I don't understand why it always has to degenerate into a discussion of Francis. Yao had a bad game. period. Why can't people acknowledge that without feeling the need to say "but steve suxxx too!!!!111!!!!" So what if he did/does? That has no bearing on the matter. YOF's (and maybe juugie alone on the other end) get so defensive and see everything as a bipolar, Steve vs. Yao paradigm: every criticism of one is an endorsement of the other and vice versa. That's really not the case.
Possibly I misread, but it seemed to me that, of the original 3 responses to this thread, 1 didin;t mention Steve and the other two who did mention Steve did so as a means of taking shots at fans who criticize Steve. Again, I could have misread, but if I didn;t, it would seem to me that the knee jerk responses in question were not on the side you suggest.
What JAG said. The impression I got from reading the initial post is that "Roy" started this thread just to be different and blame Yao. The fact of the matter is that the whole team stunk it up - Yao, Francis, etc. But then several people felt compelled to say stuff like "Well, Yao aint God or he has been just as bad as Francis or blah blah." That is what compelled me to do my first post in this thread. Whether people want to believe me or not, I want to see Francis succeed as a Rocket but it is painfully obvious, it is not going to happen. It is great that we have people like Roc Paint who feel such an undying loyalty to Francis, but I would rather be wanting our team to improve and become a champion. If dealing Francis makes our team better, then so be it.
I don't know who started it either, it's hard to tell sometimes who is kidding and who is being serious, but it inevitably turned into the same old same old.
The definition of a scapegoat is that he plays great and still gets blamed for Yao's poor play. Did anyone play great or coach great that night?
Roy Jones, sorry you were disappointed, but you're in a big crowd right now and I'm not going to bash someone for venting. But FYI Yao's going to have the weight of this franchise on his back very soon. I'm sorry if it set you back $85 + beer, but if you read any papers you may realize Yao's not the NBA MVP yet. But we have a tradition here in Houston, TX. Our centers have to do almost everything - except sell popcorn. Yao's different. He could probably sell popcorn too, but we're waiting on the other stuff. Greatness really. Transcending the position, that kinda thing. In short, we throw Yao the damn keys to the franchise next season and the weight of a metropolis comes down on his head for a decade or so. Glad your down with that.
I went to that game too and I sat very close and I got there very early, Yao did have some warm up before the game and his shots weren't even going in at that time. Steve had little warm up or none, he just stretched his legs a little bit before the game. That probably explains how they had a bad game. Also, i was worried about Steve's attitude, he didn't seem very happy at all, looks like he's got something on his mind.
Dang! you sound like you know everything yet you don't know game stats. For you info, he commited only 2 TOs while STeve and Cat, 7 and 5, respectively.
Yao played poorly, but he has been far more consistent this year than the rest of the team. Not to mention that Dampier was using 2 hands to push him all game. DD
