Happiness alert — Yao Ming playing basketball, making jokes
Happiness alert — Yao Ming playing basketball
making jokes
Hey
who wants to get their smile on up in here? Everyone? Good. Watch this video. Yep
that’s the one and only Yao Ming sweating to the oldies in his first public workout since breaking his left foot into a million little pieces — no James Frey. And while it’s good to see Yao moving
still having a soft jumper
and with his sense of humor intact
the really good stuff is that Yao has been cleared for all basketball activities by the Rockets team doctor and he’s expecting to play in the team opener. Get your smiles ready because there’s a happy-making Associated Press blockquote only a split-second away. Houston Rockets All-Star center Yao Ming is confident that he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season after a team doctor declared his surgically repaired foot fully healed.Yao missed last season after undergoing complex surgery on his left foot in July 2009. Team doctor Tom Clanton has cleared Yao to resume basketball activities.The Rockets had said all along that they expected Yao to play in 2010-11. Yao was still relieved when he got the official diagnosis.”I am very excited
” Yao said Tuesday. “I am just looking forward to playing a great season. I think I can count on my foot now.” [...]General manager Daryl Morey says the team will be cautious with Yao and limit his minutes early in the season. Morey said Clanton’s diagnosis was a “key hurdle” in Yao’s road back.”It’s great news
” Morey said. “It’s what we anticipated
but until you get over these milestones
you’re never for sure. He looks like his old self. He still has a ways to go on his wind and things like that. But it’s just good to see him out there.”Word to Daryl Morey because this really is great news
all around. Good for the Rockets since this makes them such a tough team. Good for Yao since he seems happy and confident in his recovery
which is a big change from his most recent comments. Good for us to get to see a talent like Yao on the court again. Heck
the limiting minutes part is even good since it means we’ll get a whole lot of super fresh Brad Miller action to kick off the upcoming season. It’s a real win-win-win-win situation. Sure
there’s no telling how effective Yao is going to be after a year away from competitive hoops
but right now that doesn’t really matter. He’s happy
has faith in his foot and — most important — is actually playing basketball again. That’s party time
excellent if you ask me. Video via Clutch Fans.
BDL Review: ‘Jordan Rides the Bus’
Right off the top: “Jordan Rides the Bus
” which premieres tonight at 8 p.m. to kick off the fall slate of ESPN’s acclaimed “30 for 30″ documentary series
isn’t really a basketball movie. Most the film’s 51 minutes deal with Michael Jordan’s retirement from the NBA after the 1992-93 season and his decision to pursue a professional baseball career. The flick is much more about breaking balls than crossovers.Frankly
“Jordan Rides the Bus” isn’t particularly compelling
especially when lined up next to some of the other excellent “30 for 30″ presentations – it doesn’t have the dramatic flourish of “Winning Time
” the challenging scope of “No Crossover” or the poetic narrative of “Guru of Go.” There are no new interviews with Jordan himself. There’s no one moment that wows you. At times
the tale of Jordan’s stint with the Birmingham Barons feels procedural. Boring
even.There’s something bigger here for hoops fans
though
because the film also attempts to examine (if not directly answer) the question of why the quintessential basketball figure of the past quarter-century chose to walk away from the immortality he’d earned on the court.In a personal statement featured on the film’s Web site
director Ron Shelton
an ex-minor leaguer himself
s
ays he has “a unique appreciation” for just how great a challenge Jordan accepted. At the time
Jordan’s willingness to submit to the tyranny of the quotidian (“The bus rides
the lack of days off
the daily routine of it all can be brutal”) as a farmhand with the Chicago White Sox’s Double-A affiliate captured Shelton’s imagination. Nearly two decades later
there’s something that still sticks in the craw of the writer/director behind “Bull Durham” and “White Men Can’t Jump” – how severely we’ve miscast Jordan’s choice of the come-up.At a personal level
I’ve always felt that this chapter in Jordan’s life was misunderstood. Instead of being an exercise of his ego
it was quite the opposite. … There’s nothing like this in sports history: The greatest player of all time in one sport submits himself to the gauntlet that mere mortal athletes have to go through daily.The thesis is given voice in the film by David Falk
Jordan’s former agent
who notes the “enormous amount of courage [it takes] to walk away from being a king and sort of walk with the common man.” Shelton smartly leavens the line by juxtaposing it with a clip of Jordan signing frantic fans’ autographs at the ballpark
and then follows it with a low-angle
“Citizen Kane”-style shot of Jordan that makes him look like a striding colossus in sunglasses. The choices highlight the obvious: No matter how many ex-Barons swear by Jordan’s “just one of the guys” commitment and hard work
he could never actually be common people
underscoring the unique nature of the endeavor.And make no mistake
it was unique. Other legends have stepped away in the primes of their respective careers for one reason or another – Ted Williams and Willie Mays leaving the diamond to serve in the military
Muhammad Ali losing three years in the ring for his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War
Barry Sanders retiring from the NFL at age 31 because losing was killing him
etc. But none of those quite fit; Jordan falling back after a three-peat to go bush league doesn’t have a clean analogue.(I do think Jordan’s journey might map onto Joseph Campbell’s monomyth framework – his father’s challenge to play ball as the call to adventure
