I agree with you. Yao is somehow not happy with his teammate for not giving him the ball and (Hayes) not having midrange shot.
Will Duncan, and Kobe have rings, and Dirk got pretty close (thank god he didn't) so clearly it works. And Yao is a very good free throw shooter, the games that he is most effective in is the ones where he gets to the line. I wouldn't mind seeing yao on the free throw line 30 times a game like kobe does.
In the article, Yao complained about early foul troubles messed up his rythm, said Hayes man just sag off Hayes and double on him, which made his job very difficult. First I think these are legit complaints. If Yao is not allowed to let out that type of frustration, you might as well cut off his head. The officiating we've all seen. The double team on Yao in the suns game is just ridicurious. Marion not even bother guarding Hayes and Hayes just standing under the rim watching Yao sandwiched. I think Adelman will devise a better play for that kind of situation, let Scola stand in high post, keeping contact with Yao. If double team like that happens again, we have to make them pay. BTW, Yao in the article was also criticle of himself.
Those days are long gone my friend. The defense they play on Yao was not allowed on Shaq until like 2001 or 2002 I believe. The Suns were fronting Yao with Amare/Diaw and then have Marion cheat off of Battier/Wells to prevent the pass into Yao. Back in the day, that would have been called illegal defense every singe time. But, who knows! Maybe Shaq would have still found a way to dominate. All I know is that we don't have Shaq, we don't have the Dream! We have Yao. If so many fans are growing unhappy with him, then maybe they should start a petition to trade Yao because I'm pretty sure that 26 out of the 28 teams would gladly trade for him. I believe we can even package Yao and Head for Kobe. If thats what people want, then petition the Rockets organization. I love the center position because MOST of the great dynasty have had centers. Kareem, Wilt, Russel, Dream, and Shaq. I hope that Yao can one day be added to that list. I think we have a good team and we can make some noise. But for some reason, Rockets fans have been getting OVERLY sensitive and annoying. Not blaming you or anything, but its the 11th game of the freaking season. People need to realize that regular season is to prepare the team for playoffs. Who gives a crap if we lose a couple. Lets worry about our players health and learning the new system!
Then why are so many people, the same people that have been calling for Yao to grow some balls the last 3 seaons, complaining that he is b****ing? Makes no sense to me.
Please re-read that part of the interview again, and don't take it out of context to mislead others. He is not complaining about Chuck Hayes and the guards not being able to penetrate and pass. He is stating the FACT that Chuck Hayes could not shoot jump shots, and other than Tracy McGrady, there ain't no other Rockets that can dish a crispy penetrating pass to Chuck Hayes for his layups at the low post. Here is that question and answer relating to Chuck Hayes, and let the posters judge whether Big Yao is complaining about Chuck Hayes.
Yao isn't Shaq and wishing won't make it so (thank god). Yao's not a bull. He's an unusally great finesse player who has successfully added strength to his game. And he has been called not just unfairly but outrageously unfairly his entire career. The refs are, bottom line, lazy when it comes to calling games he's in. He gets approximately one in ten calls he deserves. Blaming him for not correcting the problem is flat out stupid. Every coach Yao has had has sent tape over and over again to the league office and they've failed to do anything about it. It shouldn't be up to him to beat some random opponent down -- getting ejected and losing the game for his team in the process. I've been saying for years (maybe not on the board but with people I'm hanging with when I watch games) that when he's had enough he should just refuse to play if they're not going to call the game even. I'm not asking for total parity. Maybe it's too much to ask for them to call the game exactly the same on both sides. But he could let David Stern know that he's keeping track of no-calls in his head and that on every fifth one he'll walk off the court. Not touches, not ticky tack stuff, just real fouls. In an ideal world he would do that and Adelman and Alexander and Morey would back him up. In fact, in an ideal world Adelman would just pull him from the game when the fifth no-call happened (it would usually be in the first quarter) and send him straight to the locker room. And then he would send tape to the league office and promise to do it again in the next game. Sometimes I swear that's the only way he'd ever get called anywhere near fairly. Blaming Yao for the situation is beyond stupid though, regardless.
