He is slow and stiff, that is why he gets blocked a lot, and shots all those lay-ups. Dude has like a six inch max vertigo, he's going to keep on getting blocked even if you put ron artests brain into his head.
Ok, I sense what you mean of being soft. To some extend, I dont like Yao's 'softness'. He could dunk under the hoop but chose layups. And his upper body is not strong enough. And his softness to me will be only referring to those two right now. I know Hakeem would not say that to Shaq, but who will be? If we set up Shaq as a standard for judging centers's toughness, I am afraid there is no one is tough but SOFT. Hakeem's team was great by deafeating Suprs(4:2). I STIIL remembered. Many spurs' funs complained Robinson being soft even after he recovered from injury. Robinson got a strong body, but he was just too gentle on the court and he would not even give a complain after being fouled badly. Are you saying this part of him is soft? It is his personality. The same applying to Yao. From Yao's rookie year to presence, we witness Yao's improvement from different aspects. By far, I'd say that Yao is playing tough, dares to challenge any TOUGH guy in the center position and plays better. Is he still soft here? To sum up, he has several weakness, but his overall performance makes me believe he is tough.
And you think Yao will back down if faced with the same situation? Yao didn't back down from Shaq when he was a rookie with a lot less strength or muscle. Yao always step up when facing tough opponents. I just don't get why one has to dunk to show he is not soft. And I don't understand why one has to retaliate to show he is not afraid. To me, that is just childish. Go watch WWE if you want to see fighting, or hockey for that matter.
Yao gets his shot blocked or ball stolen from him several times a game. U dont see this happeing that often to amare or dwight.
This has got to be one of the stupidest threads in recent memory. It's real simple. A while back Charles Barkley was on the Tonight Show and he was talking about Yao Ming. Yao at the time was still relatively new to the league. Barkley said that the other night Yao had kicked Shaq's butt. The audience must have been surprised, because Barkley looked back out into the audience and repeated himself. "He kicked Shaq's butt. Yup, he did." Yao's a nice guy, there's no question about that. But I don't see how anybody who's soft kicks Shaq's butt.
SO??? Do Dwight Howard or Amare Stoudemire demand as much double-teaming or triple teaming as Yao Ming does? If you watch Yao Ming's game, you'll notice alot of time, it would be a second player sneaking up from his back, hitting his hand and stealing the rock or blocking it......
What's more the guy's deaf in one ear. He's at an extra disadvantage when somebody's sneaking up behind him.
try put yao on the trade market and see what happens. lakers will prob trade all their picks avaliable in the next 7 years or so btw u are semi-right in the last paragraph, its because when yao gets doubled in the paint, our 3pt shooters can't make shots in the playoffs.
Yao isnt soft, he is a finesse player. There is a difference. Duncan isnt soft, he is a finesse player too. If he was soft, they wouldn't double team him. Soft is Dirk not pounding in the paint when he is 7 foot tall.
I agree with a lot of things that you said until this statement. No offense, but I have to say what you said there is very ignorant. Yes, you see Asians in the USA who's mostly reserved and not assertive. Why? Simple reasoning tells you that because they are strangers in a new place while adjusting to a new style of life, and also trying to learn a new culture and a new language along the way. Would you behave aggressively under the situation? Just imagine how you would behave under the same situation. I read the Chinese soccer team is notorious for playing aggressively and tackle so hard that it often cause injury to players of the other teams. During a road trip, the players fought on the field with those of the other team three games in a row.
