I'm interested in someone accurately translating the article, please. I love Yao's humility and intelligence, even more than his size and talent. He learns from every situation, laughs at himself, and boldly improves, even after the worst humiliations. I wish we had other players who were so smart, self-aware and court-aware. I think it is obvious that Ming is very tired, and I hope his Chinese committments allow him to rest this off-season, aware it is in their long term interests to allow him to do so, or we'll all lose. But, Yao will evolve, and get better and better. He has the size, talent, fundamentals, character and intelligence to be one of the greatest ever at his position, IMHO. I'm proud the Rockets have him on their team, and believe he will be one of the 5 best #1 picks in the last 40 years, including Shaq, Dream, Magic and Kareem. He'll be different, but uniquely great, unless he gets injured ala Sampson. At this stage, I believe every team in the country wishes they had last year's #1 pick, and would take Ming, hands down. I'm a Rocket's fan first, though, and I find it disrespectful for those fans who come to this Rocket's fan site, and are only concerned with Ming's success OR failure. Neither are true Rocket's fans. Some overly exalt Ming, and are only concerned with his success, and if he doesn't do well, blame the Rockets handling or coaching or other players not doing this or that. Hey, sometimes Ming is tired, is learning, screws up, loses confidence, and makes rookies mistakes. He is human and new to the NBA. Its OK for him to make mistakes, and as fans, we will discuss and analyse and figure out what is going on, ad nauseum, hence this BBS community. We love talking and reading about our Rocket team all we can. Ming has joined an up and coming great team, and I believe we will win championships ... but, this team is young, and has a lot to learn. It will be an interesting ride. Just as irritating are the fans who are reacting to the media mania of Ming, and come here to tear him down, thinking that tearing down someone others say is great, somehow makes them better than him. How pathetic and insecure and irritating to the rest of us. I don't consider either of them Rocket fans, and those who have been part of this community for awhile are forced to be patronizing and polite. Most of the time, we choose to ignore their posts, so they don't get too much attention, but occaisionally we just have to speak up. I want to welcome all the great new fans of the Rockets, who have joined our community, due to Ming joining our team, especially some great ones from other cultures, such as <i>WindandSea</i>, <i>ShanghaiShark</i> and so many others. But, I must admit, I wish I knew how to discourage the dychotomous worship or hater Ming commentators from dominating our BBS, and allow us to get back to discussions and debates that are pragmatic and stimulating, wonderfully variant in opinion, and not all these knee-jerk reactions or mindless panic attacks.
that's what I am thinking as well! I wonder what it would take Yao to understand that? will he ever understand that? Although I like the fact he's trying to be smart and think all the time on the court, he seems to overdo it. Basketball is very simple sometimes, not like doing mathematics. just look how Shaq plays. Bang, bang, and dunk. and no matter how hard you think, you cant beat him. Divac and Sabonis play smart, too. but they cant beat Shaq.
If the coaching staff and rocket fans all agree your view, then really should trade Yao to team like Dallas....
it's not about which team he plays for. he may have more successes in teams like Sac or Dallas due to different offenses they run. but with the way he plays right now, He'll never be a dominant center, ala Divac/Sabonis.
What's your definition of dominant? Rape the **** out of your component and win like shaq or score tons of points and lead your team to win like larry bird? There are all kind of dominant. You can only be shaq when you have his size. Yao don't has that size, that is a fact. There are people who are more aggressive than shaq but they cannot be dominant like shaq. You can only build your success on what your body gives you. It is dumb to copycat other people's success. learn from others is great, copycat is dumb.
Sherlock, I appreciate your post, it is certainly thoughtful and cheerful. I think that we all agreed that Yao took a brutal lesson and it IS a humiliation for him. IMHO, the older the player is, the harder he can recover from such humiliation.. however on the otherhand.. he might be mature enough and would not take it so seriously and just let it go.. hence the "recover" may not even happen at the first place.. Reading Yao's interview, I feel he is still just like a kid, very depressed, very frustrated, eager to vent after such inhumane experience (sorta).. more importantly, he is not hiding those feelings to friends. somehow I feel this is very cool. I was afraid of if he took too much pride or took much for granted. Now I only think he is a young, freshingly healthy player. It was irritating that some folks' post are more like personal attacks to Ming. Although I perfectly understand fans' frustration as I am one of them. I always think that to be a great player, one has also to be a great person. Look at MJ, Kobe, Shaq they are all good guys. I dislike people advocating bloody/violent sport spirit, not even the slightest implications(think of covicted rapist...) I wish my English was good enough to translate the interview. Hope you get its idea though. Go Rockets!
Thank you for the post. I became the rocket's fan because of Yao Ming. However, eventhough, I want Yao to be success, I think the most important sucess is the TEAM sucess. Yao can play badly but as long as the team won, I am happy. Basketball is the team sport and should be treat as a team sport. Success or failure is the responsiblility of every members of the team. I really do not like "personal statistic" competition. It will be cool if Yao got ROY but it is not important as the team win (as team).
