like this...Himalayas is clearly a troll that wouldn't take a single word of it seriously. The dude is here to just to instigate...the same ol', same ol' joys of the internet.
Anyway, I think Yao should step the f**k up. It is time to put the excuses away. T-mac is out for a bit, and Yao needs to take control of this team. He has been inconsistant all year, and now there are no more excuses. I am angered by the fact that he did not have a good game last night in absence of T-mac. I am sick and tired of this bull ****. You are 7'6", so act like it. I don't care what anyone says, this guy does not deserve the max. He has to earn it. You can't get 22 rebounds one night and then 1 rebound the next. You've got to score more than 12 points when the best player is not on the court. It's infuriating.
but...on the other hand. it is nice to see some of our old skool guys come out and speakup..they have been sorely missed lately.
This is why i hate yao fans only. 1. Thats what they are yao fans only they dont know basketball. 2. They really dont know basketball 3.WZZ sucks 4.Yao is not a god so dont treat him like one.
It's soooo nice to see that there are people out there who have a thing called "patience." All of us want to see Yao dominate the NBA. Whether that's going to happen will depend on how Yao's develops. He's already an above average big man. Time will tell if he's capable of becoming more than that. All of us absolutely love Yao. He has great work ethic, no ego, and has shown flashes of potential dominance. That's the reason why we get frustrated with him when he does stupid things. It's like watching your child make the same stupid mistakes over and over again. You get annoyed with him, but you don't stop supporting him. Those who want to see him traded for garbage (ahem...Odom + Butler + Mihm) are clearly not Rockets fans. Why in the world would any GM do a trade like that? Trading an above-average center for 2 SFs and a below-average center would be absolutely idiotic for the Rockets. First of all, Mihm's not even as good as Mutombo. Second, how many freakin' swingmen do we need on this team?
Hell trading him might be a good thing to send all the babyarm fans to destroy another teams forum instead of ours.
Yao could not handle being The Man on a team. He just couldn't. If Yao were to retire from the g.d. Chinese National Team, then he'd have the mental and physical stamina (not to mention time to actually work on his game) necessary to be the primary option on offense. Even then, he'd need a solid second star on the team. Even Michael Jordan couldn't win it all without Pippen and a dirty-work power forward like Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman. Yeah, let's see what happens to Yao on the Clippers. Hell, on the Knicks, even; NY would eat him alive. I want to see Yao (and the Rockets) succeed as much as the next guy, but for the past few weeks, he's been on life support out there on the floor. YOF are as bad as Steve Only Fans. And I'm glad I don't have to deal with the latter anymore.
