OPEN THREAD: Friday Night Hoops- Yao vs Yi

by Atma Brother ONE on Nov 9, 2007 12:58 PM PST in NBA Comment 17 comments

With the Warriors being the opposite of undefeated right now, I'd like to focus the GSoM unstoppableness on the broader NBA landscape. Tonight's edition of ESPN Friday night hoops features the Nuggets at Wiz at 5pm PST, which should be a fun game with very little D. However the 7:30pm PST matchup between the Cavs and Kings up at Sacrapmento is a serious undercard battle. It's quite unfortunate because over 1 billion eyes will be watching the historic Yao vs Yi of The Movement fame battle and it isn't even televised nationally in the good old US of A. This is a really curious move on ESPN's part especially when they're running an AP piece on their own NBA page's ESPNEWS Headlines titled Yao vs. Yi likely to dwarf even Super Bowl ratings:

Wang said the game is expected to draw more than 200 million viewers in China. By comparison, last week's New England-Indianapolis game in the NFL drew an average audience of about 34 million. Last year's Super Bowl drew an average of 93 million.

Gotta give up to the worldwide leader for... uh, making such a silly game choice tonight. The Cavs' sweep in the NBA Finals at the hands of the San Antonio Snores drew about 20 viewers and outside of Sacramento there's probably only 2 people who actually care about the Kings right now. Yao vs Yi was a no-brainer game choice tonight for national TV. I doubt TNT would mess this one up if these were Thursday night options.

Yi helping Yao up after posterizing his own teammate accidentally in a game.

Some silly questions to get your weekend started right:

If the ping pong balls fell their way and the Warriors wound up with the #1 overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft and they got Yao do you think they would've missed the playoffs from 2003-2006?
Actually if the Warriors ended up with the #1 overall pick in that draft do you think Warriors "braintrust" at the time Gary St. Jean would actually take Duke point guard Jay Williams over Yao as heavily rumored?
If Nellie was coaching Yao would he have this Chinese 7 footer launching more treys than Ray Allen?
Will The Yi Movement ever come to the Bay?
When will Milwaukee FREE YI?!

Post your answers to those questions and your Yao vs Yi predictions and game commentary in the comments. Today's a good day to have NBA League Pass. Think Yao vs Yi will be televised on AZN?

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Sucks that this game isn't televised...

On an interesting note. Yao Ming had his breakout game during his rookie year against Wang Zhi Zhi. If Yi goes crazy on Yao, I'm going to have to call shannanigans....

by ThermoElectro on Nov 9, 2007 5:25 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

seems to be going well

2:29 in the third

yi: 23 min, 13 pts, 6 reb, 2 steals, 1 block

yao: 28 min, 17 pts, 6 reb, 3 assists, 2 blocks

by OaktownWarrior on Nov 9, 2007 7:25 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

final box

yao: 28 pts, 10 reb, 3 assist, 3 block

yi: 19 pts, 9 boards, 2 steal, 1 block

by OaktownWarrior on Nov 9, 2007 7:54 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yi haters

I remember when guys on this site were half laughing at Yi when he struggled some games in pre-season (undoubtedly somewhat due to some bitterness that the Warriors didn't acquire him.) It's pretty obvious now that he can play NBA ball with the tools to eventually become a star.

I pray i never have to use a gun again.

by ssmokinjoe on Nov 9, 2007 8:18 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

What's more ridiculous is when we had guys saying.

the only reason that he's hyped is b/c he's asian....I still don't see the Sun Yue movement in LA..

by ThermoElectro on Nov 9, 2007 8:26 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I'm not saying he can't play,

but he IS hyped at least partly because he's Chinese. I suppose "hyped" has too much of a negative connotation. How about he draws excessive attention because he's a Chinese international?
Although, he'll probably never draw the same amount of attention as Yao because Yao's a one-of-a-kind freak of nature.

Also, the fact is, the Bay Area has the perfect demographic for Yi regardless of whether he's a superstar or not. It's the main reason why I was so high on him. I mean, I'm sure he's great, but I was thinking about two things: A.) the Bay Area's Asian-American demographic and B.) the prospect of millions of Chinese fans wearing Warriors jerseys.

by Jeremy Belvins on Nov 9, 2007 10:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Of course there's hype surrounding him ..

b/c of his ethnicity. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem was that people were attributing his draft stock value solely on his ethnicity and not his skill/talent/abilities.

Sure, the Bay Area would've been great for him b/c he's Chinese. But he's equally great for the Bay b/c of his skills and abilities (Yi meets all the pre reqs to thrive in Nellie ball as a big man). That point needs to be emphasized

by ThermoElectro on Nov 10, 2007 12:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yi

Man hopefully we'll acquire Yi in a season or two or when he becomes a FA. He is perfect for Nellie ball: He can run, He can shoot, and he can play above average D!

by ejdacanay on Nov 9, 2007 10:45 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I watched Yi his first game @ Orlando

Thank god for a free week of NBA League pass! I got to check out 4 minutes per game from rookies not named Durant. Yay!

I was watching Yi in his first game just to see if he could handle the flow and pace of the NBA game. I wasn't really interested in his stat line, which was nothing special.

I was totally blown away.

Count me among the Yi-questioners before the season. You just cannot be convinced until you watch a player in game play.

In the game against the Magic, however, the first thing I noticed was his size. He's enormous. He was casually standing next to Andrew Bogut, and he towered over him (3" minimum). I didn't think Yi was that big. I thought Yi held his own against a decent Orlando front-court. He can hit the 20-foot jumper, and will soon be able to knock down the NBA three, and he seemed to just take up a lot of space, and it bothered a few of the Orlando players.

Of course, Yi got into foul trouble, and when he went to the bench with 4 fouls, the Magic made their run.

I'm still not sure if Yi will ever be a great player, but he appears to be a good one. And I'm not sure how the Warriors would have swung a deal, either pre-draft or post-, for him anyway. Anyone have some ideas?

by UncleCliffy on Nov 10, 2007 2:42 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

There were tons of rumored deals

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/story/2007/6/28/14253/6447

Too bad nothing materialized, but man I really do think Yi would've been a perfect fit for Nellie. AND he's actually NBA ready right now. This ain't no DLeaguer right now.

by Atma Brother ONE on Nov 10, 2007 9:26 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Same here.

And Yi actually improved in each of every game since. He is now a legitimately NBA player and perhaps the best defensive player in the entire Bucks lineup outside of Charlie Bell - His length bothers a lot of players in the past 3 games, and he was able to play smart and stayed out of foul-trouble since the first 2 games.

The Bucks got themselves a gem.

by MightyReds2020 on Nov 10, 2007 10:10 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I know there were plenty of rumors

But which ones were actually legit and feasible?

Clearly, moving Monta for the #8 pick would have done nothing since Yi was already off the board. So, the W's would have had to put a package together for #5 or better (assuming Milwaukee was not trading), which would have been difficult.

After the draft, it appeared the Bucks were not interested in trading Yi, and besides what players would they have really wanted?

Atma Bro1, I do disagree on one point. I do not think Yi is the 'perfect' fit for Nellie's system b/c I'm not sure he's in good enough shape to run, run, run, and foul troubles might have been more problematic with more possessions. But there's no question he would have improved the team, short-term and long-.

Actually, your link to the earlier thread mentions another player drafted who I believe would have been the perfect fit: Al Horford, who can run, play D, take up space on the interior, grab boards on both sides of the court, and even score. It seems like the Hawks got themselves a real baller. I wonder how close the trade of Monta for the #3 pick was to happening.

by UncleCliffy on Nov 10, 2007 3:12 PM PST reply actions 0 recs