LOL Larry Bird: The Making of an American Sports Legend. - book reviews Washington Monthly, May, 1989 by Jonathan Rowe In the fifties, when another team balked at drafting a black player, the wily Boston Celtics chief got himself Bill Russell and a dynasty. Twentytwo years later, after racial stereotypes had come full circle, Auerbach drafted a slow white guy named Larry Bird. Three more championship banners now hang from the Boston Garden's already crowded rafters. For all of Bird's prowess, there has hovered over his career a cloud of racial suspicion. When he entered the NBA in the late seventies, fan interest was declining, and many team owners thought the reason was a lack of white stars-or players, for that matter. Through no fault of his own, Bird became the Great White Hope. Though he has more than proved his mettle, some blacks think Bird has gotten more than his share of glory In Spike Lee's movie, She's Gotta Have it, a Larry Bird put-down line is a black in-joke. Isiah Thomas, the Detroit Pistons star, exclaimed in a moment of pique that were Bird black, he'd be considered just another good player. (Bird had just stolen a Thomas pass for a last-second playoff win.) Churlish as it was, Thomas did give voice to something many had mused upon but had kept to themselves. TV commentators made matters worse, constantly noting Bird's "knowledge of the game" and his spartan practice regime. It all fed the notion that black players get by on raw physical ability, while whites prevail through brains and work. It was no accident that Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, in his muchpublicized comments on the physical superiority of black athletes, singled out basketball players. There is a great irony here. In breaking basketball's reverse color line-a number of bona fide white stars have entered the league since-Bird was refuting these racial stereotypes rather than confirming them. Yes, Bird is slow. And, as he freely acknowledges, he's afflicted with what is called in basketball circles "White Man's Disease" (i.e. , he can't jump either). But an unauthorized biography of Bird by Daniel Levine, a freelance writer, reveals that Bird shares something more basic with many of his black counterparts in the NBA: a background of poverty and family disruption. In so doing, he reminds us that blacks dominate the NBA today for pretty much the same reason that tough white kids with names like Heinsohn and Cousy dominated it 30 years ago. They grew up in circumstances in which sports can easily seem the only route of escape. Don't forget the ching chang chong comments from Shaq. That one almost slipped by the whole media. But it finally made it's way to the headlines and Shaq could see it coming. He apologized very quickly. He knew if he didn't it would cost him millions. I've got plenty of black friends. Some of them are accepting, some are not. Some of them would trade Yao for Chris Webber or Gilbert Arenas. THey say he's just another Rik Smitz and will never be anything more. LOL
I don't get you guys. He went 0-8, without TMac, facing toughest teams in NBA, with an injured toe and lots of pain, but he's a p***y, a loser, and a bad draft. Returning from his surgery, with good traininga, observation, and adjustment, he made great improvement. He put up very good numbers 20-10+ against not so great teams, for 10-15 games, all of a sudden he's one of the all-time greats now?!!!! I have no doubt that he will continue to improve and get better, but whether he can be remembered as one of greatest centers played in NBA, not just the first Chinese succeeded in NBA, there is a long long way to go. It also depends on so many factors, one of the very important one would be team success. Rockets are still 4 games out of playoff with only 23 games left. We are talking about whether he's one of the greatest just because of 15 games? How many David Robinstons and Patrik Ewings are out there? If you are not number one, you are just trash? I guess Yao will be trash then too. Some of you said casual fans don't understand basketball, they only want to see flashy dunks and crossovers, they don't understand Yao's impact. What about Ewing? Why isn't he great? His numbers? Or success (to me, single-handedly bringing a NY Knicks into Final, and lost to Dreams 3-4 is very very impressive. So was AI, but he got a Deke with him.)? Robinston was MVP of regular season, with incredible numbers. Why they are not great? Just because Ewing didn't have flashy dunks and corssovers? What make you guys so arrogant that Yao will pass them for sure, just based on 15 games? Those of you who claim him to be a God based on 10 good games, are the ones who totally trashed him when he was 0-8. Don't make Rockets fans look ridiculous.
