Yao Ming: Our 3 Rookies Are Qualified To Play in the Rookie Challenge

pryuen · Jan 29, 2008

Read the following very long but interesting article from Wang Meng of Titan Sports, where he wrote detailedly about Carl Landry, Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola.

3 hours of work on the translation.

Just want to share it with you guys.

ENJOY !!!

http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2008-01-28/16213448119.shtml

http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2008-01-28/16213448120.shtml

http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2008-01-28/16213448121.shtml

Reporter Wang Meng reports from Portland

Portland Trailblazers is the youngest team in the entire NBA league. Most of the players on their roster are young players all born after 1980. And hanging on the outer wall of the Rose Garden stadium is a king-size poster of Greg Oden, who was born in 1988, and on the poster there were a slogan “Worth Waiting For”. This is an amazing group of young players of great potential, illuminating with youth, energy and athletism that added several years of age more for no reasons onto Yao Ming who was born in 1980. Looking into a roster with their names and year of birth, Yao Ming murmured: “Geeez, normally speaking, I should not be considered old. But comparing with them, I feel like I am already as old as Uncle Mutombo.”

But Yao Ming simply just needs not look towards the other side of the court, because at his side, a group of players of youth and energy had already emerged. Carl Landry, born in 1983 and Aaron Brooks, born in 1985 already let him sigh: “It is really nice to be so young.”

So as the Houston Rockets were still tangling and battling with the Portland Trailblazers in the fourth quarter, plagued with foul troubles, Yao Ming was just on-looking from the bench, and watching the 3 rookies closing out the game. When the final whistle blown (signifying the end of the game), Yao Ming stood up from the bench, clapped hands, applauded and saluted the 3 rookies. Deke Mutombo, who was standing by him, was even more exuberated, and showed his joy in a more intense way. He stretched out his arms to grab the head of Carl Landry, used his big palm and sort of mashed up his nose and face, and almost knocked him off onto the ground.

And after the changing room was open for the media, Yao Ming sort of shouted to the swarming reporters: “Hey listen guys. You’d better use the tag line So Young So Good for your headline tomorrow.”

And right after his bath, Carl Landry walked in and was immediately encircled by the reporters. He waved and gestured with his hands and said: “Excuse me. Can I put on my clothes first?” And before any reaction from the reporters, Yao Ming shouted from the back of the room: “Forget about your clothes. You must talk with them. You will be on the front pages tomorrow. Speak well.”

Carl Landry was very obedient, and immediately started to address the media: “Now we can start.” After that, Yao Ming reminded him: “Don’t forget about telling them our dinners.” Carl Landry immediately stopped on his subject matters and started telling the reporters about the dinners. “Yao Ming and Uncle Mutombo frequently took us out for dinners, and they foot the bills out of their own pockets for us. We all feel good about this, and this also brings me good luck.” Seeing that Carl Landry was so obedient, Yao Ming smilingly nod his head in approval, felt satisfied, and turned around to leave.

So Yao Ming left (the changing room) but Uncle Mutombo was still there. Carl Landry had said before that Mutombo was like a father and a teacher to him. After he joined the Rockets, Mutombo not only taught him how to play and prepare for his games, he also taught Carl Landry how to dress (properly). Uncle Mutombo pumped his chest and said proudly: “Of course! After he arrived, I led him to the tailor and chose several business suits for him. Now that it seems he slowly knew how to dress up himself, I felt very gratified. He is just like my own child. I must (teach him all I know and) leave him with all my inheritance. Ha Ha Ha.”

While he was saying all these, Carl Landry had finished changing his clothes and ready to leave. Uncle Mutombo stopped him and shouted: “How can you dress like this? Did you forget what I taught you? How can you be this scrappy? Tug your shirt back into the pant quick. You played superb tonight, and later on in the post-game press conference, the reporters will set their sights on you, and so will all the fans. You can’t dress such casual.”

In front of Uncle Mutombo, Carl Landry did not have any temperament. He immediately tugged his shirt back into his pants, fasten the buttons on his business suit , and sheepishly followed Mutombo out of the changing room. This young big man under the nurture of both Yao Ming and Deke Mutombo is rapidly growing and maturing. And every time he looks at Carl Landry, Yao Ming will happily think to himself: “Finally I’ve found my suitable back-up.”

(Outside of the changing room) Rick Adelman showed up hand in hand with his 2 grand daughters. Rick Adelman pointed to Yao Ming and said to one of his grand daughters: “The jersey you wear belongs to him. And standing behind him is the fabulous Mutombo.” Yao Ming turned around and shouted to Deke Mutombo: “Don’t scare the children!” After that, Rick Adelman pointed to Carl Landry who was standing behind Mutombo and said: “Go and say hi to him. He is the star of tonight’s game.”

