Great translation rfila. Yao makes it look easy. So easy that fans and beat reporters expect him to succeed because he's 7'6.
Yao's tortured for returning back too late: And there are videos to prove: http://sports.sohu.com/20060623/n243901292.shtml
Thanks for the translation rfila. I have a lot of gratitude for anybody that puts in the time and effort to translate an article. It's not easy to do, and you guys deserve all the credit that you can get. As for the article itself, I think it's way exaggerating Yao's weaknesses. Would it be better if he had long arms and explosiveness off the floor? Of course, but you could use the same logic to say that Elton Brand would be better if he was 4 inches taller, or that Garnett would be better if he had a more massive base. Yao's got a lot of strengths and he certainly didn't get short-changed in the talent department. He's got unprecedented coordination for a man his size, great shooting touch and overall skills, and a massive base that helps him from getting pushed around in the lowpost. You can name the number of 7'6" 300+ lbs players with tree-trunk legs, coordination and skills in NBA history on one finger: Yao Ming, that's it.
IMHO, Yao Ming would not consider those as torture. The training was not forced by the national team; it is out of his own initiative; He is so hyped and determined to get back into his competitive shape and form such that he can represent China to play in the World Championship that he is actually enjoying these training. We should admire his dedication and the heart of a champion !!
Thank you, Invisible Fan and m_cable, for the comments and nice words. As I said in my previous post, I was hesitated to do the translation. I understand a lot of our rockets fans would rather see an unstoppable super Yao than an ordinary big man fighting through all the adversities, some of which may never be overcomed, like Yao's left ear. Then I decided to go ahead because I feel that Yao's dedication is truly the strongest part of his success. Without knowing his weakness and how he faces his weakness, it is hard to appreciate what he has done. The original article is an offical documentation(I do not know if this the right English word) from China Basketball Association. While I think it is biased by not mentioning Yao's other strength, like tree-trunk legs, coordination and skills as mentioned in m_cable's reply, which is rare for big men. I do not think it exaggerates Yao's weakness. They are there. Yao has been trying hard to overcome these weakness. That is why sometimes we forget they are there. that is the part I personally give Yao the most respect. Both American and Chinese like supermen. But traditional Chinese culture tends to give more credit to dedication than its American counter part. This board may not be the best place to disscuss it. But I thought it did not hurt to talk a little bit. After all Yao is an man seems to value traditional Chinese culture more than at least half of the Chinese. IMHO, it is the foremost important factor that Yao has so many Chinese fans(success in NBA being close second, beleive me).
is it just me or has yao lost weight? from the pic above, the one without his shirt on, he looks thin and pale and not much muscle showing.
In an interview with a reorter, Yao Ming said he had only gained about 6 to 8 lb in the last 2 months.
Maybe "exaggerates Yao's weaknesses" is the wrong wording. The article was trying to imply that Yao is less talented than a typical NBA big man, which I don't agree with. His strengths and weaknesses are just in a different form than a typical NBA player. But if you take the totality of the good and bad of Yao, you'll find that he compares very favorably with his contemporaries. And not to mention that each of Yao's weaknesses besides stamina gets mitigated by his size. Short Arms? They're short for his size, but they are still extremely long by any other measure. His standing reach, which normalizes wingspan with height to provide one number that compares how "big" someone should play, is probably in the top 2-3 in the league. Same thing with explosiveness. It would be tremendous if Yao could get off the floor like shaq in his prime or pre-injury Amare, but he's still so big that he doesn't have to get up that high to be extremely effective. Really, the only quote that I sincerely disagreed with is the following: Nobody at Yao's height has had more basketball gifts. Nobody. The closest height of guys whose talent/body/skills are as good as Yao or better is Sabonis at 7'3" and Kareem at 7'2". And before anybody gets on my case, I didn't put Ralph in this discussion because his thin lower body was a huge hindarence towards his long-term success. IMO Yao's body and durability gives him an advantage over what Ralph was working with physically.
