You should take your own advice....about learning how to read. I never said the NBA is more important than international ball. I said the NBA isn't as important as the Olympics. You seem to be a die-hard basketball fans. Everyone else in the WORLD aren't die hard basketball fans. If you think the majority of the people in the WORLD care more about the NBA (which can have little interest in their Finals if two "boring" teams go) than the WORLD OLYMPIC GAMES then you are kidding yourself. Droves of people don't travel all across the world to attend the NBA Finals, at least not the Finals games that I have been to. Droves of people do travel all across the world to attend the Olympics, at least the games that I went to in Athens.
You people have totally perverted this thread. We're supposed ot be talking about Yao ming's 16 points and 7 rebounds.
Good to hear that Yao has been productive. I wish he wasn't playing in the Olympics but I don't blame him for doing it. Lets just pray that he's healthy for the 2008-2009 season.
Well me personally I would rather see the Rockets win a championship over the U.S. winning Gold. Hell I'd rather see the Rockets get to the 2nd round over the U.S. winning Gold.
Playing for his national team is one's obligation that nothing can be more important than.As to Dirk Nowitzki ,who is always willing to play for his German national team,has gained fame of his national responsebility which is well known among the States and even the whole world.Then ,some chinese officials compare their star yao to dirk.with no eye on the reality, they say that yao has been always injuried not be able to work for the national team while dirk is always healthy enough to work for Germany even missing some games for mavs.So they speculate that yao should learn more from dirk. to be honest,dirk is a great superstar,he deserves the respectation from his German peaple,as well as the mavs fans.But in my opinion, he is obliged to do so,as a citizen of Germany ,dirk should make some contribtions to his country.However,the chinese basketball officials criticized their another star wangzhizhi,who has been in mavs for a while.they ignored the income differences between yao , zhizhi and dirk.zhizhi is not as capable as dirk and yao so that he earned little money,some of which even has been deprived by some crooks.Yao earns 15m from rockets as salary and 16m as advertising paybacks.However,as an american reporter once said ,yao can just retain 2m in his pocket by the end of each year.In other words ,even Luther head is richer than yao.How unbelievable yao is.how unbelievable what the officials do is. Yao's 31m dollars are taken 45 percent by the States government as tax.then the remaining part is taken by other ones,including drinkers ......as well.But yao is incredably tolarating the robbery,How i wish yao can say no to the crimes one day,the same to other poor people who are still under the ***. I suggest that morey buy out yao's present contract and sign him with LLE.Store the money ,which will be given back to yao as salary after yao retire from nba and become rockets coach .They we can clear the cap room for some other good rosters ,like Josh Smith.Yao's damned agent has never taken yao's own interest into account.Yao should also fire his agent ,sign another one or even act as agent himself as arenas does.Yao is the greatest guy in china,yao is always a chinese who like their own country ,but i don't think their love for country should puzzle the rule which tells right from wrong. I would vote for yao in the president campaign, if POSSIBLE?????
You believe that crap ??? No way Big Yao only pockets US$ 2M. That article was written during the time when Big Yao was severely criticized for only donating 500K RMB and US$ 2M for the Sichuan earthquake victims. IMHO, it had to be some propaganda initiated by Team Yao to quiet down the criticism.
No. In terms of a basketball player's legacy, yes the NBA's still the benchmark. And again, I was specifically discussing Yao and how his situation is different.
If anyone really thinks the world as a whole is more interested in the NBA Finals than the 2008 Olympic basketball tournament, then they simply have a US only world view. The Olympic basketball final has not only way more television viewers, but is also considered a world championship everywhere outside the US. In the US, the NBA Final is considered a "world championship" but not one single country in the world outside the US considers it a world championship. It is only considered the domestic championship of the US pro basketball league. Not one other country in the world refers to the NBA champion as the "world champion", they are either calld the NBA champion or the US champion. Even Greg Popovich admitted that calling the Spurs world champions after they won it in 2007 was both wrong and ridiculous. The NBA championship is considered higher than the Spain or Greece championship, but the Spanish or Greek champions do not give declare themselves "world champions". And everywhere outside the US would not recognize any "world champion" from a pro sports club unless the champions of the top leagues played each other. No one outside the US recognizes this "world championship" thing the NBA declares for itself. Every country in the world other than the US considers the Olympics to be a true world basketball championship. The US is the only country on earth that does not and the only country on earth that values an NBA title more. An NBA championship barely even makes a news blip in Europe for example, but an Olympic championship is a HUGE deal. The NBA championship is only considered more important than the Olympic one if you believe that the opinion of 305 million in America outweighs the opinion of 6.4 billion in the rest of the world. Even in China the only country that values the NBA as much as the US does, the Olympics is light years more important.