Carl Landry smiled shyly, hiding at the back of Yao Ming and Mutombo.

Aaron Brooks’ small shoulders also suffered mauling from various veterans. Everyone from Luther Head to Bonzi Wells all howled and chest bumped with Aaron Brooks. In particular, Bonzi Wells, with a big towel wrapped around his head, was just like a gangster, and almost bumped Aaron Brooks onto the ground.

Life was extremely good for Aaron Brooks on this particular road trip, as both the cities of Seattle and Portland were closely related to him and (most happy of all was) the Rockets won in both games. For the game versus the Seattle Supersonics, Aaron Brooks had bought around 100 tickets and gifted them to his friends and relatives. His family is in Seattle, and he studied high school there in Seattle too. Learning that he was coming to town, all his friends and relatives asked to come to support him and to see him play. So he spent quite a lot of money for that 100 tickets.

Aaron Brooks studied university in Portland. The basketball team from the University of Oregon is the beloved team of this city. And even on the day of the competition between the Houston Rockets with the Portland Trailblazers, the headlines of the sport pages of the local newspapers were still those of University of Oregon. The mascot of the team of University of Oregon is a duck. So after his arrival into Portland, Yao Ming learned about this, and he suddenly remembered that one of the birthday gifts that Carl Landry received from the fans were written with bold typeface: “You are our most loved duck.”

Yao Ming did not bother to explain the implicit meaning (of duck) to Aaron Brooks, but just held a hand over his mouth, and smiled wickedly as he watched Aaron Brooks surrounded by the reporters from afar.

Aaron Brooks was too familiar with Portland; Situated in the downtown area, there were these 2 Japanese fashion outlets. The shops were not very big, but they sold some very interesting stuff there, and they also had some small quantity of sport shoes of limited versions. Aaron Brooks used to frequent these 2 shops (when he was studying university here). So this time, upon visiting Portland, it was no exception. So sported on his jacket of the University of Oregon and donned on his head a cap with the Rockets’ logo, he sneaked out of the hotel during rest break around noon to visit the Japanese shops. He pulled out a pack of dollar bills, and bought for himself a pair of those limited version sports shoes.

(Unlike the case in Seattle) in Portland, he did not have to buy too many tickets. He said: “Only 2 of my friends bothered to come. Maybe people here are no longer interested in seeing me play. Ha Ha Ha, but I really don’t mind.” But compared to the game with Seattle Supersonics, Aaron Brooks’ performance in the game with the Portland Trailblazers was much better. He played the full 12 minutes of the 4th quarter in the game with Portland Trailblazers. And he got heap of praises from Rick Adelman. “Just him alone, we are breaking the zone press of the opponents. He is playing better and better in every game.”

After the win over the Portland Trailblazers, Aaron Brooks led his 2 friends to tour the players’ changing room. He pointed to Yao Ming and introduced him to his friends: “This is Yao Ming who I pass balls to. Hey, Yao, can you join my friends in a photo?”

Of course, the Houston Rockets did not just have 2 rookies, but the appearance and histrionics of Luis Scola always let people forget about his rookie status. And every time when we mentioned about this subject matter, Yao Ming would start to crack a joke about Luis Scola. “He is a rookie that does not fit the bill of a rookie. Just look at him. That brazen beard. His vicissitudes. He does not look like a rookie at all. Even when the veterans are playing around with the rookies, they seldom bother to bully him, except maybe Deke Mutombo. So the oldest rookie matched up with the oldest player. And he only listens to and obeys Uncle Mutombo.”

So this season has half gone, and no one in the Rockets had bullied Luis Scola. On their way back from Austin to Houston on the team bus, while Carl Landry was sitting and holding the ice bucket and passing drinks to the more senior players, and at the same time had to wait for the seniors to dump the bottles back into the ice bucket, Luis Scola was snoring and asleep.

And in Dallas, when all the seniors cheerfully kicked basketballs onto the spectators’ stands, they shouted to the rookies to run up the stands to retrieve the basketballs to return to them, and then the seniors would kick the basketballs onto the spectators’ stands again. Luis Scola was calling from his cell phone when Mike James yelled at him, asking him to join Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks to pick up the basketballs. But Luis Scola just stood there, stared him back with doubts on his face, and was motionless.