then-Barons skipper Terry Francona as his guide
Birmingham as belly of the beast
etc. – but trying to hammer it out here would probably be an analytical overstep. Plus
you don’t want this wordpile to spin into an MJ/Siddhartha/Odysseus tale of the tape.)The unprecedented nature of the story seems to make it fertile ground for a film that can teach us something. By the time the credits roll
though
viewers who were already up on the basics of Jordan’s stretch in the minors aren’t likely to feel they’ve learned much more about the episode. (Quickly: He stinks at the start
he improves as a hitter and quiets some haters through relentless work in the batting cage
and he bounces back to the Chicago Bulls after balking at being a replacement player during baseball’s 1994-95 work stoppage.)But if they’re open to it
basketball fans might feel like they’ve gotten something valuable – a rare glimpse of Jordan the Athlete’s failings
and not just to stay north of the Mendoza Line.The film opens with Jordan as conquering marauder
his indomitable will on display as his Bulls defeat Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals. NBC announcer Marv Albert extols Jordan’s virtues as he celebrates the Bulls’ third straight title
both on the court and in the locker room. The focus then shifts to Jordan as dutiful son
pouring champagne on his father James as they pose together for photos.But just as quickly as we’re introduced to Jordan: Master of the Universe
the rug’s pulled out from underneath him. The joyful father-son moment is interrupted by a voiceover from Michael’s childhood friend
David Bridgers: “I first found out about it when I was sitting home
watching TV. They found Mr. J. in a creek
face down.”We see Jo
rdan weeping at the funeral that followed James Jordan’s murder. (Daniel Green
one of the men convicted of the July 23
1993 crime
recently claimed he would be exonerated.) The stage is set for change; now that Michael has lost his compass
we can understand his need for reorientation. Jordan references fulfilling his father’s wishes (“My father presented the challenge to me before he died – it was to try to play baseball – and I just wanted to try”) as a primary reason for his midstream change. One other potential explanation for his exit – that NBA Commissioner David Stern put Jordan on ice in response to his high-stakes gambling issues – is summarily dismissed. Former Bulls teammate Steve Kerr calls it “the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life … because Michael was the golden goose
” and Stern would never willingly sacrifice Jordan-as-meal-ticket for 18 months. Longtime Chicago Tribune scribe and “The Jordan Rules” author Sam Smith dismisses the “ludicrous” notion of MJ’s banishing because “it’s not possible to keep a secret in the NBA.”The brief exploration is unlikely to satisfy conspiracy theorists and the relative lack of depth in the discussion won’t add much to fans’ understanding of the situation
but discussing the gambling angle also allows Shelton to take the press to task for their repeated references to Jordan’s baseball pursuit as ridiculous and for the speculative connection of MJ’s gambling to James Jordan’s death. “There’s no question that when Michael’s father died
it was right around when all the gambling was swirling around
” legendary hoops writer Jack McCallum says. “And we in the press
somehow being who we are
just couldn’t help looking to somehow put that together.”Mostly
though
the narrative steers toward Jordan needing to restore his hunger. Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and then-coach Phil Jackson both say that Jordan told them burnout was the main reason for his retirement; in a clip
Jordan says he “needed a change
and I totally needed a break – I just felt I was being engulfed by the success that I’d gathered at that time.” He talks about how he lost a “sense of motivation and the sense … to prove something as a basketball player.” Late in “Jordan Rides the Bus
” he explains how his time in Birmingham rekindled the fire:… the new players who were 10 years younger than I am
maybe some of them 11 … they had an attitude toward the game that they truly loved. Because it was just a game
it was a dream that they were fulfilling. I kind of lost that in the realm of what was happening with me and with basketball. I mean
I was on a pedestal for so long that I forgot about the steps to get to that.The experience made Jordan a better leader
according to Jackson:… To be a really good team
you had to bring out all [of your teammates'] gifts and help [them] be better players. And I think he was capable of doing that much better in his second career as an NBA basketball player. I think he was much more generous with his time
I think he was much more encouraging as a teammate.Jackson’s assessment offers some interesting shading to Jordan’s legacy in Chicago and maybe adds a brighter shine to his second run in Chicago
(already damn shiny
what with its three rings and the all-time-great 72-10 run in 1995-96). It also casts Jordan’s previous triumphs
including the first three-peat
in a slightly different light.Though he was undoubtedly a more dominant physical force as a younger man
in the Zen Master’s eyes
he wasn’t necessarily the best he could be. He was lacking. He had to grow. How often do we think of Michael Jordan – not the GM
not the owner
not the man off the court
but the player – in those terms?It’s an interesting perspective that opens all sorts of doors to analysis of what constitutes the perfect player and contextualizes Jordan circa ’93
as destructive a force as he was
as an incomplete monarch who had to
learn the right way to rule to become the G.O.A.T. That fascinating piece of food for thought makes “Jordan Rides the Bus” worth a watch for hoop heads
in spite of its failings.