Yao

Yao Ming had been pretty unimpressive for a #1 pick overall, until the Lakers game.

And after that, you would think he's on his way to league MVP after reading the coverage in the Houston Comical:

Taking his game to a level this hemisphere had never seen from him, Yao had the game on the line and the ball in his hands, and slammed the Rockets to a 93-89 win over the Lakers to announce his arrival.

Keep a little perspective, guys. As big men go, the Lakers have Shaquille O'Neal, Robert Horry, and a bunch of scrubs. And Horry probably comes a lot closer to the scrubs than to Shaq in terms of physical presence in the paint. So with Shaq out, one would hope that Yao would be able to best his previous (sad) efforts in the NBA.

But the Comical SO wants this guy to be TheNextGreatThing that it just can't help being giddy. And maybe he'll even BE a good player one day. But right now, he's a really slow, really tall guy with about a 4 inch vertical leap, who can score a few points against a team whose MVP is injured and whose other big men are scrubs.

[Posted at 22:08 CST on 11/18/02] [Link]