A trainer is going to make a much bigger difference with extremely raw players like Olajuwon than with someone like Yao, who is already very fundamentally sound. The only thing Yao lacks is aggression which a trainer is not going to help Yao with much. Just like Jordan, it was up to Olajuwon to put in all those hours in the jim working on his game. An American trainer may have sped up the process, but it was clear Hakeem was destined for greatness even before he received any training. You make it seem like Yao is going to be practicing against Duncan all sumer long. He isn't. He'll be going against a bunch of NBA rejects. Yao practicing against American scrubs all summer long is not going to help him any more than Yao practicing against Asian scrubs all summer.
Or, simply that Basketball is not so popular in Africa and most of their kids are interested in playing football (soccer).
Sure, he is not going to play with Duncan if he does not want to live in SA. But if he wants, he can practice with Cato who is not a NBA rejects and much better than most of the centers on any Asian teams. Plus, if Yao wants, he can go to any gym and play with the good young NBA prospects. If he calls Eddy Curry up and practices with him, you think Curry will say no? If he enjoys Asian food, he can surely move to LA and practice with Brand in the same gym and try to convince Brand to move to the Rox. You see there are so many possibilities. You still think Yao's fundamental is good? I think his low block skill is overrated. He still needs to practice his dropset, all these moves centers need to use. I would like to see him developing his hook shot and his defensive skills. Can he do all these in China? Maybe, but surely not as good as he does here in the States. Actually I am not sure he can develop his defensive skills in China. YUN: Are any soccer teams from African countries good and win the World Cup? I suppose every African country has a NT in basketball. At least for players on the NT, shouldn't they get good training? Have you heard that anyone of them is good? Enough said.
The African soccer teams are good eventhough they did not win the world cup. They are better than the U.S soccer team which should have a good training according to your logic. What I meant is you are too simplify on things. According to you, if a national team is not good it is because they lack of quality training. However, it can be from different thing including the material, i.e athlete to choose from. If more kids in that country are interested in one particular sport, the chance are that nation will have more athletes to choose from. The training in NBA may be the best since Basketball is originated from the U.S. However, over the years, more and more nations have caught up with it and produced solid athletes. Chinese training, at least, has proved that it can produced a fundamentally good center in Yao Ming. So their training must be not that bad. Yao Ming is like a student. He knows what is his goal which is to get stronger. With some guidance from the rocket team, he can continue on with exercising program where ever he is. (even in China) Plus, he can sharpening all of his fundamental skills while training in his home country with the NT team. I do not see any sit back. According to the news, he will return for the preseason and training camp this year. Just wait and see if he will improve or not. There is no reason to rush the prediction at this point.
Sun12, you make Yao look like NBA commissioner, he seems can call any players to practice together. That sounds really funny. How about call Shaq instead Brand to practice one on one in LA. I am sure he will improve dramatically in the Summer and show it next season. Can it happen, if so, I beg Yao call Shaq ASAP I agree with you some degree that it is better for Yao to stay US get some quality training. However, if it is just follow Rox training plan, going to gym and work out. Do you think there are no gyms in China? And talking about summer camp, do you know any famous NBA players play in summer camp? As I know, many Rookie play in summer league, and those NBA player who want draw attention for every club in order to find a job in NBA. Do you think Yao can really improve much by playing with those players? I remember Jason Richardson of warriors play summer league last year, he average like 30 pts every game, so what, does he dominate NBA? Speaking of WangZhiZhi, the one impress me most is his shooting touch when he played for Mavs, some sort of like Dirk in his early year in NBA. After he played summer league and work out all summer long in US, sure, his strength improved quite a bit, but does he have any characteristics that impress you? He shot badly in LA this year, and perhaps his worst shooting percentage in his NBA career year. Same thing happens to Yao, do you remember the crazy shooting percentage he starting the season, however, during the season moved on, no one deny his percentage dropped. In the last ten games, he even had trouble staying on 500 shooting. I think through Yao's entire career, his strength may not ever march those black elite NBA players, that is natural-born gift from God, however, he can use other skills to find a way to succeed, just like Dirk Nowitzki. However, we already heard enough about how lacking of fundamental skill training trouble many talented American kids going to the NBA.
