Absolutely. Yao was a star, it's unfortunate his injuries shortened his career. A healthy Yao with this roster could easily be championship contenders. The ridiculous part was how he utterly dominated Dwight who is the only legit center in the NBA currently, if he was 100% healthy, I can imagine him putting up 30/15/2-3 blocks and absolutely making the Rockets unstoppable.
People forget he had weaknesses too. Like being fronted by a more athletic but shorter C/PF. He wouldnt put up 30 pts a game because post players just never ever do that on a consistent basis. But he would have been a beast, one of the best offensive Cs in history if he stayed healthy
He was getting to 25/10 and wasn't even at his peak yet. The fronting was absolutely a problem. It was one of those things I felt like why not just throw it off the backboard, let Yao get a board and dunk it. Alas, you might be right about not getting to 30, but man he would make teams like Miami and OKC have to WORK to get past us.
I say no. Yao was a very good player, he was not good enough to have his jersey retired. Sorry to all the Yao only fans, I am just being realistic.
The "fronting" defense DID NOT work against Yao. He destroyed that "defense". The defense that worked was the "sandwich" defense where a big fronted him and a big guarded him from behind with a third player helping out if Yao happened to get the ball anyways. In both defense the fronting and sandwich defense were useless and the Rockets won because it meant there was always a free man open with no defenders. Unfortunately we were so bad guys without and defenders on them often couldn't score like a Rafer, Sadly Battier sometimes, Cato...
If someone is posting here on CF today then it means they are not YOFs. YOFs are long gone so give the stupid insults a rest.
absolutely. he was a franchising changing player not only because of his play, but of his exposure of the NBA to other countries. Monumental
First no to retiring Yao's jersey. Second, two wrongs don't make a right. Ridiculous that Bowen's jersey is retired.
Yes asap imo. He was a legit 20/10 threat while anchoring one of the best defenses in the league, the best center in the league during his tenure here. But unfortunately never took his teams far as it seemed like he always got injured at the worst possible time. Sure you can argue that this is Ralph Sampson like and that he should not have his jersey retired BUT fact is, he was the guy who took the Rockets out of the "Stevie Franchise Dark Ages" and into an age of hope, optimism and promise (which never came to be what it could have been due to unfortunate circumstances). He made this team relevant, he put Houston back on the NBA map during his tenure here (and brought a ton of money and fans to this franchise and the league). IMO that overall impact is worthy of having his name/jersey in the rafters (and coupled with his international play, should be in the Basketball HOF).
Absolutely. You don't get in get in the HOF due to only gawdy stats but also for the effect that you had on the game of basketball. Yao Ming basically single-handedly made basketball the #1 sport in China and throughout Asia. I grew up in China and I can tell you the difference between now and then (the '90s) basketball-wise is night and day. Because of that, Yao definitely deserves a permanent spot there in Springfield.
