Jack Sikma a stragler? Did you even watch basketball in the late 70's and early 80's? Sikma was awesome and led the Sonics to 2 NBA finals winning one and was clearly the MVP of that series. Sikma was damn sure not a stragler.
I know the dude ain't a center, but how about that 7' shooting guard in Dallas: Dirk NoNUTski. ( .... no I didn't make a mistake, this guy is not a POWER forward ... )
I like Yao's shooting touch, but I'd be much happier if he could develop the skyhook with anything close to Jabbar's effectiveness.
This really is a great point. What separates Yao from an ordinary center is his soft touch, which is amazing considering he is 7'6. The guy has as soft a touch as Chris Mullin did.
Hey, let's not forget to end the NBA finals in '95, Dream drained a 3. He had range. That said, yeah, it's tough for opponents when Yao can step out to 18-20 feet and bury it.
a differentiation has to be made about the three ball, Yao can shoot the 3 ball, he has the strength, rotation, aim and accuracy to hit it often... why doesn't he shoot it? because he knows his role and is a team player, when you got your team and clutchfans expecting you to grab more boards, a teamplayer like Yao won't regress to the three line and jack up shots, he knows that guards are supposed to take those shots... i stand corrected on Sabonis though, i dont know how i forgot him, great outside touch... but the title of this thread was 'best shooting center', i think Yao has all the tools, good form, good free throw pct., good fg percentage, makes jumpers all the time...some of you guys dont give yao nearly enough credit
You are so right about Dirk being weak. If he were more of a man in the paint, he'd be a top 5 NBA player. As it is he's still top 10 probably, but he could be EVEN BETTER!!!
Yes!!! I had trouble going to sleep afterwards. That image was burned into my mind for at least an hour. I love Bol. He has a good sense of humor and is not afraid to humiliate himself to raise money for his homeland.
What was the show about? I saw a report on him a while ago. He's a good man. Spent all his money to help his country. Got stuck. Kinda sad. BTW, he wasn't really that good at shooting 3s. He was so weak they just couldn't put him down low on offense. So they parked him out on the arch and the opponent usually just ignored him. He could hit about 25-30% of them. On defense, he's a blocking machine. He just stood under the basket and swatted away any ball that got close to him. I think he's among the all-time bpg leaders (#2 behind Eaton, IIRC).
It was a viewer mail segment. One of Dave's crewmembers, who is a heavy set (being polite) italian fellow, did a skit where he was taking a shower and Manute Bol joined him. They were both topless. Not a pretty sight. Bol can't be more than 200 lbs.
Yes, Yao hit a 3-point last season. Here is the video clip. <A HREF="http://68.121.172.186:82/ymtvscreen.asp?file=http://www.anthonyhoang.net/yaoming/pub/YaoMing(030321)3POINTER.WMV">link</A>
In terms of pure shot? Maybe. Free throw % and three point % are pretty good marks of pure shooting ability. Yao doesn't shoot 3's, but certainly make his free throws. For whatever it's worth... doesn't really translate to being a great player. There are plenty of players who aren't great pure shooters, but since they can make space and drive, score more.
The title of the thread was best shooting center EVER. The fact this is entertained with Yao gives him a ton of credit. But to say he has already proven to be a better shooting center than Jack Sikma, that is nuts. Sabonis was a good shooter, but I don't think he was the shooter Sikma or Laimbeer were. And all three of these guys were team players trying to deliver wins even if Laimbeer was dirty as hell. I would say Yao might have the talent to be the best ever shooting center, but he has to deliver a lot of good for a long time to make this case. If he is a notch below Sikma or Laimbeer in pure shooting that is pretty darned good, and Yao can do a ton of things Laimbeer never could and quite a few Sikma probably could not either.
