THE SPORT COUNT

An apparent flurry of text messages have been exchanged between FIBA luminaries Luis Scola and Yao Ming in their respective Olympic training camps. These messages indicated two things; yes, you can use mobile phones in China, and yes, that the Artest trade is sending ripples through the otherwise staid — let’s say boring — Houston Rockets roster.

Artest? Let me send an SMS text message to my colleague Luis Scola.

Contrary to The Sport Count‘s initial commentary on the subject, it appears as though the Yao-Ron relationship might be a little more tenuous than we initially considered.

Exhibiting sage wisdom, Yao used his oversized numpad to text the following:

“For some reason, I like (Artest),” Yao said. “Because in the games we play against him, I hate him.

Which makes perfect sense… I guess. Yao continued:

“We will think about it, of course. Hopefully, he’s not fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands.

Well informed… Looks like Yao has been doing his scouting on YouTube. At least, it shows that the internet is working in China.

“We worry about the new attitude to the team. We are adding talent to the team and we need that, but building team chemistry is important.”

Is it just me, or have Yao’s cliches have really come along? He might not have the ghetto slang of say, a Primoz Brezec, but he’s pretty much talking like like a typically uninsightful NBA coach, or even better, a typically equivocating HoopsHype blogger (that’s what you get for stealing our Kemp story and not linking us, bitches).

Posted by: James