Barkley unimpressed with Rockets' Yao

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charles Barkley is the latest to jump aboard the bandwagon of Yao Ming bashers, offering up this quote Thursday night on TNT's post-game show.
"Yao Ming makes Shawn Bradley look like Bill Russell."
Yao is indeed off to a slow start for the Rockets, with more fouls (14) than field goals (eight) through his first six games.
The 7-foot-6 center is playing only 14 minutes per game as the backup to Kelvin Cato, still acclimating himself to the NBA after arriving from China less than a month ago.
Barkley prefaced his remarks by saying that Yao will be a good NBA center in three or four years, but he clearly has been left unimpressed by the player taken first overall in last June's draft.
Barkley even promised to kiss Yao's backside, live on television, if he scores as many as 19 points in a game this season.
Similarly unimpressed is Shaquille O'Neal.
"Yao Who?" O'Neal said last week.
Shaq and Yao were scheduled to have their first meeting of the season Sunday at Staples Center, but O'Neal is not expected to return until Tuesday following off-season foot surgery.
Their first meeting will likely come Jan. 17, when the Lakers visit Houston.
It could be a worthy matchup by then, as O'Neal will have worked off his early season rust and Yao will be more incorporated into the Rockets game plans.
Free agency
Karl Malone and John Stockton haven't said for sure whether they'll retire after this season, but Utah will be able to rebuild quickly if the two superstars' salaries come off the team's salary cap.
Next summer's free agent class is loaded with top-caliber players, yet there will be very few teams -- Denver, San Antonio, the Clippers and possibly Seattle and Utah -- with enough salary cap space to offer maximum salary deals.
The Denver Nuggets will have enough room to offer two max contracts, while the San Antonio Spurs can add a max player and another high-salaried free agent in addition to re-signing Tim Duncan.
Among the top unrestricted free agents next summer are Michael Olowokandi, Jermaine O'Neal, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton and Jerry Stackhouse. The next tier includes Brad Miller, Elden Campbell, Vlade Divac, P.J. Brown, Keon Clark and Cliff Robinson.