Anyone still remember when Tmac first joined the Rockets three years ago? He made such comments to the media which impress me the most. Tracy said he think Yao can be a very good player and he think Yao 'can be better than Rik Smits'. My reaction was: Rik who?
DH, I agree with you and I think differentiating between draft hype and real hype is probably a good way to get at it. I think there might also be a separation that can be drawn between real expectations and analyst hype (I'd call it expectation, but there isn't enough substance to what analysts write to call it that). While we can google 10,000 quotes from analysts saying Yao will be a LaRue-level bust, the real expectation was something else. I don't think -- as the analysts now claim -- that it was that he'd be some kind of 25/10 superstar. I think the real expectation was that he could be a very good center. That's something he accomplished some time back. Everything since has just been gravy. This is a good point. I remember that the Chinese fans were always harder than him than the rest of us. I guess what I was referring to there was the intense interest that Chinese fans (and others) pay to Yao.
I remember that Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe liked Yao alot before he played his first NBA game. He's the only one though.
there is no such thing as "real hype" when you draft a high school player, even one as hyped and gifted as Lebron James. it was still a bit of a gamble, even more so considering that Anthony, Wade, and Bosh were also in that same draft who would all still have been a gamble at the first pick. James was more than worthy of his ROY, but he didn't start out with All-Star numbers right away like Duncan, Shaq or Hakeem. but no one could have predicted his sophomore explosion. to date he has had the fastest development of any high schooler drafted into the league, surpassing KG, Amare and even Moses Malone (although he started in the ABA).
Okay... I'll grant you that. But there was certainly no question about Hakeem, Shaq, Ewing, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, etc. Everyone knows that the quality of the draft has diminished significantly. The first pick is no longer guaranteed to have an impact on your team immediately. If fact this has become the exception. That wasn't always the case. But with that notion comes the idea of "draft hype", which is purely artificial and meant to generate excitement. It gives NBA fans something to talk about during the offseason. But when the chips are down and the season starts, no one excepts rookies to make a difference. Where's all the hype for Andrea Bargnani now? I would argue that if he becomes a 20/10 guy 5 years from now, people will be SURPRISED.
If my memory serves me correct, Ginobily was drafted the same year as Yao, though of course nobody knew him back then and no one would select him in first round. Anyway, my best expectation of Yao was 20pts/10rbs at that time. Obviously he was already beyond my hype last year. I think Adidas should have signed Yao for their commercials" Impossible is nothing"
I bet Bull's fans would die to have Yao over Jwilliams now. With the talent they have, they'd have a ring a year or two from now if Yao was on their squad.
2002 draft notable players: Yao Ming Amare Stoudemire Mike Dunleavy Drew Gooden Nene Chris Wilcox Caron Butler Tayshaun Prince Nenad Kristic Carlos Boozer (36th pick) That's it in the two rounds. And Yao, Amare and Boozer are the only 'star' players as of now. Of these players, who would you have chosen abover others?
Yao was a very raw player coming out of China, but the size and the skills he possessed made him a can't miss prospect. Big men are usually drafted on potential, and it's very rare nowadays to see a big man or anyone for that matter become a force in their first couple of years in the league. The most impressive basketball trait that Yao possesses is not his physical talent. It is his unselfishness and his willingness and drive to improve his game with the intent of helping his team win ballgames. Watching that tape of Jerry West talking about Yao Ming's game right before he was drafted just helps you understand how much Yao has developed as a player and a person. West seemed only impressed with Yao as a shooter from outside of the lane. Everything else about his game(defense, inside scoring, post moves, footwork) was questionable, and look at where his hard work has gotten him now. I don't have to tell you guys what kind of player he has molded himself into. Again, Yao was drafted on potential. The expectations for him coming in to the league were way too high. There were too many adjustments for him to make coming over from a different country to play against competition 5 times tougher than he was used to. Yao's will to succede is what has gotten him where he is today, and I don't expect his improvement to stop any time soon. The sky is the limit for him. Glad he is on our team.
