China

Yao has good rapport with Adelman

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-05 11:39

SHANGHAI - Yao Ming says he has a strong rapport with new Houston Rockets coach Rick Adelman, likening his style of play to that of the Chinese national team.

Attending a Special Olympics event Wednesday in his hometown of Shanghai, Yao said he had several conversations with the former Sacramento Kings coach in Houston this summer and anticipated a bigger role on court in the coming season.

Chinese NBA star Yao Ming holds a torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay as he attends the launch ceremony for the Olympic torchbearer selection programme in Beijing July 3, 2007. [Reuters]

"Our exchanges were very good," Yao told reporters. "I'm pretty familiar with his style. It's pretty much like the national team's."

Hoping to break the team's recent history of post-season flops, Houston hired Adelman in May to replace Jeff Van Gundy, Yao's first and only other coach in the NBA.

Adelman, 60, favours an up-tempo, high-scoring system in contrast to Van Gundy's more defence-minded and methodical approach.

"It's a whole new situation and I expect big things of next season," Yao said.

However, Yao also indicated he was affected emotionally by the departure of Van Gundy, who had pushed hard to acquire Yao from his former team, the Shanghai Sharks.

"I spent four years with him so naturally the impact on me is relatively bigger," Yao said.

Earlier, Yao joined more than 1,000 athletes and volunteers at a suburban community centre in creating tiles for a ceramic wall to promote the Special Olympics, which Shanghai is hosting from Oct. 2-11.

Reflecting his hometown-hero status, Yao was greeted with a huge cheer when striding into the auditorium. He bantered on stage with a host before settling down to his project together with a local ceramics specialist and an intellectually disabled athlete.

Yao also congratulated China's latest entrants to the NBA, Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue, who were drafted by Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Lakers last week.

Yao urged Yi to focus on his game and let Yi's managers handle attempts to trade him away from the Bucks.

"The most important thing is to play well. A player's value is how he performs on the court," Yao said.