Yao Ming interview in China

Well, it was a long Q&A session with 20 Q&A !!!

http://china.yaoming.net/2004/05/23/61/news220226125.shtml

I don't think I am going to do this all. I just summarize it as follows-


On his biggest reward and regret for the past season, Yao Ming thought it was great reward for him that he could play with new-found assertiveness and aggressiveness over a long stretch of the season; the regret was that he has yet to sustain such aggressive plays day-in and day-out.


On his goal and confidence level for the new season, Yao Ming insisted he is confident to take the Rockets to make the playoff again.


On the impact of his many commercial endorsements/engagement, Yao Ming thought that had a certain impact but he and Team Yao had been pretty selective on what commercial endorsement to take or not. His criteria had been: famous brand name; stuff that he likes; e.g. he chose to become a spokesperson for sohu.com, because he likes computer and network, and he thought sohu.com has a famous brand name and market recognition.


On rumoured roster change in Houston Rockets for the new season, and whether Francis will leave, and McGrady or Kobe will join, Yao Ming felt it was a cultural shock for him to see such big roster changes in NBA and to see his team mates or buddies leaving; personally he likes playing with Francis, and felt they are building up the rapport and chemistry as great team mates. Whether Francis will be traded or whether McGrady or Kobe will join, he has to leave the decision to the Rox management.


On whether he likes IT/telecomm as he was the spokesperson for China Unicom, his answer was a positive one; he said as IT evolved with lightning pace, he likes to own the most technological advanced and features-rich mobile phone connected with Internet on hand.


On who is the best NBA centre, his answer was: Of course, Shaquille O'Neal.


On when he will get married, Yao Ming refused to answer despite fans persisted for an answer.


On who he felt was the weakest link on the current Rox roster, Yao Ming's response was: Physique wise, JVG is the weakling !!!


On his plans for the summer, i.e. whether he plans to take specialized training like other NBA players, Yao Ming said he had yet to take such training in the summer. His normal schedule for the summer has always been going back home to take rest, and then rejoin national team for training. It will be the same this summer.


When asked whether he considered himself on even par with Shaquille O'Neal, Yao Ming response was: he had already missed the prime years of Shaquille O'Neal; by watching video tape of Shaquille O'Neal's plays in the past, he thought Shaq is only 60% of what Shaq was. He thinks it is unimaginable how dominant Shaq was at his prime, and Yao still thinks he is not as good as Shaq now.


On the frequent melt-down of the Rox in 3Q/4Q, and whether they were problems related to the players or the coaches, Yao Ming thought it is a vicious cycle that the Rox cracked down in critical stretch of the game, and it had become some psychological barriers for the team. He agreed that his young team has yet to learn to be mentally tough to be able to overcome the current symptom.


On media/fans requests that he has to play with aggression, and whether aggressive play would affect his games, Yao Ming said, a certain level of aggressiveness is required on court; but there is a limit to it; he tried to play with aggressiveness on his rebounds and shots but without satisfactory results. He thought that has to come with experience.


On the exact date of his reporting duties to the national team, Yao Ming said it will be after June 20th in Dallas, USA.


When asked what he requires to further polish his skills and whether he would learn the sky hook from Jabber, Yao Ming said he would need everything he could learn to further enhance his game. He thought with his height, he could pick up the sky hook if he wants; but he does not think he needs to learn every good skills provided he has sufficient skills/weaponries to use. He agreed he should further enhance and strengthen his hook shots.


On whether playing computer game would affect his eye-sight or court vision, Yao Ming thought he still have good eye-sight and vision on court.


When asked whether he had plans to take up some new techniques or skills for the new season, Yao Ming said he currently had no such plans; he thought what he requires now is consistency; and he will try to improve his low post game, to make fuller use of his height and body strength; and that he would try to imitate Shaq to use more of his body power and stength to roll over the opponents insteads of trying to dribble/sprint/turn around his opponents.


When asked about his personal assessment of Ha Seung-jin's game, Yao Ming thought Ha is a very powerful player, but he thought he has a stronger lower limb than Ha. He is not sure about Ha' draft position; but he think there had been too many comparison of their games already. and people should not care too much about how a player starts his NBA career, but instead they should focus on how the player grows and his relative position at the end of his NBA careers.


On fans' bashing that Yao Ming only had a height advantage in NBA, Yao Ming's response was a calm and polite one; he thought he is making full use of his height advantage; he said it would be foolish to use a Pentium IV computer as a Pentium II one.


On whether his Counter Strike computer game can help him to play with more aggressiveness on court, Yao Ming's response was a crispy and witty one: I thought I saw Shaq in every of the enemies I killed in a CS game !!!


When asked whether he felt that Rox often lost as Francis was a selfish player and not passing him balls on courts, Yao Ming thought differently. He thought Francis was a great player. Everybody thought Francis plays selfishly. Yao Ming thought so too in his first season. But Yao Ming thought for a player with 20 ppg, 7-8 rpg, 7-8 apg like Francis to have to make sacrifices to change his own style of games just to fit a new player in the team, it is not easy. To him, he thought Francis was playing fantastic in the playoffs, and he does not want fans to continue bashing Francis being a selfish player; in fact he felt Francis was self-less to make that drastic improvement and self sacrifice to his game for the team.

 

I tried, but the moderator deleted my message as soon as he saw the M word

 

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