What is this? Game 7th is coming and so called fans knock on their own player and want to exchange him for the opponent player. The season is not over yet. A lot of people complians about no one give the respect the rocket deserved. How can they do that? The rocket fans do not even give enough respect to the team and their player. This is a team that we have now. They fight as a team. Yao is a member of it. The season is not over yet. can you hold the need to change the team until after the season?
So at what stage do you think criticism of Yao turns into hate? I hope its not as simple as you simple not agreeing with the criticism. Yao has some obvious strengths and some obvious weaknesses. By "obvious", I mean those attributes that the vast, vast majority of fans will acknowledge. I think being a "hater", means you tend not to acknowledge those obvious strengths. But there's a huge grey area in between, where there's plenty of room for legitimate debate. I think questions like "Would you rather have Gasol or Yao?" are decided in that grey area.
I thought that's quite obvious to regular visitors here, although haters don't tattoo that on the foreheads. Consistency is the key - posters like SuperStar or redao, who constantly bash Yao with a one liner in almost every single game thread, and almost every single thread related to Yao. If you don't see their action much, you know Yao had a good game. Would you like to categorize that as "criticism" or "love" for the team? Contradicting claim and action is also the key - just like what Almu did. On the one hand he claimed how he loves this team and this board, but on the other hand he claimed so many times that he wanted TMac and Yao out, so that those new fans can be gone. After Yao refused to go back in the locker room in game, after Yao limped to play on bone fracture in the whole second half and refused to let trainer examine him, he came here to call Yao "Chinese ice cream". Would you like to categorize that as "criticism" or "love" for the team? Did I mention consistency? It's not one post or one thread, but years of same old attacking. Leebigez, tmac_1, and yourself, never shy of criticizing Yao. Some I agree with, some I don't. Did I call you a hater? Honestly, you couldn't tell the difference between criticizing and hating?
gasol would fit in better with RA's system. Yao would win a championship with Kobe and would actually be more efficient in Jackson's system than Gasol. I say trade Yao for Gasol...both benefit
You want my clarification, and you got mine. From your response, I could see that you are somewhat agreeing with my observation.
I can't comment on some of the specific posters you mentioned. I tend not to pay much attention to one-liners.
to me, calling yao "soft" is hate; especially when one can't provide any fact to support that baseless claim. just one example. there is nothing soft of yao but his shooting touch.
That's not hate to me. A soft player is someone who doesn't respond well to physical play. I don't think a vast, vast majority of people who follow the team would say Yao responds well to physical play, so it wouldn't meet my criteria for "hating".
Personally I think Gasol is better than Yao Offensively but Yao is better defensively. For this Rockets team, Gasol is probably a better fit.
Gasol doesn't impose his will on the game like tracy does, he should be dominating Scola and Chuck, but he is not. Scola and Chuck are schooling him on both ends.
define "doesn't respond well to physical play". yao bangs in the low post and takes punishment w/o too many calls he deserves. throughout his career he's pretty much a 20/10 player. if that's your definition of "doesn't respond well to physical play", then give me one example of who does. and before you reply, let me remind you that pau gasol has never in his life played under nearly the same defensive pressure that yao faces on a nightly basis. besides, what is "hate" to you? in a bball bbs, does one have to be, say, a racist literally to qualify your definition of "hate"? gi'mme one your example of "hating a player" on a bbs.
If I was the Lakers, I'd trade Pau for Yao straight up in a heartbeat. Yao could start and play ~30 min with some nights off, and Bynum could back him up. Bynum is also a true center and would learn a lot from Yao. With Yao on the Lakers, they'd have TWO players that command a double team and they would be unstoppable just like back in Shaq and Kobe days, except there'd be no conflict of egos with Yao.
this is getting ridiculous. i said that you interpret any criticism of yao as "hating" him. that's why you included me as an example in your monologue about love and hate a page or so ago. you can't name me one thing i've said about yao in this thread that is paramount to "hating" him. i've always gone out of my way to defend him when i have felt he took unnecessary criticism - for example, i don't think he is soft at all. i'm so sick and tired of this crap. i know i'm not alone here. there's a silent majority on this board that doesn't have the patience to put up with this crap and defend themselves just for engaging in critical analysis. i can tell you this has a lot to do with why more veteran posters don't post more often, except for occasional sarcastic one-liners. no one has the time or patience to endure a character assault or have there fanhood questioned everytime they posit a reasonable critique. i know i tell myself to avoid the yao threads but as he is intertwined in the most criticial issues pertaining to the team (from personnel to on-court strategy), it invariably always leads down this path and i'm stupid enough to post. i always regret it afterward. you're a part of the problem.
Yao has poor upper body strength, and he has a lot of trouble holding his position on the low blocks. Very often he doesn't have a firm grasp on the ball. He tires more easily than most. In a scrum for a loose ball he'll often not come up with it. He'll rarely deliver a hard foul. These are all areas that people will usually associate with "toughness" or "softness". I could easily come up with counter-arguments for Yao on a number of these issues or give examples that demonstrate Yao's toughness, but I'm not going to call someone a hater for using the word soft to describe Yao. To me, it's a grey area. But I tend to see things more in shades of grey than most fans. I already went over it: "Yao has some obvious strengths and some obvious weaknesses. By "obvious", I mean those attributes that the vast, vast majority of fans will acknowledge. I think being a "hater", means you tend not to acknowledge those obvious strengths." Yao's obvious strength is he's a superior offensive player when he has the ball near the basket. Another of his obvious strengths is his defensive presence at the basket. I don't like to use the term "hater", but that's probably how I'd think of anyone who won't acknowledge those things.
How many times can on guy be so dang wrong. Pau and Yao are the same player???? Prefers Gay over Battier???? Wanted to bench Brooks????
How convenient for you to claim this, without asking yourself a not so tough question, who started to question others' fanhood, and who started the labeling?
