We can criticize his toughness, argueably.

We can criticize some game decisions, and off-court decision to talk about personal issues on TV etc. But going as far as saying that his hidden agenda to play down the team and Yao, faking injury to satisfy his own ego, etc etc, that's really gone too far. I still think as Chinese fans, we should be better than that.

As some mentioned already, first SF, Cat, then Sura, now TMac. Too many conspiracy theories flying around, that's just not healthy. I don't think it's fair to those players, to the team, and especially to Yao. Because Yao is a team-first person, how would that kind of theory put Yao into a bad situation? Everyone around him, all of a sudden becomes conspiricist after Yao arrives? ARe some of those guys accusing Yao as cancer of team environment?

TMac suited up for 20 minutes last night, collected 15 points in 6/12 shooting, 1/1 3 pointer, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 block, 0 turnover. I don't think that's bad performance. I don't understand all the bashing right after Yao's gaining confidence and performance. Now, that smells fishy.

For those of you claiming that TMac has been playing like garbage this year, I would suggest you to check stats first. It's obvious, he didn't play as well as last year, due to his injury and personal issues, but it's not far off.

YEAR G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
04-05 78 78 40.8 .431 .326 .774 6.2 5.7 1.73 .67 2.58 2.10 25.7

05-06 47 47 37.1 .406 .312 .747 6.5 4.8 1.26 .87 2.55 1.90 24.4

It's still a very decent stats sheet, given that Yao Ming missed 21 games, and he actually managed a respectable record during that time.

Without TMac or he didn't finish the game, Rockets record is 3-13. With both yao and TMac, they were something along 20-10.

If you can't draw the conclusion that they need each other to succeed, I don't know what to say. If you can't see from the stats alone, that those vicious attacks were gone over the board, I don't know what to say any more.

Of course, any loss is caused by both physically and mentally. Yao's improvement is mainly a mental one. His confidence level is sky rocketing, that's why he's no longer reacting, but rather pro-acting. Should he be called a loser before this hot stretch, for 3 years?

Speaking of short memory.