This Shaq vs. Yao hype is starting to frighten me... for Yao's health. Giving Shaq a reason to be interested in the game is not smart. Samuel will appreciate this comparison from an article today in Slate:

Over at ESPN.com, Bill "The Sports Guy" Simmons went from guaranteeing Yao's demise to calling him the "most compelling player since Michael Jordan in his prime" and someone who "affects the game at both ends more than anybody since Bill Walton." I suppose that makes Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who betters Yao in every statistical category, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.