to sports like swimming, gymnastics, fencing... where there isn't a league like the NFL, NBA, then yes, the olympics mean everything to that sport. that's where those athletes make their names in taht sport. basketball players don't make their names in the olympics; they don't become legends in the olympics; they don't become worldwide phenomenons in the olympics. kobe never played in the olympics until last yr, and guess what? EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD KNOWS HIM. trust me, the NBA championship is not just shown in the us dude. it's shown around the world. the olympics may reach more viewers but that doesn't mean everybody watches the basketball olympics. if anything, people just watch the finals. nobody cares if angola plays china or france plays whoever. if anything, people just want to watch the USA. why? b/c the USA breeds the most NBA talent (kobe, lebron...). i gurantee you the USA will get the most cheers b/c they have the most NBA talent.
You don't seem to get it. This opinion is true only in the US. What you are saying is true for the opinion in the US and nowhere else. There's not a single other nation on the planet that has the same opinion. Yes, every other country in the world values and bases players on things like the World Championship and especially the Olympics MUCH more than the NBA. In Eurobasket is 100 times more important even than an NBA championship. Only one country on earth values the NBA the way America does and that is China. And in China the Olympics tournament coming up is many times more important than what Yao Ming and the Rockets do. Not even close. No one in Europe for example even cares one iota about the NBA. Hardly anyone in Europe has the slightest clue who Kobe Bryant is. But they know Lebron because of the Olympics and World Championships. But guys like Kobe from just the NBA, you could ask 100 people on the street and they would have no freaking clue who they are. You can't just assume that everywhere on earth is exactly like the US, and that is what you are doing and it is in fact culturally lacking and factually wrong. And keep in mind the NBA is the #3 team sport league even in the US.
um, in regards to basketball, no, it's not just america. if yao never made it to the NBA, would I even know about him? if international guys like dirk or manu just played international and olympic basketball, would they be as famous as they are today? AROUND THE WORLD? there's a reason the tmac shoes sell out in asian and phillipines a few years ago when they first are on sale. how did they know tmac? there's a reason kobe brought thousands of fans to his shoe launch 2 years ago in china? he didn't play in teh olympics then. i'm simply talking about BASKETBALL. you're probably mistaking it for other sports like swimming or gymnastic, where I do agree the olympics is their ONLY time to make a name. sports is about making a name for yourself -> making yourself into a legend. for basketball players, you don't do that in the olympics. you do that in the NBA, the best basketbal league in the world.
Regarding China, well I agree because that's basically what I've said. But you don't get it. t_mac1's post is in a thread about Yao Ming and he is placing it the context of how other countries view their basketball players in regard to the best. People in the world don't care about Kobe, huh? They follow Lebron because of his international play? Yeah, right. Sure you follow your league and root for your team, that's what being a fan is all about, but unlike soccer real basketball fans are far more aware of the NBA than any of the other US leagues combined (btw I've never understood how the Super Bowl is such an international draw). I say that respect because there are a lot of non-US people here and elsewhere and they continually show they're aware that the NBA is not the international game and they know that if it was their national teams would still lag behind. Scola's a national hero and he desperately wanted to come here because he'll never know how good he is until he plays in the NBA. That Argentines wouldn't give up their gold medal for Manu's (and hopefully Luis') NBA rings is obvious and completely moot for what Yao's facing now and where Yao fans (I'm one, and a Houston boy) want him to achieve. As a Rox fan I have every right to gripe about some of the things the CNT has forced him to do. But as pryuen has stated, much has changed since Yao was drafted and I think it's to the benefit of us both.
