Yeah their hyperbolic reactions are pretty priceless, they act like Ewing's deficiencies didn't force the Knicks to bring in a better rebounder lol...
You're making these arguments in entirely black/white context. As if to point out any deficiency in someone's game is to say they suck...and as if to suggest that saying you'd rather have this player than that one means that I think the former is without limitation. No one here except one lone person is saying Yao sucked. I'm certainly not saying that. And just because I don't believe he was a Top 10 all-time center waiting to happen means that I think he sucked. He was very good and super easy to root for. No one here is saying Ewing was without weakness. They're saying they think Ewing, at his best, was better than Yao.
Andy New says: July 20, 2011 at 7:55 am Had Yao stayed healthy for his whole career, the Rockets would have won at least 4 championships by now. The Rockets would be on top of the basketball world, very sad he had to end his career like this. -------------------- Comment from Justice's article on the Chron. Just goes to show you how blind love for a player clouds any sort of reasonable logic.
If Yao's prime would have actually sustained the 25/10 that he was hitting right before he got seriously injured, he certainly would have been part of a valid discussion. As it is, I can see why some people would extrapolate that and hope for that result. Not sure I could go that far, but it's hardly a crazy notion.
He never did 25/10. He did 25/9 while playing only 48 games in 06/07. He did 22/10 while playing 77 games in 08/09. That was far and away the most number of games he played in any of his last 5 seasons in the league.
part of a larger discussion answering the question posed by the OP that's the title of the thread, dada.
I know Max, and you have been right all along about his size being the biggest issue, and causing him to fall short of being what he might have been. It just sucks that we had the number 1 pick and we only got 4ish seasons out of it......and through no fault of his. Now the team is mired in mediocrity with a remit of not tanking to get a high pick....which could spell a longer term of mediocrity. Sigh - meloncholy thy name is DD DD
Actually, pretty much everyone who disagrees has said it's not even close. I'm not the one talking in black and white, I'm responding to black and white with black and white.
Yes, that's exactly what happened in the 80's when they traded for Oakley, it had nothing to do with the fact that they had Bill Cartwright sitting on the bench making a lot of money at the time while playing garbage time minutes. You shouldn't talk about trades that happened when you had yet to be weaned, child.
This isn't about his size...it's natural to compare any retiring player to others who've played the game. Same thing happened with Shaq when he retired....tons of discussion about where he ranks against the best.
oakley thought he was the star in chicago, and didn't want to defer to young shooting guard the team started to build around. that team needed a center, that team initiated that trade.
Can you drop the attitude? It's neither cute nor impressive. I was asking because I wanted to make sure I understood you...particularly given your condescension towards anyone who disagrees with you. I don't believe it's particularly close between those 2, though it's certainly closer than the discussion regarding Robinson. With Ewing, I'd argue that he had 3-4 seasons that were better than I ever saw from Yao over one season.
Look kid, Ewing wasn't even the best defender or rebounder on his own team, let's stop acting like he was Hakeem and could do it all and carry a team. It's insulting to real old school Rockets fans.
Ewing was considered a better prospect than hakeem coming out of college. now real houston fans new the truth, but that was the general sentiment. they were really considered equals till hakeem went postal in the championship years. david robinson was probably considered better than both till that also
Yes, Yao Ming "never approached" being the second best defensive center in the league despite being one of the two good defensive players on a perennial top 5 defense and the team catapulting into defensive oblivion with basicslly the exact same roster without Yao. Why do you always default to accolades like they're something more than a popularity contest? Kobe Bryant wasn't even the best wing defender on his team this year and he was first team. See what I was saying about hyperboles?
