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Team USA had a dunk bounty on Yao in 2000...

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by eric.81, Feb 18, 2019.

  1. eric.81

    eric.81 Contributing Member

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    ... but he blocked all their attempts! Per KG:

    "First of all, people didn’t know, we had a bounty out on Yao Ming," Garnett said. "The whole USA team had a bet. We had a million dollar bet on who was going to be the first person to dunk on Yao Ming. None of us did. We all tried to dunk on Yao, but he would block it or we would miss."

    Yao was a gentle giant. No matter how many "went after" him (and they did!), he held his own and was classy doing it.

    Man... that's ****ed up.

    https://www.si.com/nba/2019/02/18/kevin-garnett-usa-olympic-mens-basketball-team-bounty-yao-ming
     
  2. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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  3. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    That was the same Olympics this happened ... and, fwiw, that’s the Silver Medalist team.

     
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  4. mikol13

    mikol13 Protector of the Realm
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    Do you remember Shaq’s First all star game? They beat the hell out of him, nothing came easy.

    I don’t really like that the players did this, but Yao more than earned his respect over the years.
     
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  5. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    Weis was neva the same.
     
  6. eric.81

    eric.81 Contributing Member

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    From the same article. KG says when Vince dunked on Fred, he thought it was Yao that had been dunked on and thought that Vince had just won the million:

    "So, the first thing I thought of when I saw Vince dunk over Frederic was oh s---, you won the million dollars. But then I realized it obviously wasn’t Yao. I pushed Vince, and if you look at the clip, he almost punches me in the face by accident. But my first thought was, oh s---, you won, you got the million."
     
  7. Astrodome

    Astrodome Member
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    So KG thought Yao was on the french team for a brief moment.
     
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  8. smokieethabear

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    I can only imagine what would be if we had Yao in his prime with Harden right now.
     
  9. steddinotayto

    steddinotayto Contributing Member

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    Can you imagine the hate and criticisms Yao would have faced with Harden-era Rockets fans?
     
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  10. Realjad

    Realjad Contributing Member

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    DUNK THE BALL, why wont he dunk dammit!!

    WHen Yao gets blocked why is it ALWAYS by the smallest guy on the court?

    Yao Ming is too nice, we will never win a championship! He needs more grit, more mean.

    I'm beginning to HATE Yao Ming!


    Yao Only Fans: James Fraudan gets all the whistles. How comes James Frauden gets calls, but The Great Wall of Yao leaves the game with battle wounds each night with like 2 free throws?"
     
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  11. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Tracy got the blame because he put in half the effort with half the maturity. (It's all on me!)

    My theory is that he low key dumps on Yao on ESPN because he was jealous Yao got a pass for getting hurt while he was roasted for the first round exits.
     
  12. Severe Rockets Fan

    Severe Rockets Fan Takin it one stage at a time...

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    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Severe Rockets Fan

    Severe Rockets Fan Takin it one stage at a time...

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  14. solid

    solid Contributing Member

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    Yao's foot problems kept him from becoming one of the all-time greats. He was still amazing, but he could have done so much more.
     
  15. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    [​IMG]
     
  16. s3ts

    s3ts Member

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    should've kept Zhou on the team.
     
  17. sirbaihu

    sirbaihu Member

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    A million dollar bet, huh?
     
  18. RocketsFido

    RocketsFido Member

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    Chinese players get the luxury of facing racism in the NBA yet there are so many Chinese fans that suck off NBA players.
     
  19. MD_in_Training

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    No way this is true. You cannot have a double digit IQ and think that the French man you’ve been playing against the whole game was Yao f***ing Ming.

    On second thought, yup, KG totally believed it.
     
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  20. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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