Wang was going to play the WC game and just didn't wanna play the Asian Olymipic Games. Is it fair to call a player's refusal to play for the NT as "abandoned the NT when peopl needed him"? Dirk was crazy about the national team's competition and I love his attitude. But he doesn't have to do that, man. Neither does Wang or Yao. In China I was told all the time that "Sportsmanship means to sacrifice for the coutry.". But now I don't think it's a valid statement. If you still believe that, we are just wasting time here. anyway, don't get it personally, have a good night.
<H3> Can you guys just cut the "political BS"!!! This is a B-ball forum. I really sick and tired of those talk </H3> <H3> SHUT UP </H3>
I'm going to call it quit before making a last point. Both Wang and Yao has contractual obligations in this case. Although those obligations are weak they are legal unless you have evidence otherwise. I don't believe in sacrifice for the country BS either, I believe that a man needs to keep his word even when that doesn't play to his advanatge though. I don't wanna discuss whether the NT or Wang is right here. It's off the topic. Just pointing out that there's no need to overblow the cost for defiance, and use that to accuse Yao Ming of being a liar. Peace.
Yao deals with Chinese government and we're talking about their relationship, which isn't unrelated BS. If you find it boring, skip it. What's the big deal?
I believe Wang just wantted to train by his own trainers. He probably was sick of the NT team traing. That's enough to piss the NT people off and kicked him out of the team even he wanted to play for the World Championship games last year.
China dominated the American team? What American team ? It's not just on this site. The opinion in the US, among basketball people, is that the Chinese NT training is absurd. You may disagree. You may think that the consensus is wrong. But I find it hard to believe that the general belief in the US is anything other than that the Chinese NT training is inefficient.
The American Star team that features some NBA retirees such as Olden Polynice and droputs like Leon Smith a short while back in the summer, played five(?) games and lost all of them to China. I haven't seen the concensus other than one or two ariticles here and there. I don't think that the NT training is as bad as some people believe though. The NT has a new coach this year. China's outside and inside game runs better than before. Either Yao improved,the whole team improved, or both of those improved,go figure it out. Whether it's inefficient or not is debatable, but at least that training has been serving them well compared to their goals. They won't be winning Olympics, but enough for them to dominate Asia. Now from what I saw on TV, the defensive rotation of the Chinese NT has improved, ball movement exists and Yao actually gets the ball when he sets a pick and rolls to the basket. Yeah, although competition is weak, that training has provided some fundamental elements that I didn't see on a certain NBA team. Hint hint.
Ah ha. No wonder I didn't hear of that American team . I dunno. I think you've missed quite a bit of evidence of consensus. I wish I had links ,but of course I don't, since I never figured to need them. But from the chat transcripts, articles, etc... it certainly sounds like there's general disapproval here. Also, didn't the Rockets send somebody over because they were concerned about Yao's conditioning and weight? We'll see how good they look technically against quality opposition. Not saying they won't - but to anybody who follows University of Texas football... beating the living daylights out of terrible teams and looking perfect doing so generally doesn't mean that much when you actually play somebody good . My real reason for concern is that training in the US and Europe has become very scientific. Teams know exactly what weight they want players at, exactly what exercises will get them there, and generally do very sophisticated programs to get them there. In Europe, one of the primary benefits of smaller soccer clubs linking up with larger ones is the ability to get training regime help from the larger club. I seriously doubt that the CNT training is as bad as some make it out to be. TBH, it sounds sort of like old school US coaching (the Bear Bryant school of football camp...). But I have to think that some advancements have been made with good reason...
I didn't watch those games. Has Jiang got some new tricks? I can't forgive him for what he's done in the summer of 2000 though.
IIRC The Rockets gave Yao a weight training schedule to work on in the summer, and Yao got overweight following his diet, such as eating ice cream and steaks. Since diet should be part of Rocket's training program, I would not include it as part of NT training had I not known more. Honestly, I doubt people know much about NT training because the real juicy stuff are always hide behind the scenes - the Korean team is the only one that can challenge China in Asia and they would like to see footages of real Chinese NT training.
I don't know if Jiang's got some new tricks. The players seem like to be in high spirit. It's early to tell for sure since China encountered weak opponents at first. I was talking about in comparison to last coach Wang Fei. That donkey face has no idea on how to coach, maybe he makes coach Jiang looks better. I don't know.
Give me a break!!! What do you think ends a coaches's career faster: leaving your star, one known and loved by hundreds of millions of people across the world off the team and producing crappy results or taking some criticism from him? What are they gonna do? Have the KGB equivalent in China whisk him away in a black Mercedes and give him a "talk?" Boy is it me or are them commies in China dumb enough try to do this without hundreds of millions of people knowing? The only reaction by the coach might be (if any, highly doubtful) reducing his minutes and I as a Rockets fan have ZERO problem with that. In the case of Wang he had to find himself a team to get paid. He had a contractual obligation to play for the NT no matter how weak the competition. It wasn't a big problem until later, when China lost the Asian Games to the Koreans and its automatic berth to the Olympics. This, albeit a huge surpise and upset, really stun them and obviously Wang is taking the blame for it. Go to China and they would cheer leaving him off the team. So if you think it's because of Wang's criticism of the NT training methods (which he didn't, which also cannot be proven true) instead of leaving his team out to dry, you are sadly mistaken.
Back to the Yao comments. I hope that JVG and the Rockets will emphasize the concept of "early offense." I'm sure Rudy did too, but the players (including Yao) couldn't execute well enough. Yao is saying that he suddenly felt how he could see and get ready for all the possible attack points before he got the ball. And when he got into position and received the ball, he knew exactly what he should do. What is missing here now is: 1. Can Yao get into position in the NBA as easily as he could with the Asian opponents. 2. Can the Rockets get him the ball whenever he's in position.
Rudy tried to get the ball to Yao early but i guess his approach was too "simple" or should we say "Dream-style". He simply isoed Yao at the left block and let a G/F fed him the ball from the perimeter. This would work very well for a dominant center like Dream or Shaq. But Yao isn't there yet. He is not able to get a deep position and when he catches the ball 8 feet away from the basket he is not able to back down some strong defenders. I noticed Yao was exceptionaly effective when he catches the ball when cutting from right to left across the key. His turnaround and babyhook are almost unstoppable in the key area. And he's good at dishing the ball to the open man (the bounce pass to EG). But the more important thing is that when he catches the ball while moving, it's hard for his defender to put a body on him. Yao has the feel for the game and foxiness like Divac has, to lose his defender. He would excel in a motion offense in my opinion and I hope JVG would design more plays for Yao in the flow.
From my experience, the coach in China only cares about the voice from the "top" instead of fans opinion. TVs, newpapers, websites...everything is controlled by the govenment, so you could pretty much totally ignore whatever people say and concentrate to please your boss. There were some serious talks about hiring a foreign coach for the NT team and I believe the chinese coaches are afraid of that. Look at the Chinese soccer teams: local coaches lost their jobs before of those euro guys, korean guys.... The biggest questions regarding the current coaching are the trainning method and strategy. Jiang is eager to protect his reputation and he seems doing very well. YaoMing is a nice guy and he knows his word could give the coach another big lift. I believe Yao's improved through the NT trainning but he usually tries to be humble and doesn't talk about his improvement publicly. I never intend to accuse him to be a liar. I just meant YaoMing's trying to help the coach.
So what, one person's experience represent the whole country? Let me guess, you are from China and you didn't have a good life there.