I never said I had a problem with him complaining during the game, I didn't like the fact that he was doing it through the media.
I suppose you can interpret that several ways, and that you're taking a more benign interpretation. I do know if he said this to the Houston Chronicle Hayes would have issues with it. Sometimes calling a spade a spade is not a good way to go about things. What he said is true but he cited Hayes as a reason he was playing poorly and that the guards can't make a good pass as a reason. He also definitely said he needed the ball more. Personally I'm willing to write it off as Wang Meng interviewing Yao when he's pissed right after the game and then Yao let slip some things he shouldn't have said b/c he was in a bad mood. It happens.
Like with most (all) superstars who don't win (and maybe some that do), it's damed if you and damned if you don't. There are many people here I am sure that would NOT like to see Yao Ming give hard fouls, etc. because that is changing the way he plays, or it could cause problems, or something like that. Yao shouldn't let the officials sidetrack him. He has to learn how to play around that. Like Shaq, Yao has to make the refs officiate around him. I for one would like to see Yao make his fouls hurt. If you're going to drive in on Yao, you're going to be feeling it for the next couple days. If you're strong enough to take that, THEN drive it in on Yao, I have no problems with Yao fouling hard. How many people have dared dunk on Shaq? How many people have succeeded (isn't it something like 3? I am not sure though)? Throw some elbows, slam some people to the floor, punish them for driving in on you, don't reward them with a tickle and a trip to the free throw line. I don't care if Yao fouls out of the next 15 games, if he employs this strategy, it will pay off in the long run. The refs WILL learn respect Yao. I know Yao and Shaq aren't the same player/person, but you can't say Shaq simply just being in the paint does NOT change the mind of some people. Or at least the way they play. Yao, because of his size, changes shots in the paint, but IF he's going to get called for a foul, I think he should damn well make it hurt. That Ginobili facial Yao got...I hate seeing Yao humiliated like that. He should have THROWN Ginobili to the floor hard. He should have gone for the ball hard, and whatever incidental contact happens is fine. Ginobili should have had to lay on the floor for a while after that (attempted) dunk. He should have been feeling that one the next morning. He should think twice before he drives it in on Yao next time. Also, if Yao needs to take a few offensive fouls to get his point across, he should! I like the way Yao was starting to play very aggressively, but he needs to step it up a notch. If some one is going to guard Yao, they should be scared sh*tless of the next elbow to their ribcage, the next shoulder to their jaw, etc. Let me just say that whether it be on offense or defense, I don't want Yao to go hurting people, starting fights, etc. but little upstarts like Nate Robinson should not have the balls to try to block Yao. That's all. I don't know if Yao can, but he should train the refs. The same way Shaq did. If Yao takes his physicality up to a new level, he will foul out of 10 games guaranteed, but it will pay off in the end. COME ON YAO! Show them who's THE boss! *sorry for ranting, i know it won't come true, but it would be nice*
Do you have slightest idea of frustration? Looks like you are irratated as of right now. Yao's being murdered down low. I assumed you watched the Spurs game. You call Oberto hook harm+drama queen a fronting, and Yao is not allowed to complain in your little insulated world? Worse, while his murdered on one end, he is called foul on the other end for things he didnt do or victimized. You just now got frustrated by chicken shiat as Pryuen said you cant read Chinese.
How else can you go about it? Every player, from Shaq who use to go to JA Adande to JVG who said it to Chronicle reporters to Phil Jackson, everyone goes to the media because they pick it up and run with it. The only player I remember go directly to the referee after the game is Dennis Rodman and we definitely don't want Yao going down that path. There is nothing wrong with going to the media. Maybe he should have said it to the Chronicle or TNT, but nothing wrong with that.
ok i'll agree i might have crossed the line and got side tracked from the main point, which is dealing with yao dealing with the fronting problem. My main point of the original post was that he needs to find a way around that problem, its been 5 years since he has joined the league, if he's not getting calls now he is probably never going to, he needs to find a way to get around been fronted, or find a way to be effective even when he is.
