Maybe we should tell Team Yao: Yao Ming needs a psychologist. The reasons: 1) Yao Ming is not born with mental toughness. 2) Yao Ming’s life and career is easy and without hardship. 3) Yao Ming hasn’t recovered from his NBA cultural shocks as well as general cultural shocks. 4) Yao Ming needs to align his mind and body. 5) Yao Ming is demanded as a superstar not a mediocre basketball player. 6) To change from ordinary to extraordinary requires either time or professional help. We fans can’t stand the excruciating wait. Andre Agassi has set a precedent. His sports psychologist is Jim Loehr.
no miami has some valid points (i actually used to live around there too), but here's what he and many others have not considered. yao's career has been anything but easy. he's had to fight expectations, scrutiny, and fatigue every step of his career. he's a really talk skinny guy and his coordination, strength, and disposition are natually weaker. i've said this before and i'll say it again. nothing beats a schnauzer. and also, when yao first entered the CBA he couldn't dominate either. but in time both his physical and mental toughness caught up to the compeition. but the thing about potential is that it's limited to your competition. in China yao couldn't grasp the next leve. i think he perfectly knows what the next level is now, and you have to give his body and mind time to catch up. rick ankiel, brock huard, those guys that could have used sports psychologist, not yao. he knows what he's doing, we just need to give him more time.
i don't need to. you read the board and very few people are willing to wait. tough luck for them, nothing will speed up Yao's development besides experience. me i'm already looking forward to next season.
Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus Sorry, but the temptation of seeing my post interpreted, like all the others, was too strong.
I don't know his mental state, but I do think he need to get much tougher to reach his potential. Falling down on the court in three consecutive possesion is pathefic for a GIANT who is argubaly one of the biggest men in planets.
Hi Macbeth: I agree that it sounds a great promises. It perhaps have no result but there will be no ludicrous result. The post is just a thought.
Since you're answering all the questions on this thread, what do you say you pay for the psychologist? In all seriousness, don't try to change a person just because others in the same field of skill are bullies or exort the "mental toughness" you say Yao doesn't have. It's like me telling you that since all posts on this BBS are good, you should see a teacher to show you how to post. You wouldn't like that, now, would you?
Physically, I thought Yao did a great job and wasn't soft, and I say that judging from his performance against shaq in the playoff, which everyone says is the most physical basketball played on the planet He was more tired then soft, it happens when u have to battle shaq for the whole week and shaq didn't have a good series. I would say it was a wash. HOw else out there can give shaq an average SERies?? Mentally, Yao never shown he soft. He made many important basket down the stretch, and he never hesitate to shoot when he feels like that is the best option.. (that is, when he not looking to pass) I don't think it is fair to say someone soft just because he doesn't showboat or show an EXCess of emotion. The so called Tough Guy image is so overrated and inaccurate. Jacking up bad shots in untimely situation doesn't mean someone is confident.. it is just stupid.. looking for pass doesn't mean one is reluctant to shoot... not bullying people don't mean he's soft. Yao has shown nothing to show he's soft. INexperience yes. Bad habit yes, like how he always bring the ball too low and get stripped. But not soft. People who say yao soft now must be the same people who complain Tim Duncan's soft. Just because tim play fundamentally and doesn't show too much emotion. In short, if you want to complain and criticize yao. NO problem with that.. just point out some concrete. Like I say b4 the series... it would be about Kobe, and he was great and of course... malone somehow crawled out of his grave.
Do some research before you try to post something like this. Yao's career has been bumpy for a player at his level. Even when he was in CBA, he was dominated early on before he became the dominate one there. What about the 0-pt debut in Indiana? That isn't some hardship? He had plenty of downs in the first 2 seasons. Sure he didn't go through what B. Wallace did, but so what, either did many of the greats.
I don't think mental toughness is a quality of bullies. Bullies in fact are always cowards. When I said mental toughness I was really thinking John Rambo Sylvester Stallone portraited, Larry Bird when his face bounced a few times on the basket court floor to save a ball, and Andre Agassi who bravely comes out of his debacle.
Perfect post yipengzhao. I think the expectations are too high for him right now. The funny thing is that before Yao I think we all wanted a big guy that could score 18 pts, 10 rebs and still be able to get a block or two a game. I know I thought with that, along with our back court we would be a playoff team to reckon with. Now that we have that, it's not good enough to alot of people. I think the expectations of being the 1st pick overall coupled with the hype has clouded alot of Houston fans' feelings about him. Ask any real NBA mind, they will all say he is going to be a monster in the near future.
That was when we, and most of the media and fans, thought we had the best backcourt combo in the league (or atleast tops). When Yao was drafted, Cuttino was just coming off a career year (borderline all star) and Steve was an allstar. So we thought if we can get a big man that can clean up the boards and post up every now and then, we'd be good. We were expecting a 18 - 10 from a COMPLIMENT player. The we won the first pick in the lottery and drafted a FRANCHISE player. We scrapped the whole guard orientated system and went back to inside out. That's when we start feeling that 18 -10 just isn't gonna cut it from our best player. Especially since Cuttino went from borderline all star to a bad ROLE player and Steve went from an all star to an overpaid star.
Canoner2002, When I say his career "easy", I mean from an ordinary basketball player became a world-famous NBA player, at least he didn't experienced what Wang Zhizhi had. When I say his life "easy", I mean he had never lived in the ghetto.
Yao wasn't ever ordinary. How could he being that tall? I don't know what you mean. How about the greats, can you gave me one who went through less bumpy roads and fewer cultural shocks than Yao? Sabonis have never lived in the ghetto, neither did many super stars in the world. Believe me, even Jordan cannot match the worldwide popularity of some soccer stars. Bottomline, living in the ghetto is not a necessary step to success.
