BLOG ROLL

Aarisings

Asian-Nation

Secretasianman

Sunday - 11/23/08

WEEKEND UPDATE

 - Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets defeated Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic 100-95 on Saturday. In the much awaited match-up between the two top centers, Yao Ming was the decisive winner with 22 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block to Dwight Howard's 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks. It comes as no surprise really because Howard's never matched up well against Yao who has owned the Magic's center in the past several seasons. Dwight Howard for his part has mad respect for Yao saying that he learns something new every time he faces the Great Wall. While he may overtake Yao in a few years, Howard for now is still the grasshopper.

Yao and Howard's chest bump show their mutual respect for each other as the last of the great NBA centers in the league.

- Yi Jianlian was equally impressive in scoring a season high 27 points to lead the New Jersey Nets to a victory over the LA Clippers on Saturday. His final tally was 27 points, 6 rebounds and two blocks in the 125-95 victory at the IZOD center. He shot an impressive 9-of-15 from the floor and was 3-of-5 from the three point line. He also garnered the greatest praise to date from team captain Vince Carter.

"He is so important to us," Carter said of Yi. "He spreads the floor, he is 7-feet tall. He's long, creates tough matchups and has the ability to shoot over people. We have enormous confidence in him and what he brings to the team. He doesn't even have to have the 27 points to be effective."

This was Yi's second highest scoring game in the NBA. His highest was a 29 point game last year when he was with the Milwaukee Bucks, but something tells me the will shatter the 30 point mark pretty soon too. Playing consistently at a high level will probably be harder than scoring in bunches however.

- Daisuke Matsuzaka has announced that he will play in the 2009 World Baseball Classic to help Japan defend their title. Not surprising considering he was the MVP of that inaugural sporting event back in 2006 where he was 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA in three starts including the championship game against Cuba. He will be joined by Seattle Mariners Ichiro Suzuki on the Japanese squad. New York Yankees Hideki Matsui will not play because he will still be recovering from knee surgery.

Dice-K was a relative unknown in 2006 when he dominated his opponents in the World Baseball Classic. In 2009 he better bring his A-game cause he no longer has the element of surprise on his side and everyone will be gunning for him and the Japanese defending champions.

- Chien-Ming Wang is back in Taiwan and has announced that he has fully recovered from his foot injury and is feeling good and ready for 2009. With all the talk about the potential that CC Sabathia might become a Yankee, Wang has been all but forgotten in the media. However his fans have not forgotten that he had been the Yankee's ace for the past three seasons and is an integral part of their success. Wang will probably not be able to play in the World Baseball Classic next year but he does hope to be on the mound for the Yankees as the opening day starter in 2009. I hope to see you up there two Wanger, Pride of Taiwan!

Thursday - 11/20/08

Yao and Yi both down but not out. Yi Jianlian strained his neck during practice on Wednesday and had to get X-rays. He is just one of several Nets who have been ailing including forward Eduardo Najera and center Josh Boone. Luckily the reports are that Yi's injury is not severe, though there is no word if he will be able to suit up to play Toronto on tomorrow.

Yao Ming is scheduled to play on Friday despite sitting out Wednesday's loss to the Mavericks. Yao had some soreness in his left foot and the Rockets made him sit out the game as a precautionary measure. Yao thought he could play but did as he was told and did not complain as he would have done in the past. Obviously after what has happened the past few years, he has matured and realizes that he needs to listen to his body and his trainers. If that means sitting out games and cutting back on workouts in order to make it through a full 81 game season, so be it. 

Yao's early play this year has not seem quite as impressive as last year and that may be because he is coming back from injury or the fact that he hasn't pushed himself as hard in training. While I would like to see him put up bigger numbers, I would still prefer this more moderate approach if it means he can stay health and fresh going into the playoffs.

Lose the battle, win the war. Enjoy your downtime & come back stronger.

Tuesday - 11/18/08

Japanese Girl Drafted by Pro Baseball Team - Eri Yoshida became Japan's first female professional baseball player on Monday when she was drafted by an independent league team. Apparently this 16 year old girl has a great knuckleball and she knows just how to use it on the boys.

The 5 foot, 114 pounder became interested in the knuckleball after seeing Tim Wakefield of the Red Sox in a video. Ever since then she has been honing her skills and dreaming about playing in the big leagues. "I'm really happy I stuck with baseball," Yoshida said in a news conference after she was chosen with 32 other players in the new league's draft. "I want to pitch against men."

It looks like she wants to be like Michelle Wie, but unfortunately she will probably be heading down the same path. The team that signed her is a far cry from the long established Central and Pacific leagues in the Japanese majors and some people are already calling this a publicity stunt. Even so, I hope Eri gets a chance to test her skill against the men and hopefully she will do okay. At 5 feet and 114 lbs, that would be an incredible achievement in and of itself.

I say let the girl play, and we'll see soon enough if she belongs.

Sunday - 11/16/08

It's Tough to be a Yi Jianlian Fan - There will be good days and bad days for Yi Jianlian but does the bad days have to be THAT bad? Yi scored only 4 points on 2-6 shooting in 21 minutes on Saturday in a Nets victory over the Atlanta Hawks. In the game the night before he scored even less, only 3 points on 1-4 shooting. Granted he only played 19 minutes that night but still, talk about your back to back stinkers.

Yi's game is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get when he steps on the court. He is kinda lucky that he has a built-in support system in the Chinese-American & Chinese community and that fan base alone will take him a long way. But if he wants to be accepted and embraced by the NBA fan community, he better learn to bring it on a daily basis, night in and night out.