I basically agree but regardless of might be right diplomatically he's right. It reads like a dis on Hayes but the blame there belongs to Adelman. It was a good move starting James next to Alston (as long as he insists on starting Alston) but he ought to have gone farther and started Scola too. If I'd been in charge of calling numbers as soon as McGrady went down I would have started Francis, James, Bonzi, Scola and Yao. Let them pick their poison defensively with that lineup and let Yao go to work. At least then you're not running him up and down the floor 40 minutes a night for nothing. It's bad enough to start a lineup with - let's face it - three offensive liabilities when McGrady's in. When he's out there's no one else to worry about, leaving Yao pretty much alone out there and everybody knows who to double, triple, quadruple. Do it two games in a row and it's pretty much unconscionable. Yao's been a perfect gentleman for what? Six years? (Maybe it's five, my memory's not great.) He doesn't complain as a rule and he doesn't whine over nothing. He has good reason now and I welcome it - on the refs and on the rotation.
Some fans are funny. All the years they wish yao would complain directly to the referees. Now yao did it, they said yao is a whiner like Duncan and kobe. Then said Duncan and kobe are winners they have the rights to whine? Now fans also wish yao with take it on his own hands and elbows his opponents. If yao did it, i bet the same haters will say sad to see yao become a Ron Artest type of gangster player, yao should play aggressive instead of hurting other players.... Really hard to satisfy those haters type of so called rockets fans!
The fact that you would call fronting the main problem just proves to me you don't watch the games. Yao gets not just fouled but HAMMERED when the ball is in his hands. Yes he gets fouled when they're fronting but he gets fouled always. And almost always it's a no call. What the hell is he supposed to do? Get ejected for make up flagrants every night? Fronting is not the problem. The problem is that the game is called unfairly where he is concerned. The problem is that he's not allowed to do what any scrub in the league is allowed to do against him. It is an institutional problem and it won't get fixed by him complaining to refs during the game (which he and every coach he's had has tried) and it won't get fixed by retaliation. What he should do is sit. That would fix it overnight.
Although I do agree that Yao is not Shaq and should not try to be, and that blaming Yao is ridiculous, but I don't think this is going to work. Well it might, but it has it's downsides too. First thing, when he goes to the locker room, this team is going to lose, right? Same thing if he gets ejected, but at least he gets his point across to opposing players and to the referees personally. Yao wouldn't have to count on an ideal world where Morey and Adelman would back him up doing something no one ever has. Plus, if Yao did something like this, everyone would be against him calling him a pansy and a crybaby, etc. I mean, shortchanged is an understatement when talking about Yao, but everyone thinks their team gets the short end of the stick when it comes to refs. The only thing that would motivate Stern to change anything is the HUGE drop in viewership from Chinese fans and Yao fans (and maybe even Rocket fans) all over the world. That would probably do the trick, but it would alot worse than Yao bullying a few people, in my opinion. So, although walking out of games probably won't work, training the refs might. It's worth a shot at least. But like I said, it's just speculation. I doubt it's going to happen.
Hayes is not allowed to be pissed off at Yao, especially after the shoe deal he's got. Without Yao, I wonder if there is a Hayes in NBA. But clearly Yao's frustrated. Yao being frustrated and outspoken is a good thing IMO. If I were Hayes, a meaner Yao is good for the team and definitely should not take it personal.
Shady: I'm not suggesting it actually happen; I'm saying what you are -- that only Stern losing Chinese viewership will cause him to actually look at the BS the refs are calling. And, yes, every team thinks they're called unfairly but there is such a thing as tape. And it is easy to demonstrate that Yao is held to a vastly different standard than the guys he defends. Five hard fouls on Yao on one end, no call. One slight brush from Yao against a player on the other, whistle. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Every game. I don't know what the solution is but it is bull****. And it kind of blows my mind that Stern doesn't insist on fixing it so Yao can be the player he actually is. If they want to no-call, that's fine. Just do it on both ends. He gets called for stuff that is nowhere near what he endures with the ball in his hand. At any rate, the idea that his "fans" would try to blame him for it (or for not solving it) is insane. If I was a mod here, I'd give a warning for that and then a ban. The repeated suggestions here that he's responsible for the situation or has the power to solve it drags the level of discourse down to a truly frustrating level.
