I always thought that if Deke didn't get injured, the effect of Yao's injury would have been drastically reduced. With playoff schedule and days off between games, etc. - he could have been very effective for 30 minutes a game. To lose both parts of the best center-tandem in the league is way to much to overcome.
Not only that, in the last couple years, Yao's defensive impact was way bigger than Deke yet some fans keeps saying Deke was the getter defensive player. In Portland series, Deke was getting killed by Odom before he went down. Yao made Odom his b****.
The final vote count of Amare vs Yao was like 450 to 400 with Amare getting less than half of the first place votes. I fail to see anything wrong with that.
Don't matter how much money he brought in for the Rockets, that shouldnt be the reason for him to get his number retire. With all the so call money Yao brought in, it didn't help this team win at all this entire decade. One playoff series won this whole entire decade to me is a fail. With the money he brought in, it didn't really do anything but make Les richer and I can careless about that. To me, for a player to have his jersey retire has to impact the game with the most important thing, win. You can bring in money or make a team a little more popular but winning is always the main objective. Sure he does a lot for this team besides winning but we all should know winning is the most important thing so NO.
Maybe because Yao was in his late 20s while Deke was 40 years old... Yao defensive impact is nowhere near Deke. Thats why Deke is one of the all time great shot blocker. At his old age, Deke was still a better shot blocker. On top of that, Deke did way more for the community than Yao has. Whoever think Yao is better defensively than Deke is delusional.
Reasons Yao Ming should have his jersey hung from the rafters at Toyota Center: Basketball Reasons: 1. 20 pts, 10 rebs and 2 Blocks 2. 8 All Star Games 3. NBA All-Rookie Team 4. 4 times All-NBA team 5. Most of his career he was either the Best or 2nd Best center in the league 6. First Chineese player with real tangible success 7. Increased the NBA market by a lot 8. One of the most recognized names in the sport internationally (for good reasons) Reasons for the Rockets: 1. Drafted by and played entire career with the Rockets 2. Great Great Teammate 3. Best Player on the team that had several 50+ win seasons for most of the Decade 4. Brought International recognition to the team 5. Other All-Stars wanted to play in Houston because of Yao 6. Great Citizen of Houston 7. Houston I come!
Careful you might upset the old people who think Rudy T's playoff failures make him more worthy than Yao's playoff failures.
You don't need to be old to know that NBA Finals > 2nd Round of the playoffs Rudy T made to the NBA Finals. If you want to base this on playoff failure and success, I don' t think you don't want to compare the two. http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_1981_finals.html
Didn't you hear that they retired Michael Jordan's number in Chicago cause he sold a bunch of Nike shoes? That's a legit reason!
this means that some of the younger fans do not care about the tradition and history of the organization or city. Rudy T is pretty reduced to a guy who got punched (if they even know that history) Judging by the threads questioning if the Rockets would beat the Bulls, we all know what certain fans feel about the championships. I wish the younger fans were like 00rocketgirl, she loves everything about the Rockets, the past, present, not just one player.
Actually my argument is that playoff success is irrelevant. And I'm sorry your standards are so low that you consider one finals appearance over an entire career to be "success".
Really? You ain't pullin' our legs? Look, there are great players who didn't have great success in the playoffs. The history of the league is littered with them. A lot of that is simply bad luck. But to say it is irrelevant is, with all due respect, rediculous.
Basketball is a team game. If you're a great player then you're a great player. How does playoff success matter? Are you saying that Yao's playoff performances were bad?
I'm sorry you hate Rudy T, Calvin Murphy, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, Del Harris, Bill Fitch, Ralph Sampson and anyone else you never saw play so you can disrespect their tenure with the Rockets for the purpose of saying that Yao's number needs to be retired.
These kids can google their stats, but they can't google what the fans, city, and organization felt for them. You can't google the emotion of the Oilers collapse, the Astros, or Clutch City. To them, Gallery Furniture is a fancy furniture place, to us, it's that dude selling sofas off the highway.
I don't have an issue with the Rockets retiring Yao's number but if you're going to retire his number, OT's 33 better be up there right after too.
That's fine if you construe my original comparison that way. It's still better than being some old guy who thinks anyone who proposes that Yao is more than worthy of having his number retired is a YOF. You've said that what 6 times in this one thread now?
