Honestly Yao's offensive game is much more polished that Hakeem's game was coming out of college. Hakeem was mostly a shotblocker and rebounder so I think its a hard choice. We didnt know Hakeem was going to develop the Dream Shake. And we dont what kind of moves Yao may develop before his career is over. Looking back, the choice is easy, but if they both came out at the same time, the choice wouldnt be so easy.
Not knowing the later development, I'd pick Yao Ming. Ming's offensive skills are much better at this point than Dream when he came out. After seeing him play 3 years of college ball, people were not sure whether Hakeem would become a consistent offensive force. He showed that he would in his rookie season.
You have to wait until the end of his first season to ask this question. People are saying it's easy because Hakeem averaged 20 ppg and 10 rpg his first year. Well Ming hasn't even PLAYED his first season so how can it be an easy comparison? Plus people look at Hakeem the Hall-of-Famer and make their comparisons. We won't know how Ming compares to young Hakeem until at least the end of his rookie season.
the choice would have been easy for Ray Patterson. The rockets took him over Michael Jordan despite having a rookie of the year, future star (then) center already. THey liked him that much. The NCAA, especially back then with everybody staying 3-4 years and no high school players going pro, was much much stronger then than the CBA is now. Even though Akeem didn't score as many points, etc as Ming does now in the CBA, his ability to excel at the college game was and is far more impressive than MIng's play now. If he was exciting enough a prospect to go over Jordan then (who everybody loved, even then), he would have gone over MIng now.
Mav3434 brought up a good point. It may depend on whether the draft happened now or back then. If it happened now, I think most people would take Ming. Think about it, there's a guy from Africa with obvious natural talent who played only 3 years of organized basketball. Nobody knows whether he can really shoot consistently. And here is another guy from China with obvious natural talent who has been playing pro basketball for years. Everybody knows that he can shoot with great range. Who would you pick? But if the draft happened back then, college ball was much more respected, while foreign ball was an unknown, then picking Olajuwon would probably make more sense. Besides, back in the 80's, China was a much more isolated/closed communist country than it is now. I can't imagine the tons of red tapes the team had to cut through before a Chinese player could actually come over to play.
I would have probably picked Olajuwon. Imagine if there was a stud college center this year who had the size and put up solid numbers like Olajuwon, Shaq, and Duncan put up at their respective universities. I don't think there would be any question you would take the college kid over Yao. But, there just wasn't any college centers on the same level as those guys...and their haven't been in a couple of years.
...which brings up another question. Since there was no star center this year coming out of college, let's say the Rockets had Matt Maloney and Bryce Drew as our point guards (hint: we need a pg). Would you have taken Ming or Jay Williams this season? Do you think Rudy would have done the same?
No way. I'm sure Rudy wouldn't have done that b/c he knew what Ming wa capable of. For me, I confess that I was for trading the pick for a proven center. And if we didn't have a good pg already, I'd probably go for J Wil. But now, l know much more about Ming. I would not trade anyone for Ming even if we needed a point guard.
declan32001:- Are you saying that Yao Ming could 'NOT' average 20pts and 10 rbs. On what do you base your statistical opinion on? Considering he is now going to play on a Team, with all its components, better than the second best player on the NT of China! Do you think he can't score, or do you think that he just won't get the ball passed to him?
We know more about Olajuwon than Yao, true. But, we know a lot more. Even if Yao averaged 25 points and 15 rebounds in his rookie season, I'd probably still take Olajuwon. After Yao gets numbers like that for 5 straight years, then I start reconsidering. You don't even consider passing on Olajuwon unless you know you're going to get production from someone else.
i would have picked hakeem if i had a choice. but i also think that if there was a true ameican center in the draft that averaged 20 and 10 in a good college program(division), they definately would have picked that imaginary guy over ming. no doubt. by the by, if we did need a pg, i would still pass on j-will. he will be a bust. mike dunleavy was the only stud outta duke. i saw too many duke games, and i think williams is incredibly overrated. 10 dollars, BET ME!!
I'd bet you, but you have to define 'bust.' If by "bust" you mean "sucking," I'll take that bet in a second. I can't think of any scenario in which Jay Williams will suck. However, if you're talking about not living up to the high expectations that are set for him, I'd probably keep my ten bucks.
dc kid, your on! i mean, he dissapeared in all of dukes big games last year, as in mike dunleavy is a better player. by a "bust" i mean he will not be as good as a first round, number 2 pick should be. bust as in average. as in a tyron lue (sp?) or randy livingston. i do not mean as in rhodrick rhodes, spending the rest of his career in europe or the cba, but just....average! i will collect next year! shake on it!!
