Yao Tells The Truth, Because He Is Yao
by Tom Martin on Jul 27, 2010 3:38 PM CDT
in Random Commentary
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PrintToday's Yao news merely confirms what anyone with a Lilliputian level of logic already presumed to be true. If Yao Ming re-injures his foot this season, then it's all over. Did anyone think that this would be any different?
This is it. A long career that should have been longer and could be longer all hinges on this upcoming season. That's why Yao has taken a year off. That's why he hasn't played Summer ball for China. It's this season or bust. And if all goes well this year, then it's next season or bust. Pretty simple, really.
I don't have a problem with Yao discussing his retirement. He has always been honest with the media, in the States and in China. The world's largest basketball icon believes in maintaining good discourse with his fans. And, if anything, this is likely a move to get the Chinese National team off his back. How many times does he have to say, "I'm not the future?" Move along.
If we're going to keep going nuts over a tiny tidbit of Yaoness such as this, we're in for a long season. Don't start holding your breath until opening night, because if you start now, you won't make it far.
UPDATE: Morey responds on Twitter.
Yao Ming is working diligently on his return and has consistently received positive feedback at each of his scheduled medical checkups.
Nothing new, but it sounds encouraging.
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Yao’s honest, and Yao is humble. He tend to play down things rather than up.
Agreed. He is conservative in his estimates of himself and his honestly is commendable.
by ClutchFanSince94 on Jul 27, 2010 5:38 PM CDT up reply actions
We definitely do need to come to grips with this.
Once we learned just how serious this latest injury was I think many of us did start to grasp the unfortunate reality that another serious one would most likely end Yao’s career. Hearing him explicitly say as much just confirms that belief. It’s tough, but those legs through a lot and at some point the smartest move is to call it quits. I’m glad he’s so open, but at the same time it scares me to think that he’s just awkward landing away from being gone.
Bleeding red since 2004, when we changed our team colors. But only since then. It was an amalgamation of blue and pinstripes before that.
to be fair
it’s his foot, His legs are surprisingly strong and durable for a man his size, but he is gigantic and his foot has to support a lot of weight and year round basketball certainly did not help. Anybody is an awkward fall away from being gone, look at Shuan Livingston
It sounds like he is committed to at least try to prolong his career and so are the rockets, but if your foot cant take it, then of course he’ll be gone
Here's the cold-blooded, hate-to-think-about-it way of looking at this...
Worst case, this means the last vestige of Carroll Dawson’s tenure as GM could be gone soon. Not that CD was a bad GM, but this presents an environment in which Morey’s contributions can be evaluated without qualification.
That being said, I’d like to postpone that for at least a couple more seasons. When Yao retires, I’ll be a sad panda. Or at least a cranky koala.
I think you missed the mark on that one.
by ClutchFanSince94 on Jul 27, 2010 5:37 PM CDT up reply actions
About Yao being the last CD pick? You may have a point; so far as I’m aware, there’s still lots of argument about whether the Gay-Battier trade was CD’s or Morey’s. Is that the mark I missed?
by DribbleHooper on Jul 27, 2010 7:00 PM CDT up reply actions
I meant, that’s kind of silly that being able to evaluate DM would be an upside to losing YM. That’s like saying, my house just burned down but on the plus side I can appreciate the skills of the architect who will rebuild it.
by ClutchFanSince94 on Jul 27, 2010 10:34 PM CDT up reply actions
Not to sound too harsh
but between the over exuberance of any player that might be rumored to maybe be available in some strange sense and the knee jerk that hits with some news, anyone else starting to feel a Clutchfan-esque vibe around some of this stuff?
I'm always right, this isn't conjecture, merely statement of fact.
A little, but...
I think the ratio of crazy to sane here is closer to sane. My biggest problem with Clutchfans isn’t that they don’t have good insight: they do. It’s just you have to wade through soooooo much trash to find it. Dream Shake, either through the efforts of our overlords or the self-policing (via snarky comments) of the commenters, has remained fairly levelheaded.
Not only have the crazy trade proposals and injury freak outs made the main page, but as soon as someone posts one in the fan section the commenters are probable 3-1 in terms of tamping down expectations. Tom may have written a post about Yao’s statement, but he had to because he’s a Rockets fan and they aren’t actually playing basketball so what else is he going to do? And he wrote a very level-headed one. Good for him.
I more so meant
from the fanposts. The contributing writers are great about not being asinine and providing great material with great insight. But as we can tell by quickly looking at the right side of the screen there is a LOT of knee jerk lately among posters. I think more people need to settle in with a tall glass of reality and understand that if a player is available the Rockets don’t always HAVE to get him/have the best package to get him and that the sky won’t fall because of some statement that didn’t come out and say “My legs are snapped.”
