Our Raymond has done another great job translating an interview that Titan Sports did with Yao Ming after the Laker game, and before the Utah game. Here it is…

In the midst of the Salt Lake City night, looking out at an ice-cold and listless city from the window of his hotel room, the grief and bitterness of 6 months earlier suddenly rushed and welled into Yao Ming’s heart.

He manipulated the TV remote control in his hand, and there he saw a diminutive and bald commentator still with a pair of black eye sockets on the TV screen. Jeff Van Gundy, the man who single-handedly trained and pushed him to become the #1 center in the NBA had gone back to become a TV sports commentator. And the Houston Rockets have also said goodbye to his era of defensive-minded, rigid and mechanical style of play.

25 points and 12 rebounds: these are all career new-high for Yao Ming in an NBA season opener. Moreover, it was his very first win in season openers played away from home. But the only feeling Yao Ming had was…..it was sheer luck.

When the players came back from the Staples Center court and into the locker room, the players were joyous after surviving a near catastrophe. Yao and Tracy McGrady were joking loudly about that mistake basket by Luke Walton that gave the Rockets two points, which turned out to be the winning margin. After all the jokes and noise quieted down, a subtle Yao Ming gently said: “Well, we’ve won and that makes me happy. But we just barely made it. A slight change of fate and the result would have been completely different.”

Yao Ming felt like he had looked death in the face and avoided being slashed by a knife. While rejoicing he had survived, he still felt the cold blade on his neck along with a cold sweat on his back. Yao Ming knew that Lady Luck was smiling and was on the side of the Houston Rockets this evening. But will it continue.

One day after the win in Los Angeles, Yao Ming was still scratching his head in Salt Lake City, and gave this interview:

Question: As far as that season opener in Los Angeles is concerned, do you think it had been too dramatic with too many twists?

Yao Ming: It was very fortunate that we won or else we would have felt miserable and wronged. If we had lost that game, I would have to hide and run away from Staples Center and rush to Utah.

Question: Why and what caused the team to suddenly get caught by the Lakers the last stretch of the game?

Yao Ming: The Lakers suddenly changed tactics and played a half court 1-on-1 press, and we were not prepared for it. Throughout our preseason training camp, we had put the majority of our energy and focus in offense, particularly in the adaptation to the Princeton offense, and we had very little time to work every detail on the other parts of our game.

In the past, we had set plays to break a half-court 1-on-1 press. I would have run up court, and the ball should be controlled in the hands of smaller guards like Rafer Alston or Mike James, and they would rapidly pass the ball to me. But in that last stretch of the game in Los Angeles, we almost collapsed. Even though we finally won, we should not have played that poorly.

Question: So here comes a new season. How do you feel now that you’re again standing on the starting line (of a new season)?

Yao Ming: I am both thrilled and excited. After all, it had been a long time since I last played in the NBA. But more I think there is a lot of hard work and more responsibility in front of us. ????? Yes, a lot of hard work and more responsibility, comrades!

Question: Why is your expression and tone so low and deep? You looked entirely different from your confident looks at the start of the season in past years.

Yao Ming: Because I think there are too many uncertainties and unknowns about this team now. After all, we have a new coach, a completely new system and addition of new players. With all these new factors, I sort of became not too clear what will become of our team. And you see what happened to our first game of the season. I am just that kind of person who likes to think and sometimes over-worry a lot, and therefore I don’t feel comfortable and steadfast right now.

Maybe after we have competed in more games and get adapted to the new method of preparation for the games, then I can settle down and find my comfort zone. After all, like what I said before, the approach of game preparation of Rick Adelman is entirely different to that of Jeff Van Gundy. Currently I don’t know whether the way he prepares for the competition is effective or not. Maybe after we have won a couple of games, then I can become confident and comfortable again.

Question: At the beginning of the game, you seemed to stick to the Princeton offense (playing a lot from the high post). But you only scored 4 points in 6 minutes of play. But when you finally switched back to your customary low post position, and when the guards started to penetrate and break through, you and your team suddenly started to score and came from behind to overtake the Lakers. So, what is your assessment to your team’s adaptation of the Princeton offense?

