Windandsea Lay Homah Thanks for all your cool posts on Yao. It's appreciated. A question I have about Yao that concerns me a bit is to do with offensive rebounds by the opposition team. I know that when we (Australia) have played you guys (China) we have been able to grab easy offensive rebounds. I also know that the New Zealand team grabbed nearly 20 offensive boards against China. These are very high numbers of offensive boards to be giving up by any team. I am surprised a team with a 7 foot 5 center concedes so many offensive boards. My concern is that this reflects poorly on Yao's strength and positioning, as well as the entire Chinese front court. Obviously, you have seen Yao more times than I. Thus, I would love to get your opinion on why China's rebounding is so poor in International competition? I am not asking regards the CBA. I know Ming is a strong rebounder there...but I doubt the level of competition. More, I am interested as to why the rebounding is so weak in international competition? Does the coach ask Ming to break fast? ie, he isn't instructed to stay under the board? From what I can gather from the Australian basketballers, there is a feeling he isn't overly strong. That he can be pushed out of position reasonably easily. This worries me, as our guys aren't as strong as the guys he will face in the NBA. As I said, I'd love your opinion. BTW For a big man, his shooting touch really excites me. He's amongst the best shooting centers I have ever seen.
According to windandsea, the Australian team was on fire behind the 3 point line and Yao was forced to go out and guard some players out at the 3 point line. That would probably be a big reason why he couldn’t get to as many defensive rebounds. He was too far away from the basket to get to them.
And what about the 3 or 4 other times we beat them? And the time New Zealand (a very weak team) grabbed 19 offensive boards? It's not one game...
ScreamingRocketJet, I haven't seen Yao Ming's recent games. When he played at CBA, his rebound is not a problem. At Asian Tounament, he got more than 10 rebounds at each game. But this national team has some problems: many young players, lack of experience. Another reason is that Yao Ming is very tired and not in good physical condition. He is not very strong now. This is a common sense. So sometimes he cannot hold the position under the rim. If you like, I think you can contact Su Qun (that sports writer who interviewed RT). I have his email. He has followed Yao Ming for many years and he is a basketball reporter. Maybe he can give you some more valuable explanations.
What's wrong with Ming's physical condition? Is it the hip injury? What's the prognosis on that? I remember that the Rox physician said that Ming had some "normal injuries" or something like that. Is this something we should be concerned about?
