Yao Now: Rockets center climbing into Shaq-osphere

Didn't see this posted, and I completely agree with Bill's analysis. Also the quotes be Kenny don't seem unreasonable considering the context.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baske...,0,3889745.story?coll=ny-basketball-headlines


YAO NOW

Rockets center climbing into Shaq-osphere

BY KEN BERGER
Newsday Staff Writer

November 20, 2006

Bill Walton first laid eyes on Yao Ming six years ago, at the Sydney Olympics. Like everyone else gaping at the towering basketball prodigy, Walton said, "I was blown away by the potential."

In his fifth season in the NBA, the 7-6 Yao is blowing people away more than ever. He is 11th in the league with 26.4 points per game, the best among centers. With 10.4 rebounds per game and 1.6 blocks, Yao finally is entering the stratosphere of elite big men, at least statistically.

At a time when the center position is in serious decline in a sport that has given us Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon, Yao's only peer, Shaquille O'Neal, will be sidelined for four to six weeks after knee surgery. O'Neal's slow start in defending the Miami Heat's championship, coupled with the inevitable breakdown of his 34-year-old, 315-pound body, have some projecting that Yao, 26, could overtake Shaq as the only dominant center in the NBA.

Some say Yao's time is now.

When fans at the Garden get a glimpse of Yao tonight as the Rockets play the Knicks, they will behold a dominant force and one of the inspiring talents who have made the NBA worth watching again. But according to Walton, league executives and scouts, they will not be watching the best center in the NBA. Not yet. Not as long as Shaq is still employed.

"Yao's numbers already indicate that he is at the top," said Walton, a Hall of Fame center turned astute ESPN analyst. "But he has to learn how to turn statistics into impact and control of the game. Because even at this stage of Shaq's career, Shaq still has more stage presence than any player in the game. And the championships are always going to run through Shaq until he retires."

Ten games into his fifth season, Yao has begun to show signs of developing the dominant characteristics of which Walton speaks. But coming off a season in which he played only 57 games because of injuries, Yao must do more than just stay on the floor. His size, talent, intellect and astounding technique for someone who has faced top-tier competition for only about six years already have him compared to some of the best big men ever.

"It's coming for him," Walton said. "We all want it to come faster, but we're just going to have to patiently enjoy the development and elevation of truly a great force in our world."

The fact that Yao vs. Shaq is even a topic for discussion, given O'Neal's four championship rings, 10 All-Star appearances and enduring status as one of the most feared big men ever, is a sign of how far Yao has come in such a short time.

Walton's willingness to state without hesitation that Yao ultimately will be compared with centers even greater than Shaq is a sign of how difficult his road to greatness will be.

"The five greatest centers in the history of basketball, in chronological order: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal," Walton said. "Of the guys who I saw, those are the best of the best. And that's the standard that Yao Ming will ultimately be measured against."

According to Walton, Yao has faced two distinct disadvantages that great American-born players haven't. First, he has competed against world-class competition on a consistent basis only since 2000, his first appearance on the Chinese Olympic team. Second, he hasn't been surrounded by great teammates the way O'Neal and other all-time greats have, largely because Houston's Tracy McGrady has been so injury-prone.

"All of the luxuries that the other great players have had have eluded him," Walton said.

The impact of these factors has created a drag on some of the technical and emotional aspects of Yao's game, according to an NBA scout who has evaluated him extensively.

"He just has to get that power move and that aggressiveness night in and night out, going after a guy, being more vocal," the scout said. "When he gets the ball and he has a mismatch, it's being able to tell guys, 'Get out, I got this.'"

The Knicks have faced Miami once this season, blowing out the Heat Friday with O'Neal sidelined by his knee injury. Tonight's game at the Garden will be the second matchup with Yao in 11 days for a young big man the Knicks are desperately trying to groom, the enigmatic Eddy Curry.

"As long as Shaq's wearing a uniform," Curry said, "he's the best center in the league."

Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said O'Neal is "still the Godfather of the league, and we'll treat him with that type of respect."

Nets president Rod Thorn, who has seen O'Neal twice this season, said: "When Shaq is healthy and in top-flight condition, he's still the biggest force out there and the toughest guy to deal with. Right now, he just isn't, so it's hard to say."

TNT analyst Kenny Smith, a Queens-born point guard who won back-to-back NBA championships with Olajuwon's Rockets in 1994-95, said of the debate: "Shaq. Not even close. If I had to take one center for one year, I'm taking Shaq without any hesitation ... Yao Ming puts up great numbers this year so far in [10] games, but Shaq is the best center. If you put Tracy McGrady with Shaq, they're a contender."

With few elite 7-footers left in a league that is catering to perimeter scorers, Yao has a lot to overcome in his quest to overtake O'Neal.

"With the decline of the center position, he has his biggest troubles against the small, quick guys," Walton said. "That's the way the game is going."

According to Smith, "The one thing that Yao has to figure out is how to be a defensive presence when the offense doesn't go."

And even at 7-6, from a nation of more than 1.3 billion people, Yao has some formidable shadows to eclipse.