My preditions about Yao Ming were made in 2002, at that time most expets were saying that he might be as good as Ric Smits. Slowly but surely Yao Ming is fulfilling all my predictions. I expect him to improve much more over the next three years and he will be called great!
That's about sums it all up, the silent majority speaks. Woohoo!!!! Wish camera people would stop showing only Chinese people cheering for Yao and perpetuating the stereotype. More Anglos must step up and wear No. 11 jerseys and put an end to this madness once and for all.
I have no problem about the belief that he will be great in one day, and I certainly hope that, and believe that as well. My only beef is that irrational up and downs, one day he's a p***y, a month later he's an alltime greats. Besides, I don't understand all the arrogance towards Robinston and Ewing. If Yao could be playing at that level for 5 years, I would be much much more than happy. If that's true, I dare to predict a dynasty, with Robinsto/Ewing-like Yao, and a TMac-like TMac.
You guys have such short memory or attention span. Every time a current Rocket player (Yao or Tracy) get a run of decent games, he is the greatest. Great players don't go a game and grab one freaking rebound. Yao has shown improvement and still has room to improve. However, I don't see him approaching the Wilt, Dream, Kareem, Russell, Shaq tier. He might have a good career, but I don't see legend. By the way, what happened to all the T-Mac is the greatest Rocket ever posts or who would you take in their prime, T-Mac or Dream posts? Funny
I love Yao guys, but lets not go overboard. His current game isn't on the level of Dream, Robinson or Shaq. Those guys were much better rebounders and defenders than Yao due to their athleticism (scoring isn't the only facet of the game). Yao has yet to get 10 boards or 3 blocks a game. Do you honestly see either of those guys going 1-9 without T-Mac on this years team? Before the Warriors game, we wondered whether Yao could lead a team to a win as the man. Those 3 were the men on their teams from day 1, and two led their teams to titles.
Exactly. Considering the dismal attendance, I love the enthusiasm of fans on this site, but get real. Look at the skill level of opposing centers that Yao faces on a nightly basis. We should expect those numbers from him. By the way, doesn't quick defenders still give Yao fits? As far as the racial references, could it be that Rockets' fans (all races) have been spoiled by the physical play of previous big men and don't see Yao bringing that same physicality every night? Why does it have to be race instead of preference?
Well What exactly was the skill level of the Point Guards we had for the last few years? Yao barely gets 20 shots a game- whether that is by design or happenstance it can explain a lot of the issues with his stats. I am not sure whether dissing Yao is because of Race- but in general there is a tendencey to warm up more slowly to a foreign born athlete than some who is familiar in the US ( say at the college level).
Well he is averaging about 9.9 rebounds for the season- maybe that is not good enough. And he has always had about 1.6 blocks per game. You mentione Yao not being athletic. I would say he does not have the leaping ability and the the lateral quickness- maybe you will also agree that a 7 ft 6 inch guy with an extra 30-40 pounds is entitle to some consideration. I am not sure what is up with this 3 block benchmark? Maybe you are trying to refer to Shaq's stats when he was at the same point in his career.
20-10 is good, or even very good, but that's not great. 15 games of 20-10 is not eligible of the word "great". Is 20-10 good enough? Ask Yao Ming himself, if he doesn't want to get any better, if he doesn't believe he can be better, MAYBE he would say to himself that he's good enough. If you feel you are good enough, you would never get better. Players like Kamp, Martin etc, come and go, once they feel they are pretty good, the next thing you know is, they get only worse. Don't compare to those crappy centers in the league, if we are talking about greatness, we'd better talk about those all-time greats. Yao Ming himself doesn't need us to have all kinds of excuses ready for him. He's a pround and ambitious young man. He didn't even mention his toe during those painful games. He certainly wants to be better, and one day, becomes a great one. I love him for that. Why would us consider 15 games of 20-10 is good enough? There is no rule says that you have to vote one center as great in every year. With Shaq's sharp decline, and the fact that Yao hasn't reached his top, we do not have a great center in today's NBA. All the great ones keep pushing themselves year after year, and they are very good in most of the games they played, not just 15-20 games. We look forward to Yao getting there, the sooner the better. 20-10 is good, but that's not great. Yao is not 20-10 until he's there in the end of the season. Even if he's there already, he's not great yet. A couple of seasons of 25-12-3-3 could be a very good starting, or rings, or a couple of apperances in finals, or a MVP award. He will get better, and I believe he has the potential and working ethic to get there. There are thousands of people played this game, greatness is not a cheap word. How can you say someone who's not even at his own peak, is an alltime greats? BTW, that 3 blocks is important, because those great centers in the past have that, it's a bar set by past greats, not a message board.
