When Yao came in he was a big question mark. A lot of people like Barkley thought he was going to be a bust while a lot of people thought he was going to remake the center position. There was a valid reason for picking him number one that had more to do with than just a billion plus market in China for the NBA. He was 7 and half feet tall with a soft shooting touch and decent court vision. He had some glaring defects initially but a ton of potential. Yao has obviously not lived up to the hype but neither has he been a bust. If his career is over its not going to be Sam Bowie or Greg Oden, draft busts, but a fairly decent career. In general he's put up very good numbers and just looking at the last two seasons there is no doubt of his value to the Rockets. He's not Duncan but I don't think it is totally off base to compare the two. Duncan came into a great situation, Robinson was there to mentor him and there was a veteran team there already. Spurs management and Popovich made some right moves to build transition from the Robinson era to the Duncan era and most importantly Duncan stayed relatively healthy. Yao came into a very young team in transition from the end of the Dream era. The Rockets kept on changing through the JVG era to the Adelman era and not to the Morey era. None of that can be blamed on Yao and he has given as much as he can to the Rockets. Duncan will go down as a Hall of Famer but that doesn't mean that Yao was just a bust compared to him. As the NBA goes Yao has had a pretty good career.
Draft busts don't average 20+ and 10 for many seasons Draft busts don't have multiple all-star/all NBA selections. Yao Ming was not Time Duncan, neither is he Greg Oden who only played like a season of games. He is more of the Grant Hill type of player where he was at some point one of the very best in his position but had his career severely hindered by very bad injuries.
Everyone expected him to duplicate Hakeem's success, but at the same time many thought he wouldn't even last two years in the league? That makes no sense at all.
i was very tempted to flame you for comparing yao ming to grant hill bc i loved grant hill in his prime and i would pick prime hill over yao but..... it's true... yao is like grant hill. one of the best at his position... hobbled by injuries. maybe yao will go to phoenix and get fixed up like grant did
Im not even going to read the original post. But comparing Duncan to Yao is like comparing a brand new Lamborghini to a 1999 Camry.
If your not going to read the OP's post then why bother even replying? Do you also answer questions on exams without reading them? I think the point here was Yao could of filled or came close to filling Hakeems' shoes like Duncan did to Robinson, but as we all know it didn't happen because of injuries. You can't compare Yao to Duncan but you also can't compare him to Big Z or Oden. He was a dominant center that got his career cut short due to injuries. Thats his career legacy.
There will never be "what if's" Yao Mings career path has pretty much followed the career paths of all 7'4" plus players - careers cut short by injuries. Guys his size don't last in the NBA because it is almost physically impossible to expect a high level of play for any extended amount of time. One can argue he was the best of the "giant's" Rik Mits, Gheorghe Muresan, Manute Bol, etc. But anybody that knows the history of basketball could not have had the same expectations of a Yao Ming that you would have had of a Tim Duncan. Outside of the many deluded Rocket fans who thought he could be the next Hakeem, nobody thought he was ever going to be "dominant" in the NBA thats why Barkley made that bet He definately overachieved and exceeded expectations but in truth, the bar was really low. And it really isnt a surprise that he has fallen to injuries. I think most should be happy with what he actually contributed.
Really? I thought I saw him fly into Phoenix on a cloud of basketballs on his way to championship Nirvana a number of times.
Yao>duncan. I used to be surprised that US fans took NBA rings so seriously, but now that I'm here for a decade I can understand why. However, that's just the popular opinions here. International fans always put world championship and Olympics above NBA finals, which are basically commercial sports. They want their stars to win NBA rings, but not as much as they want the international medals. Think about world cup against euro league soccer. Yao risked his body and NBA career to single handedly lead the Chinese team to top 8 of world champ and Olympics. Why? Because that achievement > NBA achievements in his mind. That's more important than NBA rings. In the same sense, US team only won once in the world in last 7,8 years, so NBA is the best league simply because it has all those international stars playing US style basketball(You don't have to imagine how US supestars would perform in the international style games, as they lose most of the time in past few years). Yao's idol is Sabonis, who dominated the world in 1988 while beating David Robinson and US team. A lot of international fans regard Sabonis as the best center to ever play the game. That's just my honest opinion, which is obviously not a popular one in this forum.
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cuSMjUTGQTg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199611260HOU.html Hakeem Olajuwon 27 points Arvydas Sabonis 6 points http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1996_1380458 Rockets 102, Trail Blazers 101 (OT)/Rockets keep Blazin' away with OT win/Hakeem returns in victory MICHAEL MURPHY Staff WED 11/27/1996 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section Sports, Page 1, 2 STAR Edition Things returned to normal at The Summit on Tuesday night, which of course means Hakeem Olajuwon was back in the lineup. But it also means the Rockets went down to the wire with yet another opponent. As usual, the Rockets managed to pull it out. In their fourth overtime game of the young season, the Rockets finally outlasted the young legs of the Portland Trail Blazers, eking out a 102-101 victory before another packed house. And, as usual, the Rockets made it difficult, rallying from a huge early deficit and riding Olajuwon down the stretch. It was a tremendous welcome-back gift for Olajuwon, who had missed the previous three games with an irregular heartbeat. ""It was a competitive game, very fun to watch," said Olajuwon, who didn't do a whole lot of watching, finishing with 27 points in 41 minutes of playing time. So much for easing the big guy back into the lineup. Olajuwon started out slow, but found his touch in the fourth quarter and overtime, scoring 11 of his points over that stretch. ""The key is just to not force the issue," Olajuwon said. ""You have to play within the flow. But Charles (Barkley) had a tremendous game, Clyde (Drexler) made some big baskets and Matt Maloney made some big baskets. ""When you see Charles and Clyde, with their experience and work ethic every night, you know you're going to win a large percentage of your games." Indeed. The victory improved the Rockets to 13-1, tying Chicago for the best record in the league.
What about Yao in his prime? Would you take Grant Hill in his prime over Yao in his prime? There is no way I would take Grant Hill over Yao if both were in their prime. I like Grant Hill but a 7'+ center that can do the things Yao can is very rare while there are many swing men that can do what Grant Hill has done.
A prime Olajuwon would destroy David Robinson, Sabonis and Yao. They would all foul out. A lot of CLUTCH FANS regard OLAJUWON as the best center to ever play the game on any country, on any planet, in any time period.
Considering the FIBA World Championship is played ever 4 years and the Olympics in between the current FIBA and Olympic champion is the US so the US has done pretty well in international competition and US superstars do very well in international style games.
