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Secretasianman

Saturday - 12/29/07

Nothing Can Stop THE YAO MING

Yao has been playing like the Juggernaut (of X-Men fame) as of late. Nothing can stop him. Not a sprained thumb, facial cuts & stitches over his left eye, or the flu can prevent Yao from leading his team in the absence of Tracy McGrady. The guy is a true warrior and it showed tonight as the big man battled through the flu to lead the Rockets to a second consecutive win beating the Toronto Raptors 91-79. Yao had also led them to victory on Friday against the Grizzlies scoring 22 points with 12 rebounds. Tonight he dropped 25 points and 11 rebounds on the Raptors in a heroic effort despite having difficulty breathing throughout the game. Hear that Yao haters? The man is not soft, it's you fat couch potato wannabes that be soft. Yao is Da MAN!

  Heart of a Champion

Friday - 12/28/07

Boxing Analyst's List of Heavy Hitters Lack KO Power

ESPN is currently running an article listing the Top 10 hardest punchers in heavyweight history. They listed Mike Tyson at No. 1 followed by a list of boxing greats including Sonny Liston, Joe Louis, George Foreman, and Lennox Lewis. Now I know this kind of list is a popularity contest but it's rather sad that David Tua was not mentioned. After all, Tua ranks 2nd in most opponents knocked down in the first round, second only to Mike Tyson. What says punching power more than that? Tua may not be as accomplished as the fighters named on this list but he could probably punch harder than most of them.

Tuesday - 12/25/07

Merry Christmas!

Yi Tops List of Rookie Power Rankings

For this week at least Yi Jianlian is ranked #1 on the rookie rankings list of Drew Packham SportsIllustrated's column. Watch these highlights from his most recent game to see why Yi is starting to get some love from the media.

This slam dunk on Dirk is impressive as well. He's gotta be the quickest 7 footer in the league!

Sunday - 12/23/07

Yi's Career High 29 Points Leads Bucks to Victory

 Whoooweee, Yi's da MAN! At least he was last night as he dropped 29 points while collecting 10 rebounds to defeat the Charlotte Bobcasts 103-99 at the Bradley Center. Yi was on automatic, making all 12 of his shots before missing one in the third quarter. For the game he shot 14 of 17 and had three steals in 43 minutes of play, another season-high for him. "He was awesome, that's all I can say," exclaimed teammate Mo Williams. "Yi never surprises me. He was just unbelievable," remarked coach Larry Krystkowiak.

Yi's learning to fly right before our eyes. How high can he go, nobody knows.

Wednesday - 12/19/07

Yao Ming & Dwight Howard - A Couple of Dinosaurs

Tonight the two top centers of the NBA went at it and unfortunately Yao Ming and the Rockets lost 97-92 to Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. Yao had 19 points and a season high 17 rebounds while Dwight had 21 points and 11 rebounds in the contest. Tracy McGrady got hurt again but the Rockets have been hurting themselves with or without him. Still it was a good game between the two big men who share a mutual admiration for each other. Yao is impressed by Dwight's power and athleticism while Dwight can't get over Yao's size and tree-trunk legs wondering if Yao rode a bike all his life in China. Okay Dwight, let's not go there shall we? Everyone knows Yao is too big to ride a bike. He got his huge legs pulling a rickshaw of course! What does Yao think of the increasingly rare low-post matchups between skilled dominant big men? "I feel like we're dinosaurs, almost done," Yao said.

Sunday - 12/16/07

Weekend Summary

-Yao Ming and the Rockets lost on Saturday to the Dallas Mavericks 96-83. While Yao Ming had 28 points and 14 rebounds shooting 10-of-18, the rest of the Rockets shot a pathetic 36 percent from the floor. Poor Yao. It must be hard to work and fight so hard only to lose another game. Yeah, I'm blaming his teammates.

-Yi Jianlian scored a career high 22 points last night in a close 95-92 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yi shot 9-for-14 and had seven rebounds. Great game for Yi to show his worth which is growing considerably by the day for Milwaukee.

-Tiger Woods won the Target World Challenge on Sunday with a final-round 68 for a total of 22-under par 266. This is the fourth time he has won this event and as before will donate his $1.35 million in winnings to his Tiger Woods Foundation. He gave his daughter Sam Alexis her second victory kiss on the 18th green saying, "This year on the golf course, it's been a great year. Off the course, it's been the greatest year I've ever had." Nice. If I was Tiger I would definitely have more kids, a clan even. Then I would teach each one to play a different sport and see what happens in 10-15 years. Hehe.

