SLAM #69

Originally published in SLAM 69 The 6th Man: They couldn’t be more different. Yao Ming, the 7-5, 22-year-old rookie center is steady and deliberate, performing his shockingly complete array of post moves with all the flair of an assembly-line robot. Some of this is due to it being his first year in a new country, some is due to his being exhausted from playing competitive basketball continuously for over a year, some is probably just due to his being a rookie. He still gets stripped sometimes, still makes some simple mistakes, but that will pass. And then there’s Steve Francis, the 6-3, 26-year-old veteran point guard. Steve plays the game like he has a severe case of streetball Tourette’s (thanks, Ryan)—he can’t seem to dribble the ball more than three or four feet before compulsively going through his legs or behind his back, or putting a Rafer-esque skip in his step. So different, but so similar. Don’t forget that Yao Ming’s stunning success in a new country comes in part because...