The Yao Ming which shows up in the interviews by this Yang Yi often sounds over-confident and somewhat cocky. That's just not the same Yao Ming which we see and hear on other medias. He said Yao would rather sleep than watching that tape. Then Yao would do a long interview with him 3am in the morning after a game which went into OT and Yao was obviously exhaused.
Shaq is going to respect Ming a lot. If you know Shaq, he always respects those who play him straight up and don't complain or b****. Hakeem was one of those and Ming is surely going to be on of them
"The Yao Ming which shows up in the interviews by this Yang Yi often sounds over-confident and somewhat cocky. That's just not the same Yao Ming which we see and hear on other medias. " COuld be the translation, but if it IS real, then we can see why Yao can adjust so fast. He's brutally realistic about where he stands compared to Shaq, even if he doesn't come off so nice. He also gets pretty technical about Shaq's basketball prowess, which further proves that Yao does have a really sharo knowledge of the game. I wish you guys would understand why Yao didn't want to watch the tape. It wasn't so much that he didn't think it was useful, it's just that he wanted to play him his own way, and sleep on it as well. Overconfident? No way. Anyone who knows Shaq is going to be a beast the next time (No more 4 blocks) obviously isn't letting their confidence blind reality.
I would've bet Mo would have a stream of sweat pouring down from his chin during the photo shoot. As for Hakeem, he looks about an inch or so shorter than Mo, but I thought they both were about 6'10" or 6'11". Must be the shoes. LLJ, Good comments. Yao is a realist. We're going ape over this game. I think inside, he knows that a Shaq at full strength just can't be stopped once he gets the ball, but he's about to show Shaq that he'll have to guard Yao next time. Can't wait to see what types of moves Yao has. I also liked the comment by Yao (assuming all this is legit), about why he wasn't going for more post moves. You don't post up Shaq that easily. Yao concentrated on slowing Shaq more than scoring on him after the first few baskets. Hopefully Shaq won't ever get back to the beast he was 2 or 3 years ago, and hopefully Yao will continue to improve and be the next unstoppable force in the paint. Go Yao, Go Rockets!
Boy, you need to take some college English. Look at the whole content, please. Didn't he state (from the translation) his reason for not watching it was that he wanted to give it all regardelss? There needed to be other poorer reason he gave to judge him as being 'cocky'.
I hope Shaq can stay in his prime as two years ago soon. So we can see what these two giants really can do. That will be a fantastic matchup.
Boy, you need to take some college English. Look at the whole content, please. Didn't I state that "The Yao Ming which shows up in the interviews by this Yang Yi often sounds over-confident and somewhat cocky. That's just not the same Yao Ming which we see and hear on other medias." I was not talking about whether he watched that tape or not in particular.
I wounder if Yao thought the tape was all of Shaq's best games...i.e. shows Shaq destroying his opponets...rather than a tape of Divac's best defensive stops on Shaq.
It seems as though that Yao was nervous before the game and really didn't want to watch the tapes for that reason. Too much on his mind. By the way, I love these translations. Much more info than Colin Pine translations.
I know Chinese. I didn't sense any cockiness in his any Chinese interviews. Actually more amusement. It's just like close friends chatting and your wordings would be added with a litte joke all the time.
Because they are real friend, not strictly a professional relationship. The tone in the interview is much more casual if you read it in Chinese. They joke a little about almost everything which you cannot translate. It's like the street talk b/w the gangsters. If you translate the talks into any other languages, the talks sound offensive (to the subjects they are talking about) which are of course not.
I do not feel any part of the interview suggets that Yao is over-confident and cocky. Before the game, Yao would like to take a noon nap to get a good rest for the game, and when the game was over, Yao was excited, staying late and chatting with his close friend. Nothing wrong here.
CaraYip, User, Rocketsfan2003 I agree. May be something was lost in the translation. I do not read Chinese so my impression is based on the English translation. I definitely respect you guys opinions. They are constructive and insightful, unlike that of another dumbas* who replied without even 'looking at the whole content' of my post.