This thread is confusing because Yao's real meaning was lost in the translation. I read several Chinese articles of the subject, the real meaning of his words really was: "For this season, I did not improve in (fundamental) skills but I did learn a lot in feeling NBA plays. During game time, I really learnt how to executive what I knew (in fundamental.) The real opportunity to improve my (fundamental) skills is in the summer training. The key of success was really to get the feel of the game because it raised my confidence. At the beginning of the season, the only feeling was "very difficult". After I was fully indulged in the game, at least I know now how to fight this NBA war." If you read Chinese, you can read these two articles yourself. http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2003-04-17/1309426913.shtml http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2003-04-18/0327427199.shtml The articles were written by two different reporters who are close to Yao and they all said the same thing. Also, such expression made sense to me for the following reasons: - You don't have much fundamental training opportunities in major leagues. Most of the training concentrates on set play, team play, game preparation and others. Fundmental skills are learned in summer or minor leagues. - Yao made those statements to the Chinese reporters before heading back to China for the Asian game and off course, he had to say something to the pleasure of his Chinese fans. We all know Yao is very mature in answering reporters as well. - In fact, I am glad that he knew the important of the summer and pre-season training although he will not be playing in this year's summer league in order to get a long overdue rest.
Surely not as many gyms as that in the US and conditions not as good. Kobe played in summer camp in his first year. Amare played in summer camp. Nowitzi played. I am just tired arguing with guys who do not know much about training and naive about things like training under NT. It is not just Yao has to go back for this year during the off-season. He has to go back EVERY off-season. I do not know any center can become dominant by just playing in NBA and training in another country without benefiting from NBA training and competition against the best players. I guess we'll just wait and see next April. My prediction for Yao's stat next season is: 16 PPG 9 RPG That's roughly in line with this season's number excluding his first month and the rookie wall. I won't comment more on this thread.
Sun12 Look young man, you are beggining to delve in territories you are completely ignorant of. What do you know about the quote I highlighted above? Absolutely nothing. So next time stay in your territory - discuss issues you know about so that you don't sound stupid. The reason why African teams don't do well in those championships you mentioned is primarily because basketball is not "their sport". Football or Soccer is the number one sport of All African Countries (I dare to say). Basketball is in many cases an after thought. Now you know.
Let's not to forget he got this good by playing in summers in the past. I sure hope he can stay and train well with professionals here, but saying he won't improve if he goes back to China is a total denial of how he got here in the first place.
give me a break. china has had competitive teams in many olympic sports. have you seen some of the olmpic gold medalist gymnists? the womens ice hockey team?just in the 2002 winter olympics they won 2 golds, 2 silvers, 3 bronzes in mens and womens speed skating alone... im sure they all train in holes in the ground.....5 gold metals in weightlifting in 2000 from bantamweight all through superheavy weight get real, they have GOVERNMENT SPONSORED state of the art facilities. trust me, they are much better than westside tennis club....
1. Sun12, I knew you weren't a Rox fan and a Yao hater from the start 2. Yao is already, in his rookie campaign, more polished and skilled (NOTE: SKILLED) than any 5 in this league AND is close to being the best. So it is not easy to technically improve, especially when we want him to play a bruising game instead of a finess game as Yao said. 3. Yao will more likely improve skillwise in China where they teach him FUNDAMENTALS instead of here. Why the hell do you think Yao said he did not technically improve this season and won't likely next season either? In America? 4. So now we're comparing American players to starving African players? Nice logic. Basketball (or as some people already mentioned, soccer, their fav sport) involves a bunch of kids with a ball in the sand, WITHOUT SHOES. Nice comparision there. 5. Yao's prob is not skill, it's strength, stamina and desire, none of which cannot be cured anywhere in on this pathetic little planet. I'm not saying Asian competition is superior to anything, but playing ACTUAL GAMES where China actually has to win is playing better than against scrubs that are trying to showcase themselves and go ISO so they can actually get hired.
Actually, in this week's ESPN the magazine, there is a big piece on McGrady, Bryant and Garnett, and they all seem to cite going up against NBA quality talent on a daily basis in practice as the biggest factor in their development, ahead of coaching, etc. The acutal games I don't think really matters when the actual players are division III quality.
That statement is exaggerated. International competitions in Asia is not a division III especially in the important tournament such as "qualifying for the olympics".