Regarding guys that I remember as being extremely high on Yao before he entered the league were Ryan, Bill Walton, and Rick Barry. As for the whole hype issue, I think the hype was more along the lines of being a curiosity hype than anything else. A 7'6" guy from China, I don't think a whole lot of people thought that he was going to set the NBA on fire. It was more like you never seen a guy like him before, and it got a lot of people talking.
OK, guys. Can you all talk about what were your predictions/thoughts on Yao around the time he was drafted by Rockets ? Did you see current Yao coming ? Honestly, I did not. But I'm very happy with him right now. Someone may start a poll on this.
History of Yao: 2002: Yao Ming sucks donkey balls. His coordination is so poor that he can't run and chew gum at the same time. 2006 (After Yao has averaged 26/11 in a long stretch and widely regarded as the best center in NBA): Yao Ming still sucks. He can't jump over 3 defenders and then do a 720 windmill dunk. It's the most unimpressive and least dominant 26/11 we have ever seen. 2012 (After Yao has won 3 rings as a Houston Rocket): Yao Ming still sucks. He can't cure cancer. A 7'6" should have been able to do more for mankind than only playing basketball.
haha...so true, so true. But who watches TNT for analysis, anyway? I like the entertainment factor. Anytime you have a chance of watching Barkley make an ass of himself one way or another, it can be entertaining.
I only expect him to be 19/9, never thought he could score more than 20 on average. Even at 19/9, he is worth of the #1 pick given his competition in that weak draft. Of course, if he only gets 19/9, and suppose I know Amare will do well later on, I might regret the #1 pick, but at the time of the draft, nobody thought Amare was #1. So under any circumstances, Yao would be picked #1.
But drafts are always calcuated risks just ask the Rockets about picking Ralph Sampson over Michael Jordan and Portland about picking Sam Bowie over Jordan. It seems obvious now but given where those players were at coming out of college Sampson was the consensus #1 choice and Bowie and Jordan were close. Yao was a gamble but that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of hype for him. As ESPN wrote:"The Rockets surprised no one by making Chinese center Yao Ming the first pick of the 2002 NBA draft Wednesday night, " If conventional wisdom had been against Yao then it would've been a surprise pick since conventional wisdom would've been pick Jay Williams and trade or trade the first pick. Anyway at the time the Rox weren't in dire need of a big man since Cato was still thought to have a lot of promise then. As someone else pointed out that draft class also produced notables like Boozer and Tayshaun Prince. Anyway you're writing with hindsight. No one knows for sure what's going to happen with a draft class until they start playing. A top pick could be the next Jordan or die before playing a game like Len Bias. Yao was the obvious number one pick because many people expected him to be good. If most people didn't then he wouldn't have been. Given the enormous attention paid to Yao at the time there was anything but underhype. Yao wasn't a surprise pick. If the Rox had picked him and most people went "HUH?" that would've been underhype. And there were good reasons, that were debated here on CF.net, for using the #1 pick for trade but the overall belief was that Yao was a good gamble. I beleive there is some racism but this is a pretty weak argument. So few people play in the NBA that its not even worth considering the impact of being a professional baseketball player on job statistics. Since Yao what sort of wave of Asian players has their been? To my knowledge only one and that's a Japanese guy playing in the developmental league. Prior to Yao there already were several European players coming into the league. Most people cite them as far more of a threat to home grown American b-ballers than Asian players. Barkley says some stupid things but I will give him enough credit to not look at Yao as a threat to African American jobs. Barkley's anti-Yao because he's a loud mouth and he likes the attention and Yao all of the hype around Yao makes him a big target for a lout like Barkley. And again that draft was stronger than you think, that is unless you consider Boozer and Prince busts also. Anyway in 2002 there is no way to know how that draft class will do for sure. Finally since people are posting articles to paint the picture that everyone was against Yao here's an article from ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/tracker/player?playerId=18333 That sounds pretty positive to me. It even acknowledges the draft "buzz" surrounding Yao. It doesn't cite Barkley or some guy from Chicago saying Yao is going to be a bust and it supports that conventional wisdom then was that Yao was likely to be good and deserving of either #1 or #2 spot in the draft.
In that video Jerry West mentions how good Yao's footwork is. Although he does it by talking about how European team do skills drills. He might've mistakenly thought that Yao had played in the Euro leagues.