"The sense of competitive greatness - that's the ability to be the best - it's not just based on position," Walton said. "It's not just based on how big you are. It's based on your persona, your soul ... He's come a long way, but he still has the longest of journeys."

Yao vs. Shaq: Statistical breakdown

With Shaquille O'Neal nearing the end of his career, comparisons to Yao Ming are all the rage. But Yao's first four years in the NBA were no match for Shaq's:

FG-FGA Pct. Pts Reb Blk

Yao ('02-06) 1,941-3,705 .524 17.5 8.8 1.9

O'Neal ('92-96) 3,208-5,522 .581 27.2 12.5 2.8

Tale of the tape

Yao Shaq

7-6 Height 7-1

296 Weight 315

26 Age 34

Shanghai, China Birthplace Newark, N.J.

4 All-Star appearances 10

0 Olympic gold medals 1

0 MVP awards 1

0 Rap albums 5

0 NBA titles 4

Compiled by Ken Berger
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/21/sports/YAO.php

Another interesting read with some quotes by Yao that may have no been printed here...

NBA: Yao is learning to stand tallest

Liz Robbins / The New York Times
Published: November 21, 2006

NEW YORK: Yao Ming has a disarming humility about him even as he stands 7 feet 6 inches, the tallest player in the National Basketball Association, trying to grow into the role as the best center in the league.

On Monday night when his Houston Rockets beat the Knicks, 97-90, at Madison Square Garden, the reminder smacked him square in the eye.

When the Knicks' Nate Robinson, the smallest player on the court at barely 5- 9, or 1.75, jumped to block a dunk attempt by Yao in the third quarter, he flung his hand into Yao's right eye. Yao heard no whistle for a foul even as he covered his face in pain and the Knicks scored on a fast break.

"I've been blocked by a 5-3 guy before, so that's not a record," Yao said after the game while he tried to feign indifference. "I don't know who blocked me, because my eye was already closed."

Yao does not have to see the fouls. He has gashes on his arm, forehead and eyelid. But as the Rockets pound the ball into him, Yao is responding.

He answered Robinson's hit by grabbing five rebounds and scoring eight points in the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 26 points. His was an uneven performance - with four turnovers to go with three blocks and nine rebounds. But Tracy McGrady applauded his teammate's effort.

"Throughout the course of the game, I don't think Yao gets the respect he deserves," said McGrady, referring to the officials not calling a foul on Robinson. "If we can get the ball to Yao, one on one, nobody can stop him. He's playing at such a high level."

In his fifth season since the Rockets chose him No. 1 overall in the 2002 draft, Yao is posting career highs in every category, which he deflected with self-effacing wit. "Yeah, everything is up," Yao said before the game. "My scoring, my rebounding, my turnovers."

Averaging 26.4 points (11th in the league), 10.4 rebounds (10th) and 4.0 turnovers (fourth-highest) before Monday, Yao was is aware of his shortcomings. That could be because he often hears and reads about how he has to be meaner and more of a leader, and cut down on his mistakes.

"I read, buy the newspaper, Internet, TVs, videos," he said. "I say, 'This means I'm not good enough, I got to keep working to get better.'"

His coach, Jeff Van Gundy, said he did not understand the criticism.

"I'm trying to figure out why people have a problem with him," Van Gundy said before the game. "They're always trying to say what he's not, that he's not great. I'm baffled by that."

In the Rockets' previous game against the Knicks, a 103-94 home victory, on Nov. 10, Yao had eight turnovers, seven blocked shots and 35 points. "If we had lost, the focus would have been on turnovers - 'Yeah, he can't even win a game when he scores 35' - to run him down," Van Gundy said.

With Shaquille O'Neal of Miami out for six weeks recovering from knee surgery, and Yao having had four games in which he scored at least 33 points, it would seem natural to call him the dominant center in the NBA.

Van Gundy was not ready for that coronation.

"I'd call him the hardest working player in the league," Van Gundy said.

"He's a tremendous ambassador for his country, the game and really how you want to conduct yourself. If you notice, most of his quotes are team oriented. He doesn't refer to himself in the third person, he hasn't given himself a nickname. It's really refreshing."

Yao praised O'Neal. "He is a very special player," Yao said. "In basketball history, there is no second Shaq.

"About me, I just need to learn the skill I need to use. Some part from him, some part from the other centers. I hope I can get his power, his muscles."

Yao will not say he is now the dominant center in the game. "I'm more worried about today and tomorrow," he said.

 

As goes Yao, so will the Rockets.

 

Well, I think it's telling the even Yao and JVG don't say Yao is the best center right now. Clearly he is statistically - but I think it takes more then a few weeks to dethrone the current king. In that respect, I agree with how Yao looks at it.

 

Yao still has the potential to be up there with Chamberlain...that's the amazing thing. At his height, if he does gain the ability to physically dominate other players, plus his skills, he would be devastating. But it's a big if...and we'll have to see if his frame could manage 350 lbs along with the wear and tear of the NBA grind.