SHANGHAI: China's All Star NBA centre Yao Ming will wed his teenage sweetheart from Shanghai in August, after an eight-year courtship, state press reported yesterday.
Yao, who has kept his love life closely guarded from the media, will marry Ye Li in a private family ceremony possibly in Shanghai, the eastern metropolis where they were born, met and began dating, the Titan Sports Weekly said.
Just this week on the telephone, there was an Eastern Conference executive studying Greg Oden抯 pre-draft physical in his office. Even now, this report still didn抰 look like the body of a 19-year old prospect, but that of an older, worn veteran.
揊rom our (trainers and doctors), there were red flags everywhere,
SALT LAKE CITY, United States (AFP) - Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko is reportedly set to walk away from 63 million dollars remaining on his National Basketball Association contract.
After translating an interview given to Russia's Sport Express newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Kirilenko said he is ready to leave the NBA and would most like to play in Moscow, leaving behind his big-money deal for his homeland.
"I am prepared to go without it," the Tribune quotes Kirilenko as saying. "This is a lot of money, even for an NBA club. So what? Maybe this money could go to pay for more players or for something else.
"I have never been unfair and I don't want to enjoy something that I don't deserve. Big money is obviously good but I'm prepared to make less. The size of my salary doesn't mean that much to me. The main thing is to play with a spark.
"I am ready for anything. I just need to leave Utah Jazz."
Lithuanian national basketball team player Ramunas Siskauskas drives to the basket against Russian national basketball player Andrei Kirilenko, who plays in the U.S. for the Utah Jazz, during their Semi-Finals of the EuroBasket Championship in Madrid, Saturday, Sept. 15 2007.
(AP Photo/Fernando Bustamante)
The Jazz, who are expecting Kirilenko to report for the start of training camp in 10 days, went 51-31 last season to win the NBA's Northwest division title.
Kirilenko, who led Russia to the European title earlier this month, said the only thing he couldn't handle was staying with the Jazz.
"The only thing I'm not prepared for is if I'm told, 'Andrei we want you to stay anyway,'" Kirilenko told the Russian newspaper. "How could you possibly rely on a player who wants to leave?"
"I would like to be where I am needed and right now I feel that my country needs me," Kirilenko said. "But I cannot exclude some European clubs.
"Trust me, I really am prepared to leave NBA. It certainly does not mean that I'm dying to go to Europe. I'm just ready."
Originally posted by ai#eru at 12-10-2007 11:56 AM
biler nak stat sizen nih bohsan dah aku tunggu. nak tgk jauh mana sgt la celtics pg
i think, with ray allen at shooting guard and garnett at power forward, they will make it to conference final (and don't forget paul pierce). they will probably face detroit (i'm actually torn between the pistons and the bulls, but chose the pistons because of their experience). if they made it to the final, they won't win though as the west has better teams than the east. pistons have better personnels to counter the teams in the west conference, such as the spurs, mavs, suns, jazz and even the nuggets (iverson and anthony combo is one of the best in the nba).
I dun think denver wud go dat far. tho i live in colo, shudda support'em but if last year was any indication, this team needs to improve on their defense, AI and melo are good on defense, anybody knows that, ii dunno denver roster dat well so i dunno if they have players (new or old) who is good at defense and ready to play harder than last year. we'll see. last year, denver, suns and golden states played interesting run and gun basketball style which is fun to watch
actually, anthony doesn't play lots of defense. he was slow getting back to defensive end. iverson is okay. their best defenders were nene hilario, a brazilian (playing center) and najera (a mexican). however, both are great shooters, and that's what will really carry denver (plus opponents will have to guard j.r. smith). goerge karl had a hard time trying to convince anthony to play defense last season.
if you watched nuggets games carefully last season, you'll realize that they have one of the best teams in the west. in the playoff last season, they gave a very good fight playing against the spurs. but, injuries really took its toll. if they are in the east, they'll be in conference final easily. in the west, because of so many great teams, it's very hard for to go pass the second round.
the suns need to play defense too. they cannot depend on their up tempo style. the same goes with the warriors. offense wins games, but defense wins championships (if you can't score, you can't win and that's what san antonio has been doing to their opponents all these years).
#. I actually wanted to say offense and not defense. sorry my bad. damn the schoolwork
have you seen kobe play defense before. if melo has the confidence, he can play defense too. from what I've seen, physically, melo and kobe are the same.
anthony can play defense. he just doesn't want to (that's what george karl has been trying to do last season). can he play better defense than kobe? may be. but, i don't think he can be as great as gary payton. if he can reach pippen level, that's a big accomplishment (pippen was first team all-league defender for many seasons). the way i see him right now, he's more like shawn kemp during his prime, but with less tenacity but better shooting range.
physically, anthony is better than kobe. talentwise, kobe is at least 3 notches up (and more athletic). anthony is not in the same league as kobe - i don't think he'll ever be (there's only one michael jordan and kobe is better than jordan at this stage of their career). kobe can play defense, though not as great as gary 'the glove' payton when he was at his prime. kobe is not in the same league as pippen either. but, his defense is good enough to not be a liability to his team. in fact, he can be trusted to guard the best guard of an opponent without being helped throughout the game. even if he missed his assignment here and there, his shooting will be more than enough to compensate that.
that's what i'm saying. melo can play offense, maybe not as great as kobe and jordan, but we know he can dribble and shoot the ball well, but if he can regularly help his teammate in defense, denver will be a championship contender team.
offtopic: hey shud u throw one thread for college hoops. think it's a great idea
China's Yao Ming stars as the Rockets down Golden State
HOUSTON: China抯 giant centre Yao Ming scored a season-high 36 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as he carried the Houston Rockets on his back in a 111-107 win over Golden State on Tuesday.
Yao was back in the line-up after missing Sunday抯 game against Utah, but this time Tracy McGrady sat out with the same problem
Shaquille抯 streak of 14 straight NBA All-Star selections ends
MIAMI: Someone told Shaquille O扤eal a few days ago that he wasn抰 selected for the NBA All-Star Game, an erroneous statement at the time only because the coaches
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Post time 20-8-2007 11:04 AM