Can Yi Jianlian ever become a household name outside of Chinatown? Hey if Yao Ming can have a guest appearance on The Simpsons and a commercial with Mini- Me, anything is possible.

Thursday - 11/13/08

Sun Yue's First Points in the NBA - Found this on Youtube but it was a pre-season game only.

Tuesday - 11/11/08

Yi Jianlian's Breakout Game Offers Glimpse of Potential - The Nets finally got a chance to see what Yi Jianlian was made of and it must have been an encouraging sign for them despite the fact that they lost the game. Yi had his best game as a Nets, dropping 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 99-94 loss against the Miami Heat last night at American Airlines Arena. He also had four assists but the most impressive stat was that he hit 5 three pointers, a career high.

This shows that Yi does have the long range shooting touch of a Dirk Nowitzki and it gives credibility to the comparisons of the two players. With his new found intensity in rebounding and defense, Yi Jianlian is beginning to look more and more like the type of complete player that his team needs to take it to the next level.

I would be flexing too if I had just hit 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Sunday - 11/9/08

Rockets Crushed by Lakers -  Tonight's game was just painful to watch by any Rockets or Yao Ming fans. Well in fact the past couple of games this past week have been tough for Houston and Yao Ming particularly. Despite a great 3-0 start at the beginning of the season, Houston has since fallen to 4-3 and they were blown away by the Lakers tonight 111-82. It didn't help that Ron Artest was 2 of 11 and Tracy McGrady was 1 of 11. Tracey described it as one of the worst games of his career and Yao said it was the WORST game they ever had.

This was coming off a week in which Yao struggled to find his game and the Rocket's lost a heart-breaker in overtime to the Portland Trailblazers where there were 3 game winning shots in the last 2 seconds on the game. The Rockets came up just short in that one, but that seems to be happening more often than not as of late. With the Lakers at 5-0 and Celtics at 6-1 records, it seems that the Rockets just ain't at that level yet this early in the season. Still compared to the troubles faced by their fellow Texas neighbors Dallas (2-4) and San Antonio (1-4) they have a lot to be thankful for. They say everything is bigger in Texas but they sure are a falling hard early in this season.

What about Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue? Well Yi put up decent numbers in a few previous games but on Saturday night he stunk against the Indiana Pacers, shooting 1-for-10 from the floor but at least he had 11 rebounds. Still the Nets are 2-3 and it doesn't look like they will do any contending this year. Sun Yue can be spotted sitting behind the Lakers in civilian clothes, and I have no idea what's the deal with that boy.

China's "Big-3" has been off to a slow start this year.

Friday - 11/7/08

Amare Stoudemire's Art of War -  Which NBA superstar has the greatest Chinese nickname? Would it be "Great Wall" (Yao Ming), "Easy Yi" (Yi Jianlian) or "Q-Tip (Sun Yue)? The answer is none of the above. The honor goes to Phoenix Suns power forward Amare Stoudemire's new nickname, Sun Tzu.

For those of you who flunked world history, Sun Tzu was a famous Chinese general back in the ancient times who wrote the book The Art of War. His book on military strategy was so revolutionary and relevant that it is still applicable today and is required reading for many military organizations around the world including the US military.

Stoudemire apparently is a fan on Sun Tzu and was thrilled with his new nickname and wanted to tell everyone who would listen. "Sun Tzu, his motto is, the way he prepares for battle, he uses deception. So, like, let's say we go out to play a game, right, and the New Jersey Nets say Amaré can't go to his left; he's going to go right. But I know what they're thinking, that I'm going to go right. So I go left. Because I'm a master of deception, so that's why they call me Sun Tzu," Stoudemire said.

While it's good to see that some NBA players know their history, I don't think this nickname will stick cause the average NBA fan probably don't know the difference between General Sun Tzu and General Tso's chicken. I give the nickname 2 weeks.

Stoudemire better be careful not to tattoo Sun Tzu in Chinese on his body cause it will probably end up reading General Tso's chicken instead. Me Chinese, me play joke...

Tuesday - 11/4/08

Congratulations President Obama! -  The son of an immigrant who grew up without a father and in a family of modest means, Barack Obama makes history tonight becoming the first African-American president of the United States. Whatever your politics, that is just damn inspirational and it makes me proud to be an American.

Monday - 11/3/08

Liu Xiang's Coming to America with Gifts - Chinese 110 meter World Champion Liu Xiang is looking to come stateside and get his Achilles looked at by Yao Ming's surgeon in Houston Texas. The last time we saw Liu he was limping off the track at the Beijing Olympics in disgust and defeat because he could not compete or defend his Olympic gold title. Now months later, insult is added to injury as the Chinese media with their wonderful grasp of the English language says Liu may need psychological help.

Okay, I know what they meant to say was that Liu was depressed and a shadow of his former self. Who wouldn't be after facing the biggest disappointment of their career? I mean the guy missed his one and only chance to win Olympic gold in China, it was indeed a once in a lifetime opportunity. Still, he needs to get over it and focus on getting healthy because he could still potentially make a comeback and become a force on the track again. First thing's first. Fix his leg and deliver his two Transformers toy gifts to Yao Ming for hooking him up with a good doctor.

Yes you heard it correctly. Liu Xiang is coming to America bearing Transformers gifts for his friend Yao Ming. Guess that is an example of Asian men acting like Asian men. LOL.

If Yao was a Transformer he would be Optimus Prime. Liu Xiang could be Rodimus Prime at best.  

Previous Entries