Calm down guys. You are arguing for nothing here. Yes, playing in real (summer league) game situation is better just like any other NBA stars. Yes, going through Chinese NT training could improve his fundamentals too like what he did in the past. But what Yao means in his statement was, he did not improve his fundamentals in his first NBA season and that has to come through summer leagues and pre-season camps. Also, he did stress he learnt a lot about NBA games in this season, which is much different from the Chinese NT games. Clearly, he implied learning about agressiveness, stamina, NBA plays, strategies, ISO, etc. that cannot be obtained through the Chinese NT training. We have to recognize that we have certain strengths in our North American sport training, but we also have weaknesses. A good example is, baseball and hockey are our two of national sports in America and Canada respectively, but many of the top stars come from other countries such as Caribbean, Japan and Russia. Coincidentally or methodologically, they have better fundamental skills than our locally trainined stars, who however seems to be much better in toughness, intensity, diamond/ice vision and plays. It is the same in basketball, a lot of international players are better in fundamental. Examples, are Dirk, Paul, etc. Why? It is because we focus on different elements of the game. Fundamentals (apart from street basketball) in not the major part of our professional team training. We virtually stop practising fundamentals once the athelete reachs major league level while international leagues still do that. You could say international leagues are still like our minor league system and even more so in fundamental skill training. So, all of you have good points on both sides and Yao need training from both sides to improve further. I hope he can get it from Rocket guidance and program during the summer, the NT training/competition and the pre-season training. As Yao will go through three Rocket thorough health and fitness testsing the coming weeks to assess the type of training program he needs in the summer, it appears Rocket has a solid plan. So, I would not doubt Yao's game will improve further in the next season when both his physicals and fundamental arsenals have improved over the summer. Honestly speaking, I think a lot of that depends on who will be the coach and how he goes during the pre-season training. It is because only then they could establish set plays for him with his teammates. Unlike the current season, when and where they play together loosely without much set play involving Yao. All these cannot be obtained through summer camp or NT training. Another proof was how well EG in the previous summer camp but failed to execute that in the past season. Cheers.
Sorry, can't help it. This season, Cat yelled at Yao: "Dunk the Ball", Yao gradually started to dunk the ball Summer with NT, coach told Yao gently: "You should not dunk the ball in front of your teammate." Yao gradually started to lay the ball in. Pre-season 2003, Steve yelled at Yao: "Why are you still laying the ball instead of Dunking it", Yao started to dunk the ball. Summer 2004 with NT, coach told Yao: "Don't you remember what I taught you? you should not dunk the ball." Yao graduatelly started to lay the ball in. Season 2004-05, Steve yelled at Yao again: "Do you want to play or not, just dunk it!" Yao's head is spinning, "is this NBA or CBA?"
Oh, Another joke: Before September 2002, Yao: "rebounding is so easy, the ball would fall into my hand if I just stand there". Yao just stands there without moving for the rebounds NBA season 2002-03, Yao: "I need to learn some rebounding techniques because I am just a phone-booth rebounder in the NBA". Yao started to learn how to position himself to get a rebound. Summer 2003 with NT playing Asian teams, Yao: "hmm, rebounding is so easy, the ball would fall into my hand if I just stand there." Yao just stands there without fighting for the rebounds or only fight a little bit and can get the rebound easily. NBA season 2003-04, Yao: "Should I jump to get the rebounds or wait for it?" Summer 2004 with NT, Yao: "I do not need to jump to get a rebound"
Sun12.. is there something wrong in the air in China that Yao will just not improve when he is there? I think your last two points have no validity. We know that Yao has a strict offseason training program, written up by the Rockets to get Yao bigger and stronger. He also has one year of experience under his belt. Next year, he gets to come to training camp and they can design a much more potent offense around Yao. The chinese aren't idiots. Chinese coaches aren't going to tell Yao to lay the ball up or just let the ball fall into his hands for rebounds. YAO IS GOING TO CHANGE THE CHINESE GAME, THE CHINESE GAME IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE YAO. He will dunk as much as possible and he will fight for every lose ball. Your posts are based off of pure opinion and therefore you will get flamed every time you post. Yao's stats will inflate if he can just simply improve his conditioning. Better conditioning = more minutes. More minutes = improved stats in PTS, REBS, ASSISTS. Also, with better conditioning, his FG% should improve back up to 55-60%.
You don't know the Asian player name. that is not equal to they are weak. that only means your knowledge of world is limited. Before Yao plays in rok many people live in other side of word did not know ROK to much, they didn't pay too much attention to ROK. dose it means Rok weak? come on. give me a break.
