I was able to talk to Yao, Shane Battier and Luther Head after Game 5 on Monday night. Before getting access to the locker room, there were probably 20 members of the media waiting outside the door during the 10-minute period when the locker room is kept private.

When the doors finally opened and the media was allowed to enter the locker room, there must have been 15 reporters and cameramen that immediately surrounded Yao as he sat at his locker. Yao was still in his basketball shorts with his shirt off, and his legs were extended out in front of him.

It was funny when Dikembe Mutombo, sitting a couple of lockers over from Yao, jokingly yelled out “Security!!” and was shouting at the reporters to not step on Yao’s feet. It was quite humorous because he ranted in jest about a minute on it. That’s not unusual for Deke. He seems to be quite the locker room crack-up.

However, Dikembe had a point because I noticed how closely a couple of cameramen were standing around Yao’s feet. I even said “watch his feet” to a couple of guys right next to me because they were so close to his feet, and if they moved one inch, they would have stepped on his bare toes.

Well, in the middle of his interviews, Yao moved his leg to get more comfortable, but he had to do it blindly since he couldn’t even see his feet because all the microphones in his face were blocking his view to the floor.

When Yao did move his leg, wouldn’t you know it: he accidentally hit the leg of a cameraman with his sensitive big toe that had been operated on last year (and still looks torn up), and he let out a painful “aaaahhhhh!!” That’s when the media wisely backed up from his feet and gave him some space. Fortunately, Yao was fine and he was able to continue with the interviews.

Anyway, I was able to ask Yao about a key bucket he had late in the game where he was able to lay it in over Mehmet Okur without any problem, and asked what he did differently on that play to get such good position (compared to the other 12 shots he missed out of 18 attempts). Yao responded…

“I missed a lot of shots because I was thinking about it too much sometimes. On that one, I have a very clear mind. I don’t care about (getting my shot blocked). I just go quick.”

I then went over to Shane and asked him a question about the couple of occasions he passed off to Rafer Alston and Luther when he himself had an open 3-pointer (surprising since he was so hot from behind the arc on 5-of-7 shooting). Shane replied…

“It’s about ball movement. It’s funny, when you play the game the right way the basketball Gods reward you. When you make the extra pass, you’re rewarded more often than not. And so when we’re moving the ball like that, good things happen to us, too.”

I then went over to Luther where he was being interviewed by some other media, and I overheard him telling them, “Just keep shooting the ball. Just keeping shooting the ball.” Obviously a sign that his teammates still have confidence in him.

I asked him how he took it to the hole a couple of times and if it loosened him up a little bit: He answered, “Yeah, because you’re doing more. When you actually touch the ball, and you dribble it in and gets you in a rhythm and that definitely helps.”

I then asked – after he hit a couple of three-pointers in Game 5 – if it reminds him of when he snapped out of shooting slumps in the past. Luther responded…

“Definitely. Like last year my rookie year I started off well. But then I went through a little – I guess they call it the ‘rookie wall.’ And this year I was shooting and then I went through a (period) where I wasn’t making them. But you know, it can be any shot that changes it for you. Any shot. It can be a free throw that changes it. It can be a layup that changes it. So hopefully that changes it.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm and is filed under *Interviews with Yao, vs. Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.