At no point in his life has Yao been anywhere close to filling Hakeem's shoes. Not prime Yao. Not young Yao. Not the mythical healthy Yao either. Doesn't Big Z have more career points and rebounds then Yao? I won't compare Yao to Oden, but its more then fair to compare him to big Z. And I have absolutely nothing against Yao. I absolutely loved him as a player and wish he would have succeeded cause he seems like a great guy. But he was dumb as hell for not defecting and thinking he could have had a great NBA career while at the same time playing for the commies in the summers.
if im building a team, i would pick prime grant hill over prime yao. prime yao requires a very specific style of playing in order to be effective. prime grant hill does more (scores just as many points, solid amount of rebounds and way more assists) and fits almost any style of ball. it's like picking d12 over lebron... you dont do it. you pick lebron. tmac was hampered by injuries but it doesnt mean he can live up to MJ. he just doesnt have it in him..... and yao never had it in him to be anywhere close to duncan or hakeem (and i dislike duncan)
Of course Yao isn't nearly as good as Duncan when he's healthy. Thats why Duncan has 4 rings while Yao can barely make it out of the first round when he's healthy. I made this thread reflecting their careers over the course of this decade because they were the two dominant big man in Texas.
why pick duncan, one of the greatest of all time, then? if you picked dirk nowitzki or zach randolph, this thread would be less offensive and more appropriate imo.
Except prime Grant Hill doesn't clog up the paint like prime Yao does. Grant Hill when healthy is a great player but there are many versatile swing man out there. Heck prime T-mac was much better than prime Grant Hill, but you don't find many big men as skilled as Yao. Having Yao simply changes the game. Grant Hill was good but never the kind of player that would alter a game like Yao, both offensively and defensively.
Awesome. Now lets make a thread comparing Kobe and Doug christie cause they were the dominant shooting guards for the past decade in Cali.
Read the Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons. I think it will shed some light as to why your thread is being so poorly received.
I sincerely disagree, I think Grant Hill can also impact the game in many ways. He was a triple double kind of swing man with very good defense and hustle. That is really rare in the league no matter what era you are from. While Yao is dominant in the key with his post moves, I always feel like he can be stopped by fronting and doubling teaming. If I would build a team I would def choose Hill over Yao.
Oh boy the race card, very civil Did someone pull it out against you at work and you felt the need to do it here?
I thought OP picked Duncan because both were big men picked #1 in their drafts with championship aspirations. With that said it's a good post. People just have their panties up in a bunch because Yao can't hold Duncan's jockstraps in terms of career achievement, which OP agrees with and is the point of this thread. Internet debates hurt my head.
TLR version 2 bigs with huge expectations taken at #1, one of them fulfilled their potential and will be remembered as an all time great, the other was cut down by injuries and will be nothing more than an All-NBA 2nd player. In conclusion: Basketball god hates Houston .
Exactly...The OP didn't intend to compare the two players. It was more like a tribute to both players.
Did you even read the OP? He listed Duncan and Yao as having some similarities (same pick, replacing people, etc.)
Great big men do not have their lunch $$ stolen by Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur. They don't they get neutralized by a fronting defense either.
Yao is not as great as Duncan for sure. Nobody says he is as good as Duncun. But this thread exposed all the "birtherism" against Yao, one more time, like it's being like this all the time from the day he was drafted.