I'm always right, this isn't conjecture, merely statement of fact.
That's why they have a separate section for FanPosts.
Calling it “the PlayPen” or “TimeOut Corner” might be a little too alienating. ;)
by DribbleHooper on Jul 27, 2010 7:04 PM CDT up reply actions
Could call it
The Corner. For quality posts it implies a place to chat and discuss things, for bad posts it implies where we send someone with a dunce cap on.
I'm always right, this isn't conjecture, merely statement of fact.
Yeah, FanPosts are where the less well thought out stuff is, but I still think our hit to miss ratio is several times higher than Clutchfans’s.
Hope we can get one championship before he retires.
by inquisitiveman on Jul 27, 2010 7:09 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Yao dares say what everybody knows--nobody can say how he will do this season.
So refreshing to have someone tell the sober truth, without any hype or spin. I know also he will do right by the organization too. He will not burden the team asking for a huge and long contract if he cannot competitively. He will bow out as he had entered the league—gracefully and graciously.
I love Yao. God, help us have a fitting season for him.
YAO = HONEST
and says what everyone already knows. UNLIKE T-MAC, which im not sure anymore if he knew he was lying or he really believed himself everytime he said he was 100% and had unfinished business on the court….
This is no surprise to everyone. I just hope they start Yao off really slow till he gets caught up back to the speed of the game. Hopefully everything goes well and we see him in a Rockets uniform for at least another 3 seasons.
Brad Miller
Is Brad Miller on the team to back up Yao (to avg maybe 10-12 min per game) or is he there to BE the center? If it is the first, then it seems like it was good to sign him and try to contend. But if Yao is unlikely to recover, then Brad Miller seems like a waste of time and money. Not sure but seems like the Rockets wth Brad starting at C will be headed for the lottery again … maybe top of the pile but outside the playoffs again.
Yao now knows
that playing all those games with the China national team, after the rockets season attributed to some of his injuries. I think if he stays healthy he wants to continue to play in the NBA, but not on the China Team. For him to possibly prolong his NBA career he needs to just play for the NBA. The question is, is the financial gain the Rockets got from jersey sales and other things from China worth Yao’s injury filled career.
by since86rocketsfan on Jul 28, 2010 2:16 PM CDT reply actions
Dont' think they can afford jerseys in china.
They prolli just sell knockoffs anyways So not much money there. No joke, i’m from cali, i know tons of chinese ppl around here. When they go to china, its a poor, filthy country with tons of knock offs they say. China just shows the world their industrial side like Beijing, Shanghai, etc. the rest is shit. they can’t afford 100 bux on a jersey, nor 50 bux.
Please
there are two NBA stores just in Beijing. Do you know how many people in China watch Rockets games. The Rockets are getting some money from China, thats why when Yi was in th draft Stern told the lottery teams about the financial gains the Rockets got by drafting Yao, in reference to them possibly drafting Yi. There are tons of knock offs over here and many poor people.
by since86rocketsfan on Jul 28, 2010 3:01 PM CDT reply actions
China has is still socially a 3rd world country, so their wealth gap is huge.
Think of Mexico with 2 billion ppl instead. Anyways, how much money is still to be a guess. nba made what about 3.5 billion in revenues in 09-10 season? 1 bilish from ticket sales or something. leaving 2.5 bil, most of which is tv rights from ESPN/ABC, and TnT. How much of the pie is left from the great china market?
do you even know what the term "third world" actually was meant to be???
it was coined by Jawaharlal Nehru (the first PM of India) as a way to show the world that they were neither first world (USA’s allies) nor second world (USSR’s allies)…they were a third world, a new set of governments that did not want to get embroiled in the Cold War…
ROCKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!
and
under the original (geopolitical) understanding of the term, China qualified as “third-world” ever since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s.
Same goes for some other communist nations like Albania and Yugoslavia.
thanks for the history lesson,
I was just using in context of how we usually use the term 3rd world country. And of course its my opinion, others would say they are first world due to their economy.
Ah nvm,
its only 1 bilish from national tv coverage. So the remaining 1.5 bilish is all the other stuff. china might be 500 mil market, or 100 mil market, no way to tell, so i’m just gona retract my previous post. Maybe china does provide a substantial dough, maybe not.
Loved his comments on Team China too
He also shot as straight as you could ask on the Chinese basketball team. Don’t have the comments on hand just now, but he basically said his team deserved to lose in the Asian tournament – had neglected their farm team, hadn’t done enough to cultivate talent.
I’m gonna miss him when he’s gone.
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