So, for Luis Scola, the season had half gone, and this time round, he received some good news; he will be invited to participate in the Rookies Challenge in the NBA All Stars. But Luis Scola was consistently conservative and low profile. When the reporters were enquiring him on this, he just shook his head and said: “There is no announcement yet. Let’s wait for the announcement, and then we can talk about it.”

Maybe due to Luis Scola likes to keep a low profile of himself, it seemed he has double personality; once he played on court, he roared; he turned around, and he threw elbows. Yao Ming exclaimed: “What kind of a rookie is he?” And actually Luis Scola is older than Yao Ming; he was born on April 30, 1980.

So as he watched this young group of the Rockets growing and maturing, Yao Ming was grinning happily from ear to ear. He said: “These 3 rookies of us are all fully qualified to participate in the Rookies Challenge in the NBA All Stars. They have been playing awesome. "
Click to expand...

DaDakota · Jan 29, 2008

Yep,

Now it is time for them to take over the starters spots from Alston and Hayes.

DD

Seth · Jan 29, 2008

I would like to ask the mods to change this thread title, it makes you misunderstand the content.

"Yao Ming: Our 3 Rookies Are Qualified To Play in the Rokie Challenge" should be.

pryuen · Jan 29, 2008

Seth said:

I would like to ask the mods to change this thread title, it makes you misunderstand the content.

"Yao Ming: Our 3 Rookies Are Qualified To Play in the Rokie Challenge" should be.
Click to expand...

Well, I've tried to use that title.....but just too long. And actually everyone knows that only Yao Ming so far has started and played in All Stars as a rookie. Every good rookie only plays in the Rookie Challenge. So that's fully understood and implied that if they are to play in the All Stars, the 3 of them will play in the Rookie Challenge.

pollaxt · Jan 29, 2008

Thanks for your work, pryuen.

"Don't scare the children!"

Good stuff.

exiaol · Jan 29, 2008

Thanks for sharing. I hope Landry can learn as much for Deke as possible.

poprocks · Jan 29, 2008

exiaol said:

Thanks for sharing. I hope Landry can learn as much for Deke as possible.
Click to expand...

Especially how to swing those elbows! lol

jason2 · Jan 29, 2008

thanks! 3 hours work !!! really appreciated!

MyEyesSee · Jan 29, 2008

Another great job, Pryuen. Thanks for all your hard work. You're da man! I hope you plan to cover the Olympics too!

Serg300 · Jan 29, 2008

poprocks said:

Especially how to swing those elbows! lol
Click to expand...

I saw him swing them against the j*zz...but not enough.

TheNewLight · Jan 29, 2008

Serg300 said:

I saw him swing them against the j*zz...but not enough.
Click to expand...

Uncle Mutumbo. That's awesome.

Trip · Jan 29, 2008

Thanks a lot for the translation!

I can't see why Landry and Brooks should be named to the game though. They've both only gotten playing time for less than a month and have not put up monstrous numbers. While we all know the impact they've brought to the team, the Rookie Challenge is mostly based off of individual performances, and their stats, while solid, don't really qualify them...

JeopardE · Jan 29, 2008

One of the better Sina articles I've seen around here. I love how they paint the picture of Mutombo as a father figure on the team, and it's nice to see how much love and attention Landry is getting from the two big men.

pryuen · Jan 29, 2008

JeopardE said:

One of the better Sina articles I've seen around here. I love how they paint the picture of Mutombo as a father figure on the team, and it's nice to see how much love and attention Landry is getting from the two big men.
Click to expand...

This is not a sina.com article. Wang Meng works for Titan Sports. Sina.com just publishes the article from Titan Sports.

In the past, Titan Sports hosted its web at Tom.com, but recently tom.com does not publish articles from Titan Sports anymore, and that designated website of Titan Sports was gone.

Forums

Yao Ming: Our 3 Rookies Are Qualified To Play in the Rookie Challenge

pryuen Contributing Member

DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!
Supporting Member

Seth Member

pryuen Contributing Member

pollaxt Contributing Member

exiaol Contributing Member

poprocks Member

jason2 Member

MyEyesSee Member

Serg300 Member

TheNewLight Member

Trip Member

JeopardE Contributing Member

pryuen Contributing Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!

Yao Ming: Our 3 Rookies Are Qualified To Play in the Rookie Challenge

pryuen Contributing Member

DaDakota If you want to know, just ask! Supporting Member

Seth Member

pryuen Contributing Member

pollaxt Contributing Member

exiaol Contributing Member

poprocks Member

jason2 Member

MyEyesSee Member

Serg300 Member

TheNewLight Member

Trip Member

JeopardE Contributing Member

pryuen Contributing Member

Share This Page

DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!
Supporting Member