This is my first time translating, hope u guys like it. Yao: Actually, I'm not afraid of his (Shaq's) body. When I haven't played him before, I have no idea how to play. I don't know what it'd be like to play against him. Now I have played him twice. True, he kept dunking on me, he pushed me as hard as he could, but this is basketball and it's the way basketball is. When I was in CBA, I grew up being bullied (maybe in basketball term, "being schooled"). Who hadn't been bullied before? Yao: I feel frustrated not because I was beaten by others but because I didn't play well enough. Yao: I don't wanna say why. I don't wanna say. I feel sad, really sad........
"He's always thinking he can outsmart everybody, it might work in China with a bunch of wusses but not in the US where you have convicted rapists on the court with you. " Are you talking about the same Chinese team that chased and beat up the Lebanese national team during Asian basketball championship, and cut and stabbed players with scissors? I remember Yao wasn't involved in that fight.
Ok I'm gonna give this translating thing a shot. The tricks didn't work the second time because the Shark (Shaq's chinese nick name from Shaq Attack days that stucked) showed his fangs. Two and a half month ago, Yao blocked 3 shots in the first 4 minutes and finished with 10 pts, 10 reb, and 6 blks and the Rockets won a tough battle. But Yao knows the truth, "this game I was lucky, he was relaxed (overconfident) at first, only the overtime was the real bad. I can bet that the second time he won't let me block that many shots, and will play me tough from the start. Just watch the next game if you don't believe me. Yao's prophecy manifested. This battle, Shaq started strong form the tip. With 8 pts in the first with 2 dunks(? not really sure w/ the chinese bball lingo ) In teh game high 39 pts, there was 9 times of dunking with a thuderous force on the head of Yao Ming. In the fourth, he scored 18 by himself, even teh game deciding shot was a dunk. Yao only went 3 for 13, starting in the 2nd quater, Yao no longer stand on the high post, but try to battle Shaq in the paint. The 2002 star rookie was no matched for the 1992 star rookie. The real Shaq is that terrifying. "Im not afraid of him physically, even like that Im not afraid" Yao said on the bus to the airport. "Before playing him, I was always unsure, what is it like to play like him. Now we've played twice. True, he keeps dunking on my head, he kept pushing me back, big man banging big man. But this is basketball, basketball is like this, I grew up by being bullied like this in the CBA. Who's never been bullied? You ever heard of this - sword is most frightning when its in its sheath, once its out, no bad how sharp its not as frightning. Head gets hurt and get a cut, haven't I seen it all (ok this sentence was a little confusing, Yao sure use a lot of slang, I need to learn some of this when I visit Shanghai again ) On the seemingly long road to the air port, Yao mummbles constaly in the dark, "I'm frustrade, not because of being being beaten but because I didn't played with good feeling". Yao didn't start of banging with Shaq, he used his shot to lured out Shaq, and the let Posey and Steve attack the basket. Rockets took a 10 - 2 lead. First quater was 24 - 22. On other other end, Shaq was unstoppable, but every one else was containded. Yao said "playing like this even if Shaq and Kobe go for 70 I'm not afraid." But this situation, from the start of Yao's challenging of Shaq underneath the boards ended. Used to relying on shooting and passing abilities, Yao Ming no longer was able to use his strong points but compete with that fat man who is bigger. More importantly, when Yao forced Shaq inside, the space underneath the goal disappeared. I don't want to say why, don't want to, anyways...I'm bothered...bothered as hell..." Yao grumbled. Don't know who's more bothred, in the afternoon practice earlier that day, Rudy annoced he won't return this season to coaching. "Rudy said simply he can't be 100% for us, so he's continuing treatment. He said he is satisfied with Larry Smith's work. He must feel really bad, after all these years, suddenly handing the team over at this important juncture. I felt everyone was very disappointed. We wanted him to come back since the 5 game road trip, now we know he won't be back. "In this life and death situation, just like the white emperor Liu Bei prayers, hope we won't be bad (ok this is more of a meaning translation than literal since literal would be confusing as hell to any one who didn't read 3 kindoms in chinese). On the trip to SA, Yao kept rubbing his chin, showing the inabillity to forget pain. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well that's the translation to the best of my abilities. I see what some poster says about Yang Yi, his writing style makes Yao like a mythical character in a martial arts novel (chinese equivalent of fantasy novels I guess) and why it does seems a little fishy. I actually enjoy reading the article since it really does resemble a martial arts novel which I love reading, but really hurts the credibilty of the article. I guess you compare him a little bit to Blinebury..... actually he seems like a chinese Blinebury. This translating thing is a real pain, I probably won't don't many more
Hmm, Yetti agree with the definition of a position changes over time and players.... maybe he'll stop thinking that a scoring point guard is an oxymoron.
Read Yao's after game quotes, he does not dodge responsibilities. You are entitled to your opinions about Rockets, Yao or any other player, but if you want to talk **** ....
Headhunter, You are new here, so I'll let this be a warning, and the last one at that. Do not post pics like that on this bbs again. This goes for everyone else. dj_willy, You're walking a fine line as well.
