Leslie Alexander: Rockets will retire Yao Ming's number

yao was a beast on the court. wasn't he hitting his prime before that last injury hit? his contribution on and off the court in my opinion is well deserving of having his jersey retired. he may not have been as good as the other jerseys retired basketball-wise, but you can't deny he was a top center while he played.

 

good call!

 

Wow.....this message board has gone full r****d. Yao Not a super star? He was the best center in the league and it was not even close. Yao was top 3 player in the league when healthy.

 

Hogwash. He was the best center of his era. He routinely dominated Dwight Howard and an aging Shaq. No one else was even close.

 

Congrats to Yao, he's a Rocket from beginning to end.
But some of us will also think of another 11, not in the rafters of Toyota Center, but in the rafters of our hearts.

 

He well deserves it. He was huge both on and off the court. Besides, he was a rocket in his whole career.

 

Well deserved

 

Dwight was more efficient scorer, much better rebounder and defender and he led his team to NBA finals without player like T-mac.

Dwight > Yao

 

As a person and as a player he deserves it.

 

I hope for your own sake that you are trolling.

 

I understand some of us think he wasn't close to Dream or Moses in terms of talent and accomplishments.

But I believe in terms of loyalty and love to the fans,city and organization, he was the best.

He fits the mold of the hard working, humble, hero like the other Rockets in the rafter.

If he was never hurt, he'd play for the Rockets forever, 10, 15 years and no other team, I believe he was that loyal.

 

Well said!

Totally deserved honor for Yao Ming. Time flies by quickly, and it does bring back those fond memories. It's a shame, that talks about Yao would sometimes be associated with whatifs and coulda/woulda. But he tried his best throughout his whole NBA career with Houston Rockets, and has always put the team at first place.

 

I am very pleased to hear of this.
If he was able to remain healthy, he could have achieved greater success with a more talented squad.

 

You really do not have a clue do you?

 

Except when they played against each other.

 

happy to hear this

 

Larry Bird owned Michael Jordan and swept him in playoff series. Is he better/greater than him, because of that? He might be, but that's not the reason. I mean Yao is better, because he had some good games vs. him in regular season. Cry me a river.

Dwight Howard impactes the game way more than Yao ever did. Yao could shoot jumpers and free throws better. That's it. Also did sonics retire Shawn Kemp number, who was better player and was the best player in 96' finals? No.

Yao managed to come once out of the first round of playoffs. It's disrespectful to put him in same ballot as Hakeem, Moses.

 

I really don't get it why people would say he doesn't deserve it. The man had a tremendous work ethic and was a class act both in and out of the game. Yao would have continued playing for the Rockets till the day he should naturally retire from basketball.


But of course, I guess with the kind of fans we have (especially the new ones that just came for either Harden or Lin), it ain't no mystery why people would say such things.

 

He deserves it despite what some of you are saying. He was the premier center of his generation and defined a decade of Houston Rocket's basketball

 

If that logic is applied, nobody's number can ever be retired in Chicago after MJ, because that would be "disrespectful".

Yao Ming's success with Rockets was limited, largely because of his later injuries. But he played with very limited help in early years. They could have easily passed Dallas even if Juwan was healthy. With a player even like Carl Landry, they could have easily got pass Jazz long time ago. That alone says a lot about TMac and Yao.

Yao was the ONLY player who could/would go straight up against Shaq and Howard, and beat both of them, in the entire NBA. But he wasn't good enough?