-Hiroki Kuroda has signed a three year, $35 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32 right-handed pitcher was a coveted free agent who was also sought by the Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Kansas City Royals before signing with the Dodgers. His decision to play in America is not without pressure as he will be expected to perform well for the big bucks spent. He earned less than $3 million last year playing in Japan. It's safe to say that for baseball players America is the land of opportunity!

Brace yourself for the negativity from haters and doubters Hiroki. Make the trek from Japan and it will come.

Thursday - 12/13/07

Yi Drops 18 Points in Win Over Orlando Magic

In his second highest scoring game of the season, Yi was money last night as he shot 7 for 11 from the field finishing with 18 points and seven rebounds. It was a solid 100-86 Bucks' victory over the recently struggling Magic and a much needed win for Yi and company. "Tonight we did a great job out there," Yi said. "We passed the ball, shared the ball and a lot of points came from the assists." Hear that Michael Redd and Mo Williams? Pass the ball to your big man and the wins will come. Yi was decisive and strong in last nights game probably because he wanted to give a good showing to CBA director Li Yuanwei and Hong Yuan Club GM Chen Haitao who were in the stands. Yi really seems to pick it up for the big games as he also had a great game in the much hyped Yao/Rockets meeting where he scored 19 points. He will need to give the Bucks more of these type performances as they desperately need to improve on their poor 9-12 standing. Yi will get his chance on Friday against the red hot Kevin Garnett and Boston Celtics.

Wednesday - 12/12/07

Tiger's Wife Wins Suit Over Fake Tabloid Nude Photo

Man those tabloid folks should know better than to go after the wife of the world's most famous athlete and think they can get away. An Irish magazine posted a faked nude photo of Tiger Wood's wife Elin Nordegren Woods accompanied by a offensive article to create controversy before the September 2006 Ryder Cup. Elin sued and has now won $183,250 and an apology from the magazine publisher who conceded the article "was cheap, tasteless, and deliberately offensive." The article had described the U.S. golfers' wives as "Ryder Cup filth" and insulted the wives of Woods, Chad Campell, David Toms, and Jim Furyk. Now they have to pay up and Elin will put it to good use donating the money to a cancer charity.

What kind of cheap sophomoric morons would attack somebody's wife over a sports competition? The primary focus on Elin makes me wonder if has anything to do with the fact that she is married to an Asian/Black man. (Tiger by blood is technically more Asian than Black) You never know. For the record, Elin has never posed or been photographed nude much to the chagrin of men everywhere. The lady is a class act just like her husband.

Tuesday - 12/11/07

Tiger Woods Wins PGA Player of the Year Award Again

Not that it's a big surprise, Tiger was voted Golfer of the Year by his U.S. PGA tour peers again for 2007. It's the ninth time Tiger has won this award since 1997 and his third consecutive win. Woods won seven tournaments this year including his 13th major. "I had a chance in three of four majors this year," Woods said. "I was just a few shots away from basically doing what I did in 2000." Tiger is referring to that stellar year where he won three majors and nine PGA events. With 2008 around the corner, Tiger looks to continue his dominance over the field but he does have one worthy competitor left in Roger Federer. He may need to win more than one major next year if he wants to maintain his lead over Roger who is sitting on 12 majors, just one behind.

Yao Calls Rockets SOFT After Disappointing Loss

The Rockets lose again and Yao is not mincing words about what he thinks regarding this year's team. "When you are soft yourself, everything will feel tough," Yao said after the Rockets lost 100-88 to the Sixers who led by as much as 31 points during the game. "It's not because they are so tough. It's because of how soft we are. It's weird that we changed that quick. I never had that feeling. I feel like they traded me to another team, a new team I've never been on before."

Ouch. It sounds like Yao feels like he is on Bizarro world with a bunch of pansy guys that are weak. For his sake I hope he is wrong. Read more about what ails the Rockets here.

Sunday - 12/9/07

Weekend Summary

-The Rockets lost to the Raptors 93-80 tonight as Toronto's swarming defense slowed down Yao and Tracy with double teams. This has become a recurring theme. If you can slow down Yao & McGrady then the game is as good as won cause the the rest of the Rockets will not make you pay cause they cannot make open shots. This was a really pathetic game and Yao was quite livid about it which was interesting to see. "I feel this is the worst game I ever had in my career," Yao said. "When we played on the court, no intensity, no patience, no (adherence to the) game plan, don't know our game, don't know their game, no trust (of) each other, no defense. I hate this game. I hated it. It's all on us. Us. I'm one of us." I think Yao is being poliet to include himself and I think the big fella is getting tired of carrying the load for his lazy teammates.

