Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm  |  13 responses

Rockets: ‘Leave Yao Alone!’

Ming’s teammates and coaches can’t believe people had the audacity to question the big man’s decision to sit out the remainder of the season.

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  • Blue

    You can tell everyone’s actually working when I’m first…

  • cdro

    i was devastated when i found out that yao got hurt. but damn he wants to represent his country. i know yall wouldnt be sayin the same thing if this happened to lebron.

  • http://www.clutchfans.net nick

    I agree…its not like yao really even had a choice. The doctors were like “hey, your foot is falling apart. if you keep playing, it’ll fall apart more and probably F*** your career.” and Yao was like “cool.” It’s not like he picked china over the NBA.

  • http://www.clutchfans.net nick

    And yes, thats exactly how that conversation went down.

  • http://tostateofmind.blogspot.com Hoop Dreamz

    I’m not working Blue… today’s my last day at a job I hate! But yeah, I feel bad for Yao. We all thought he’d be a stiff when he hit the league, and he’s worked hard to be one of the league’s best centres. It’s probably best for his NBA career if he rests that foot anyway, not just his Olympic career.

  • http://tostateofmind.blogspot.com Hoop Dreamz

    @ nick, i heard about that conversation too, but i don’t speak mandarin, so I didn’t know what they were saying… thanks for translating

  • RV

    I think the reason why his teammates reacted this way is because they know yao’s personality, like JVG said recently, Yao has trouble saying no, he wants to help everyone and disappoint no one, so for him to throw in the towel this season, they know he must have had no other choice and would have played throughout if he could.

  • Blue

    Hoop Dreamz: Well I hope you’re leaving for a better situation, playa. As for Yao, I have long been one of his harsher critics. I still feel that in order for him to have the Mean streak that we (Rockets Fans) desire, he is going to need a Baby Mama (besides his wife) and a healthy dose of overblown child support payments. But lately I have seen that he has a definite passion that he has never displayed before, and I honestly believe that he considered himself the leader of the Rockets this year (even if he was too humble to say it). So him sitting out the rest of this year isn’t a popular choice with the fair weather fans that want to win now at any cost, but for people like myself (long suffering Texans Fan in the house) knowing that you will have a great player for years to come is better. That’s not saying that I’m not hurt because of the news, but I’ve dealt with worse (sports wise).

  • http://www.nba.com/games/20080214/DALPHX/recap.html hursty

    9th. lol. stop hating Yao! i bet he could fight you!

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Show Yao some love! hes been working his ass off ever since hes gotten into the league and once that bum foot heals he’ll be back in action. you’ll see, i mean its not like he was choosing sides; resting his foot was the best decision for him in general anyways.

  • Toml11

    I too was disappointed at his decision in sitting out the season, but it was because i thought the rockets could finally make some noise in teh playoffs. I just hope that both Yao and McGrady are healthy for a full season next year and play a year of injury-free bball.

  • Sturm

    This is the 4th time Yao has broken a foot (according to Wikipedia, so who knows if he’s actually had more breaks or not that were never recorded when he was younger). He got 2 breaks before he even played in the NBA.

    It just goes to show that players over 7’3″ are just too big – their bones can’t take it. Even Zydrunas, who is also a finesse player and significantly smaller than Yao, seemed to be injured quite a bit before Lebron came to the Cavs and they reduced Z’s minutes.

    Also, you have to consider that Yao is actually the first solid player of his size – all of the previous players that big were either specialty shot-blockers of limited use or mediocre players that only needed to play 15-25 minutes a game rather than 35-40.

    Much as I love Yao’s game… he needs to bite the bullet and have his feet bolted together with steel pins.

    This should also serve as a reminder to NBA GM’s from hereon – don’t draft guys over 7′ 3″ and if you do, you have to limit their minutes.

  • AB_40

    yeah I hope this is the last year yao plays in the olympics or AC or WC cuzz he needs some time off during the summer. he created a frenzy in china and now it’s time for other guys to take over. He needs to focus on the NBA and of course an nba championship. When all healthy they’ve got a verry potent offensive and defensive team. Carl Landry developing should be big for them.

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