I love Yao. I have defended him times before when some morons tried to bash him. But come on, let's start a thread like this after he has won at least one ring. The dude has not even entered his prime and he's still in the process of improving his game. He's not at the level of Wilt, Russell and Dream yet, not even close. But we have not seen the best of him yet, not even close, either. Hopefully ten years later on the day he retires, his career achievements will deserve a thread like this for the fans to discuss whether he is a all-time great.
what's the race of the dude who invented basketball? white? so what are all these "non-blacks hated in basketball" stuffs?
I don't get your point either. The people here giving Yao credit were not the ones who hated Yao when the team sucked. And, I don't see any prove that they expect Yao to be all time great just because of these '10-15 games'. Fact is, when Yao sucks, there's always Yao haters' bashing party. When Yao is doing great, they just shut up (not all of them obviously). So the negative and postive talks are from different group, as I see. I've always expected Yao to be among the greats someday (not yet) because he has the HEART, is hard working, willing to learn, and maintains good relationship (as least he try to) with everybody. With his given physical size and talent, I don't see much reason that he won't succeed.
Why are some of you guys overrating David Robinson and Patrick Ewing? They only scored all those points back in the day when you had the illegal defense rule. Patrick was a very non-clutch player who did play hard every game unlike D. Robinson. And yes, David Robinson had the defensive numbers but again he was overrated defensively. All those years he had either Dennis Rodman or Tim Duncan to back him up to help him snatch all the rebounds and make a block whereas Yao Ming has no good power forward to protect him from foul trouble. Unlike Yao Ming, they didn't receive as many phantom calls in their careers. Meanwhile, Patrick was a gritty player who played with emotion and heart unlike the softy David Robinson, but he too had the help of Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, Marcus Camby and so on...to help him out defensively. For that matter, you could say Shaq was a TERRIBLE defensive player throughout his career. I am not the only one who noticed that Shaq was just an awful defensive player who was able to compensate by being an overwhelming dominant offensive player. Shaq is a top tier center nonetheless and belongs with the best. An example of a great defensive center in his prime was Dikembe Mutumbo. Yao is improving and getting better, and like I mentioned before in a previous post is already at Patrick Ewing/David Robinson level. He may not have the numbers but they played in a different era. Look at Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett: they never averaged the numbers Robinson and Ewing had in their primes, but in my opinion, KG and TD are far better players than either one of them. Also, because of Yao's height which causes some agility/ mobility/stamina issues it's almost impossible for him to reach the Hakeem/Kareem/Shaq/Moses/Wilt level.
Robinson and Ewing aren't overrated. Ewing led his team to the Finals and took our Rockets to seven. Like Dream, he didn't have another all-star type calibar player on that team. I think he is a choker in the clutch but he was solid. Robinson only played a season and a half with Rodman. Dream ate his lunch but he was still a very good defender. How do you think the Spurs were able to go through the Lakers twice (it wasn't because of Duncan containing Shaq)? Yao has yet to carry a squad to a winning season, or put up the numbers of Ewing or Robinson, so how can you say he is on their level? The rule changes don't stop D. Howard from grabbing 12 boards a game. They don't stop Camby and Wallace from blocking tons of shots. I agree that Duncan is a better player (not on KG though). Yao has yet to put up numbers comparable to them either. Well, his numbers are on pars with Duncan in this injured season....