-The Bucks lost dual games to the Sonics and Trailblazers on Friday and Sunday and they are definitely in a funk, losing seven of their last eight games. Yi Jianlian had a respectable 13 points on Friday but it was rookie Kevin Durant who was the star of the show with 35 points matching his career high. Of course Yi isn't allowed to shoot with impunity like Durant or else his numbers would also look much better I'm sure. Still he needs to avoid games like this one against the Trailblazers in which he only scored 5 points. 

-It's official, Kosuke Fukudome is coming to America. Fukudome is a lefty-hitting outfielder who is consider a cross between Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui and is the top position player from Japan available this offseason. He is expected to probably land up playing for the Cubs or White Sox and make $40+ million for four years. Not too shabby Mr. Fukudome. Possible nicknames for Kosuke? K-DOME or K-FUK? Hehe, much more likely the former than the latter.

Knock one out of the Fukudome will ya?

Thursday - 12/6/07

Yao Ming's Leadership Qualities Begin to Show

Yao Ming had 24 points and 13 rebounds last night in a 105-92 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. It was a good balanced victory in that everyone got involved with five Rockets scoring in double digits. Tracy McGrady got his third career triple-double which is surprising as I figured he would have had more than that. This was a good win and but what I'm really glad to see is that Yao is finally acting like a leader for the team.

Take Sunday's loss to the Sacramento Kings for example. The refs were cheating Yao all night and when he got his sixth and final foul he let them have it. Sure he was was ejected but it didn't matter as he was already out of the game and it was great to see him yelling and showing that passion. A few days later Yao calls out this teammates saying, "Come early in the morning before practice. Maybe stay for a half-hour and take a couple hundred shots like I do every day." He was referring to the poor shooting percentage of his teammates who are making 44% on field goals. Yao is shooting 50.9%. It seems that Yao has finally realized that he needs to be more assertive with regards to his leadership role and speaking his mind is a great way to start.  

Don't make Yao angry. You won't like him when he's angry!

China Wins First Miss World Crown

Congratulations to Miss China Zhang Zilin who was crowned as Miss World 2007 at the 57th Miss World Pageant at Sanya, China on December 1st. The 6 foot tall 23-year old beauty is China's first Miss World and wants to be the link between the Beijing Olympic Games and the Miss World Organization. While beauty pageants are not exactly a 'real' competition like sports, I do respect the ladies because they are really trying hard and competing in looking good and stuff. Miss Zhang certainly has that down to a science. What a beauty!

Japan wins Miss Universe and China wins Miss World. Looking good ladies!

Sunday - 12/2/07

Rockets and Bucks Both Lose Weekend Games

Rick Adelman's got a standing ovation from his former team's fans in Sacramento for his part in getting the Kings to eight straight playoff appearances. However there was little more to cheer about after that as his former team beat his current Rocket's team 107-99 on Saturday night. Like other teams, the Kings fronted and doubled Yao Ming all night and forced the rest of the the Rockets to deliver. They couldn't. Yao had 29 points and 11 rebounds and McGrady had 40 points to lead Houston but they were the only two players in double figures. The Kings on the other hand had five players in double figures. The Rockets' record is now at 9-9 slipping back to .500.

The Milwaukee Bucks also lost last night to the Detroit Pistons 117-91. This was their fourth game in five nights and they lost all four. Yi Jianlian had 8 points and 2 rebounds in 21 minutes for the Bucks. Tough schedule but even tougher losses as they now drop to 7-8, falling below .500.Very disappointing to say the least.

Yao is clearly frustrated with the Rocket's poor offense.

Kaz Matsui is going to the Houston Astros

Another Asian man is coming to the land of the Great Wall. Kaz Matsui finalized a $16.5 million, three-year contract with the Houston Astros today. The 32 year old second baseman batted .288 with four homers and 37 RBIs for, stealing 32 bases and scoring 84 runs. His ability to steal bases and move runners is exactly what the Houston Astros were looking for and Kaz will likely bat second behind their speedy center fielder Michael Bourn. This is good news for Kaz, and I'm glad to see him get the contract he deserves. I just hope that he can find the same great chemistry and synergy with the Astros that he had with the Rockies.     

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