Yao Ming will get little rest in the off season.. :( Why

I'm a lawyer too and can't help wondering myself. Giving specific performance as a remedy for a contract for personal services that's breached is almost never done. I don't think Yao would ever refuse to play, but at least in America, the CBA would only be able to get money from him. It's very unlikely, if not impossible, for a court here to tell him he had to play, no matter what his contract said.

Who knows what Chinese law is like. They might enforce these things by forcing the parties to perform, with the consequences for not being jail time.

 

arrghh, what are you going to do? This is the type of headache any player from China will bring in the future to their NBA teams. It is just wonderful to pay a guy all this money and then have him go play for another club/team even when he is not needed.

I really hope in the future the NBA would threaten to stop dealing with the CBA/CNT unless they guarantee in writing not to recall their players in the NBA to play back in China except for two events: the World Championship and the Olympics, just like all other international players in the NBA.

It is soo sad that these things happen and bring these ill feelings towards the CNT, and sometimes by extension towards Yao Ming, because you KNOW that if he is not dominant from the first game the next season, people will be jumping on him and saying that he didn't improve his game enough to help McGrady and the Rockets be contenders, and they will blame his lack of development on China.

God man, I had such high hopes that McGrady and Yao would be perfecting that PnR over the summer, and Yao picking up some street moves from playing pick up basketball with Francis/Cat/NVE/Cassell/Smith and other guys in Houston, and having him improve his stamina over the summer so he can stay on the court for longer durations.

I guess all that is a bit too much to ask from a guy who is about to become a max player

 

Anyone know the length of the contract Yao has with the CNT? What if, when this contract expires, Yao doesn't sign it again? That conceivably would allow him rest during the off-season (or signed a revised contract that requires him to play for the World Championship and Olympics only?)

 

Shortsighted officials can't see what yao can bring to them if he can get some rest and training to win an NBA championship. Obviously, national pride is more important than personal success.

But is it one of the condition where the CBA would let yao join the NBA?

 

What's the ****ing point of having Yao destroy Asian teams and risk injury and tire himself out, and not having a chance to rest and work on his game? So Chinese National Team can say "we're the best in Asia!"

Give the man a break. God damn it.

 

From what I recall, they didn't suffer from fatigue.

 

All that talk from Yao Ming about how good Amare got from working out in the USA during the summer etc....and that Yao feels this would be good for him. UGH!

 

This is horrible news....just horrible. Although I commend him for fullfiling his committments, somtimes, you just have to say

HELL NO!!!!!

 

well in defense of Yao I guess its not really his choice weather or not he goes back or not. Hopefully he gets some time to work on his endurance and maybe refine one or two post moves during this off-season. I am also hoping that he and T-mac can work on that pick and roll during training camp to get it perfected.

 

I think the Chinese will tell Yao that he will be treated like Wang if he doesn't keep his commitments to the National team.
I hope the Rockets will try to workout a compromise which would let him participate in the Asian Games but also let him get a month or two's rest as well in the US but that seems highly unlikely unfortunately.

 

I think he regresses by going to play against lesser competition. You'll see him struggle in the first quarter of the NBA season, people will bash him, then he'll come around and play well once he readjusts to NBA competition.

 

As I said in another thread, I really hope this contuining schedule doesn't shorten his overall pro career. Guys that big have a hard enough time keeping healthy.

 

This is what we signed up for when we drafted Yao. We have no room to argue. The rockets knew there would be international obligations and knew conflicts would eventually occur.

The fact remains Yao is probably shortening his NBA career by competing every summer and will probably not reach his full NBA potential by not utilizing his offseason's to improve his game and condition himself for the rigors of a typical NBA season. We just have to live with it.

 

What a sentence.

 

The irony is I vividly remember local radio personalities arguing not whether Yao is a "good player" that can benefit the Rockets, but rather whether or not dealing with China and the difficulties that would arise between the Rockets and the CBA was "Worth the risk".

I used to laugh off that sentiment, and now three years in, I am starting to wonder if NBA teams will EVER again risk dealing with China. They are screwing over a team that has been nothing but gracious and cooperative with their demands, now imagine if they were deling with a Mark Cuban type who publicly stated that he didn't want his "highly-paid" foreign players to go and risk injury playing in another competition and employer that wasn't writing their checks.

The problem is: what can the Rockets do about it? If they are more outspoken about their opposition to Yao playing in ANY competition besides the World Championships and the Olympics, could the CBA decide to refuse Yao's services to the Rockets, despite him being under contract with the team? Would they actually do that, and if so, would Yao cooperate?

The weird thing is that Mark Berman of Fox 26 has just said that the CBA released a statement or something saying that "Yao is expected" to report to China and prepare for the Asian games. Berman was saying that he didn't understand "why" the CBA came out publicly with this statement, and so I was thinking what possible motives did the CBA have for making such a public "demand" basically for Yao to come back to China soon...

Could it be that the CBA has encountered resistance from Yao and have sensed that he might be reluctant to go back and practice/play in those game (based on some of Yao's public statements that he has made, which clearly show he is interested in resting/relaxing this summer for a while, while enhancing his skills/endurance with training), and therefore they decided to basically "make it clear" for all parties (especially Yao) that Yao Ming is expected to be back in China, "period!".

That's just how I see it, and I think that is what Berman was alluding to when he was questioning why the CBA came out with a public statement saying that Yao is "Expected" back in China to prepare for the Asian games.

 

Screw the CBA. They're a bunch of morons if they think that Yao will be helping their chances when he goes back to practice with a bunch of complete losers who couldn't beat any US highschool JV GIRLs team on a given day.

The CBA is incredibly shortsighted. Not only will they NOT medal by burning Yao out, they will forever screw themselves by making NBA teams hesitant about dealing with such BS in the future, when/if another Chinese prospect comes along.

Screw Chinese basketball. I hope they embarass themselves if this is the way they're gonna behave.

 

My first assumption was that Yao going to China is bad. I still think that he will miss practicing with NBA quality players and that is the bad side. Ultimately the Yao going to China might be a PR move. Yao may not play many minutes and may be working on an NBA workout plan while he is in China.

Basically, there are ways of doing things. We just have to deal in China's terms. If they want him back? Fine, just let him do his workouts that the Rockets assign him. Playing for China is important, yes, but his success in the NBA is on a world scale. It would be better for China if Yao wins an NBA championship than if Yao wins an Asian Games trophy. They must know this or the Rockets officials can help the Chinese team see things from the NBA eye. We just have to let the Chinese national team know that it is in their best interest to work with the Rockets.

 

Yao is going to honor his commitments and considers it an honor to represent his nation. None of this was obscurred on draft day.

Given that the die was cast long ago, what I find curious is that the opinions here range from "he should be getting rest to avoid pre-mature injury" to "he needs to be here to work on his game". Which is it? Should he rest or should he work on his game? Maybe we are all over-personalizing the situation.

 

Going to China will accomplish neither - Yao won't get rest, and he won't improve his game competing against vastly inferior players.

 

BUT, he will be keeping up his part of the deal where he's expected to fulfill his commitments to the Chinese National Team, this is not new news, this is THREE years running now. Just b/c YAO himself said he WANTED to chill this offseason, doesn't mean the CNT said they wanted him to.

I think everyone just got excited to hear that Yao wanted to rest, so we thought, "wow, he's gonna get to chill" as if the report was straight from the CNT. Maybe I misread the report, but this is no suprise to me. Yao wants to rest, but he has obligations.