From what i saw in the Asian games and from the footage i believe Yao Ming is more than ready to carry a team. It shows just how valuable he is to his team. In Asia he is part of a big rivalry against Korea. He was pumped up, he was dominant, he was the Yao Ming we expect. He has something going over there. Keep feeding him the ball and he will respond. When Kenny Smith said last year he is the best Rockets Player on their team I believe him. In 10 years from now who will be considered the best player? Yao or Steve. I dont think Steve can really carry a team by himself, unless he scores 44 points again like he did against the lakers but dont expect that to happen every game. Steve is inconsisten with his scoring, he has good nights and offnights. Yao on the other hand can get it done because he has overwhelming knowledge of the game. His passing is beatiful, and he has so much passion for the game. He plays with heart something i dont see in Steve.
why does it have to be Yao or Steve? Yao is my favorite player on the team, but Steve is still the leader of this team at this point. I also don't know how you can say Steve doesn't play with heart.
I believe this team will be led to the promise land one day, with Yao as the go to guy. However, Steve is an inconsistent scorer??? What does that make Yao???
i know we all love Yao so verry much. but come on guys, i get verry tired of this. why does everybody think steve can't carry his team unless he scores 44 points? doen nobdy remember the year steve was injured? we won about 1 of 30 games without him. he can carry a team, he just need to trust his teammates, the first 3 years he was a thread to get a tripple double about every night, i get the feeling alot of fan forgot that or that they have been fans for 1 year and haven't seen the rockets play before that. I like yao as a player, but i think alot of people are to negative about the rest of the rockets. i think they can lead the team to some nice play off runs togheter. And saying Steve is inconsistant and yao now is strange because i can swear i saw yao playing verry inconsistant this year, scoring 20 points against the lakers dominating duncan and robinson and disapearing against the wariors. i know alot of people are gonna say that that was al steve's fault that he dind't pass enough to yao those games. But the truth is that yao wasn't consistant last year. i know rookie have that alot, and i think he will be more consistant the coming years. the thing i really have a problem with is the next line: His passing is beatiful, and he has so much passion for the game. He plays with heart something i dont see in Steve. have you seen steve play?? he plays with alot of heart, even in the years he was sick, and had migrane he played his heart out. if you do not like steve's skills that is ok, but questioning his heart is a bad thing
I don't know why people endlessly debate who will be the man on this team... In order for the Rockets to get where we want them to go (Playoffs, Finals, etc.) it is going to take great play by BOTH Franchise and Yao. If either one of these guys slip up, we lose... plain and simple. We have to have both of these guys to excel TOGETHER! I don't care who provides the points as long as its a W. There is no reason why Francis can't put up the same numbers as last year WHILE seeing a big improvement in Yao's game. It wouldn't kill the Rockets to get their team scoring up to the high 90's.
So Yao dominates Korea, Iran, Syria, and Quatar for godsakes and he is ready to carry the Rockets to the promise land. I guess thats kind of like saying, well, since I score with Rosie Odonell now I'm ready to score with Pamala Anderson. and this is a team sport in case you have forgotten. Yao Ming will do nothing in this league on his own. same goes for Stevie.
Dnj, I consider u a Yao homer like many others on this board. any sense u might have made went out the window when u said Steve had no heart. Lets look at Steve's career so far: 1: rookie of the year, got double teamed most of the year w/ Hakeem and Barkley injured. All he did was avg. 19, 6, 6 and got rookie of the year award... 2. Hakeem took some pressure off him in the second half, and Steve led us to a 45 win season in his second year as a pro... 3. Injured and migraine prone, he played through the pain as much as he could....went something like on a 15 game losing streak w/o him if i remember, and were the 5th worst team in the league..... 4. Steve is back w/ some help again, and no surprise we win 43 last year again.... Yao will be the man, but until he becomes more aggressive like he was at the Asian Championships this year, Steve will be leader for quite a while. But it doesnt matter, as long as Steve, Yao, and Cat play together unde JVG, we will win. But dont ever say again Steve aint got heart........no heart on Defense......maybe
Enough Yao/Steve talk. It's basketball, not Highlander for God's sake. There need not be only one. We need both these guys; they're competing against other teams, not each other.
http://www.nba.com/games/20030219/HOUPHO/boxscore.html http://www.nba.com/games/20030409/HOUUTA/boxscore.html http://www.nba.com/games/20030408/PORHOU/boxscore.html http://www.nba.com/games/20030327/HOUSAS/boxscore.html When it counted the most Steve Francis never brought his A-Game, when it counts this year can he do that this year?
Did you happen to see Yao's numbers in those same box scores? If Steve was inconsistent, Yao was nonexistent.
In case you didn't see, Yao shot a combined 23% in those games, which was one less percentage point than Steve... Heck, did ANYBODY play well in those games against Utah and Portland?