Yao Ming: We obviously need to continue to learn and adapt to the new systems. Moreover I have this deep feeling and that we should not be just a copycat and imitate the Sacramento Kings. At the end of the day, the Princeton offense system was a system, a set of game plan/set plays designed for a team without superstars. But the present Houston Rockets do have superstars. For instance, Tracy McGrady. If you just ask Tracy McGrady to run and do all those penetration and lane-cutting without ball, then you will not be able to fully utilize his power and ability. And that includes me, too.

It is highly probable that I could easily gel and adapt to the Princeton offense when I first joined the NBA. But now that I have played for many years down at the low post, and now once again you ask me to stay and play out from the high post for long time, I’m not used to doing it anymore. Therefore I just think, if we have to adopt the Princeton offense, we have to play the Princeton offense with the Houston Rockets’ own characteristics, but definitely not the Princeton offense of the Sacramento Kings.

Question: The current situation is you play comfortably in the interior low post position, and place a lot of pressure on the defense of the opponents. And when the shooting touches of your teammates are not good, and their shots are not falling, the Houston Rockets offense will still have to depend on the interior players.

Yao Ming: Well, now that the regular season has started, my assignment in the high versus low post has already changed compared to the preseason. In the preseason, it was a 70/30 split, with 70% of my time was spent on the high post. Now it is about 50% of my time spent in the low post. I think after our first game of the season, my head coach would now have a much clearer idea of the kind of situation I can play most comfortably and am effective. I trust my head coach will take the action and make the necessary adjustment according to the game situation on a game-per-game basis.

Question: If not for that sudden lapse of concentration and collapse in that last stretch of the game, that turnaround hook shot of yours could have already closed out the game.

Yao Ming: Was that turnaround hook shot the one I took more than 4 meters away from the rim? I was with my back to the basket, and my feet were just on the free throw line; and when I turnaround and shot, I felt my entire right arm was following through with the ball. And when I made that shot, I happened to see Kareem Abdul Jabbar sitting there behind the bench of the LA Lakers.

Question: What do you think should be the more immediate and direct adjustment to you in this team?

Yao Ming: When I am in the low post, giving a lot of pressure to the opponents, we should continue the flow of our offense, and my teammates should continue to feed me with the ball unceasingly. This is particularly true in those critical clutch moments of the game.

Question: How big an effect to the team will it be as far as your adaptation to the new system is concerned?

Yao Ming: When you compare and know the proportion of my current wages to the wages of the entire team, you will know the answer to this question.

Question: So far, what is the biggest advantage and help of Rick Adelman’s new system to you?

Yao Ming: Indeed, he lets me play with much more ease. I played a total of 40 minutes in the game, and I did not feel tired or exhausted at all. It would not have been the same in the past. And in the middle of the game, we were attacking openly from all fronts, and it seemed all of my team mates can score. That surely has lessened the load from my shoulders.

Question: So you scored 25 points in the season opener, and that is your highest score in the season openers over the past 6 years. But in reality, if the new system requires you to play a lot of time from the high post, are you not a single bit worried that your personal statistics, in particular, your points scored, will drop?

Yao Ming: You need not worry about me at this point. If I need to continue to play like this, and this indeed can help to win for the team, and it is more effective than having me scored in the low post, I can certainly accept such change. This is a completely new system, and everyone needs and must accept the change, and that includes me. It is only when we cannot be effective during games under the new system, then I will make necessary adjustment and switch back to my customary low post position, just like what we did in the first game (with the LA Lakers).

Question: According to the current situation, what is your prediction about your future performance?

Yao Ming: To be specific, I tend to think that my rebounds in this season will increase, and in particular the offensive rebounds. I now stand quite far away from the boards, and it is more advantageous for me to run in to grab the rebounds. But there could be big fluctuations in my points scored. It could be 25 points for this game, and then 15 points in the next game. It is due to my assignment and position in the offense could change based on different game situations. When my points scored drops, maybe my assists number will rise. It was 3 assists this time. Maybe next game it will be 6.

Question: Talking about personal statistics, let’s talk about the personal stats of another player. Luis Scola only got 3 rebounds and zero points in his debut game, almost the same with what you got in your debut.

Yao Ming: (Laughs) Don’t you think we played with rapport and tacit understanding? I trust his ability. And when we boarded the team bus, I said to Luis Scola exactly the same words that Lao Da (Steve Francis) said to me 5 years ago after my debut game. Lao Da said: “Yao, this was only your 1st game (of the regular season). There is 81 more games after this waiting for you.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under *Interviews with Yao. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.