This thread is absolutely pointless. Yao Ming has tremendous pride in his country and considers it a MUCH greater honor to play for his country than to play in the NBA. We are renting Yao, he belongs to China. If anything, Yao would quit the NBA 100 times before he quit the Chinese team.
I hate to say it, but a lot of Rockets fans would be happier if Yao could take the summer off. That includes me. Consider how skeletal and cadaverous Yao looked during the regular season. Then he gets injured and boom, he starts to put on weight again. This year it's the Olympics. Hopefully in future years Yao can just do light duty with the Chinese National Team doing demonstration and good will games.
I wish he would just carry the flag or light the flame....and that should be the end of burning the candle at both ends.This is beyond idiotic now and fully illustrates that the Chinese Govt. is willing to grind him into PR meat without any regard for his career.Yao's been a great ambassador,but his game is never going to get back to where it was.Big man issues with feet are well documented and need to be heeded....sickening.I'm tired of this crap.Rushing him back to play ! C'mon! No more. I know Yao is as patriotic as most of us and wants to play but I sure would like to see his contract.....It would be interesting to say the least.
This isn't true, right? China subsides US economy with billions of dollars, and NBA also earn millions from China because of Yao. Simply you hand him the money, don't mean you totally own him. How many percentage in that MILLIONS indirectly comes from Yao himself is a good question.
I think he is not going to retire until or unless the chinese national team win a gold medal, after then he can really put most of his focus into making it into the final and winning a nba championship .
It should be his decision just like anyone else to play for his national team just like anyone else. I get the feeling he really wants to play for his national team but i also get the feeling that he would get pressured into playing whether he wants to or not. I highly doubt he plays 82 games a season and those extra few international games are hurting him. If we would have advanced in the playoffs each season that would have amounted to more games than he plays internationally.
Playing for the Chinese team is like playing for the clippers. Because realistically they have no chance of being in contention for a metal.
Lets not forget that even if Yao were to never play another NBA game he would still retire very well off and could still make tons of money doing endorsements.
Wow!!! Do they have cookies also?!?! Sensitive much are we? I said China, not Chinese. Seriously, some of you overreact much?
I don't understand why players catch all this flack for their contracts. I wouldn't be mad at Yao if he tanked it and never played more than 30 games a season. It isn't his fault Les decided to pay him all of that money. They're an investment and if it doesn't pay off you don't get mad at the investment you get mad at the person who made the bad investment.
it's not that. it's that his injuries can be prevented if he doesn't play for china too much. houston is the one investing their money on him to help them win. houston expects him to be fully prepared and do anything possible to help the team. with china, yao will never be 100% dedicated to this organization, the organization that is spending $17 million on him.
I don't believe that! He's done plenty for the national team as well as the Rockets. You really think he would quit the NBA 100 times before the CNT? I don't believe it! No athlete just plays for his national team, it's a pride and an honor...but not a career.
