“I’ve dealt with a lot of players and there (are) more misconceptions about Yao Ming than anyone.”

“Everyone wants to hate on him for some reason.”

“Kwame Brown was a No. 1 pick and the expectations on him are not (like this).”

“Yao is a very, very good player. People think he should already be great and want to talk about what he hasn’t done rather than what he has done. I choose not to do that.”

“Hopefully he will reach greatness. But the only guy I’ve heard him compared to is Shaquille O’Neal. Anyone compared to Shaquille O’Neal is going to pale in comparison. He is clearly, clearly, without question, the second best center in the league. It is not even close.”

– Miscellaneous quotes from Jeff Van Gundy, 11/2/05

“I’ve already paid enough money (to the league in fines). Let’s not go there. It’s too early in the season.”

— Jeff Van Gundy, when asked about Yao Ming’s foul trouble, 11/2/05

“Yao has sold that very, very well, about fatigue being an issue. It’s not. Yao is a great worker. He just wanted some free time, I think more mentally than physically, and no one should begrudge anybody that.”

– Jeff Van Gundy after Yao requested some time off, 11/13/05

“I know right now, everybody’s hopping off the Yao bandwagon. That happens. People are fickle. When a guy doesn’t make (shots) it’s condemn Yao. It’s either Yao is right behind Shaq (O’Neal) or Yao is right below the worst center in the league. With Yao, the only thing I feel badly about is people try to raise expectations up so high, they’re actually satisfied with nothing that he does. I feel badly for him in that way.

“I’m not going to jump off because everyone else has.”

– Jeff Van Gundy sympathizing for Yao and showing faith in him, 11/27/05

“It wasn’t as tough for me as Yao, because I had the ball 90 percent of the time. It’s different for a guy like Yao because we have to get him the ball. I already had the ball. I can create my own shot and create shots for other guys. That’s why it’s on us to get him the ball.”

“With the rule changes and the ability to completely take a guy out of the game like they’ve been doing, it’s simple. I was trying to tell the guys, it’s on us. It’s on the guys handling the ball to get him the ball. It’s going to be hard to get him post-ups. It’s going to be hard to throw him the ball on the post with a guy playing in front of him and a guy playing behind him. With me out, all the attention is focused on Yao.”

– Teammate Tracy McGrady, wanting to help out Yao because of NBA rule changes making it difficult for centers to dominate, 11/27/05

“He had a bad stretch. We had a bad stretch. A post player is much more dependent on who he plays with than a perimeter player. Our strength as a team is not entering the ball to the post. We’re getting better.”

“Certainly the game has been made harder on the post player, and it’s a perimeter game. The foul calls the perimeter players get can be a little softer than inside. The touch fouls on the perimeter and the mayhem inside can be…for any big guy, a little bit difficult to figure out. But that’s how the league is.”

– Jeff Van Gundy on Yao’s recent troubles offensively, 11/27/05

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2005 at 7:13 pm and is filed under *What they said about Yao. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.