<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy has gone to unusually extreme measures to challenge the legitimacy of Yao Ming's foul trouble. What no one has asked ? or answered ? is why? The presumptive explanation is that the Rockets have lost three games in a row to the Mavericks after taking a surprising, and commanding, 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Coaches routinely challenge the officiating in such circumstances, right? Van Gundy simply took it too far, indicating he had inside knowledge from a referee not working in the playoffs that the league is targeting Yao. But, again, why? Why didn't he leave this battle to GM Carroll Dawson, who has been sending clips of Yao's treatment by the officials to league headquarters all season long? Why did the subject, by Van Gundy's own admission, push him over an emotional edge when his team is the lower seed?</div> Source Sounds pretty BS to me. The truth is, Yao has been getting a lot of cheap calls and the refs aren't exactly easy on him. Not because of trying to keep Yao here in Houston. Anyone have thoughts on this?
Van Gundy wants to win games, and Yao being in foul trouble hurts that cause. It's as simple as that. He's been frustrated all year with the calls Yao has been getting, and it seemed to be getting worse during the playoffs. Then, upon hearing news that Cuban complained and the NBA was going to call it even tighter on him, that pissed him off and he vented to the media. Though he never said specifically that the league has a vendetta against Yao, that's apparently how many interpreted his comments and so people are saying he has a "conspiracy theory." That's garbage. There's no conspiracy, and Van Gundy never claimed there to be one. He thinks that Yao's physical stature ("man of size" he often calls him) and his passive personality make refs more likely to call cheap fouls on him. That's not a conspiracy theory, it's an opinion (a completely legitimate one, at that). And then he hears that Yao is going to officiated even MORE closely, and who can blame his reaction? Now, David Stern is acting like a pompous blowhard and putting Van Gundy in a lose-lose position for daring to publicly criticize the league. And it doesn't matter if what Van Gundy said was legitimate. He's in an extremely unfair position.
Omg. Yao is not going anywhere. Yaos not going to leave when the Rockets are trying to build around him. Hes a loyal guy. Keeping him here is easy. Win and improve every year. And we've done that so far.
