What an insult for The Dream and the other Rockets greats to have Yaos jersey up there next to theirs. I think the Rockets will do it but they should'nt. When the Rockets do it, they should at least put an asterisk next to it. I.e "*made us richer" or something.
Proof that Yao fans are in this personally. I've said this before, but I want to see an ESPN sportsnation poll about Yao; not a bunch of Rocket homers. If >50% think Yao deserves to have his jersey retired, I'll concede that I'm too harsh. If <50%, the decision to retire Yao's jersey is heavily emotionally driven. Unfortunately that might not happen. Of course the Rockets front office can do whatever they want..
Are you kidding me? If that's true, its an insult to the Rockets that Olajuwon would even consider working with non-Rockets.
don't use an illogical Hakeem analogy to defend Yao. When other greats of the game on other teams admire your team's greatest player, that's a compliment. I think Yao gets in based on class, hard work, and popularity. No player on the Rockets so far will come close to Hakeem's accomplishments. It's not a fair comparison.
Yeah, the people who answer sportsnation polls are uncommonly wise, logical, well-informed and unbiased. They don't let emotion influence their decisions, and they think hard about the questions presented to them and will even do research to be sure that their answers are not ignorant knee-jerk reactions.
Wouldn't you actually get less bias by asking a group of people who are primarily interested in the legacy of the Rockets franchise than you would asking a group that has Shaq fans who are jealous of Yao's fame, Howard fans who can't accept that Yao's domination of him was more than a fluke, and Barkley fans who will continue to insist that Yao is just another tall stiff. Not to mention the Spurs fans still smarting from Olajuwon embrassing Robinson in the playoffs, Dallas fans who are still mad they have fewer rings than the other Texas teams, NY fans mad for always being on the losing side of trades with us, and so on. Most of the league's fans would like nothing better than to belittle everything about the Rockets to aggrandize their own teams. You could only get an honest opinion from a Rocket fan who will base his vote on whether retiring the jersey would be a credit to the team or not.
I don't think the whole of sportsnation is intelligent at all, but I know that on the whole their opinion is more meaningful as to how noticeable Yao's impact was. It shouldn't be the final decision on anything, but only an interesting point of discussion proving that Rockets fans vastly overrate Yao's performance. Better to look at it relative to a bunch of anonymous votes on a Rockets-only message board; which one is more indicative of Yao's lasting legacy? If Yao fans are so quick to tout his 'world-wide appeal' as his main selling point, why be afraid of a sportsnation poll? I guess I'm from a different school of thought that thinks that jerseys should be retired as an acknowledgement of some sort of accomplishment, and not as a feel-good fan-favorite thing. You have a pretty dang cynical view of other team's fans. Perhaps a little justified. But you fail to address that Rockets fans are equal-but-opposite homers. I'm tired of fanboys running around unopposed proclaiming that Yao is one of the greatest all-time... someone should stir the pot a little.
The guy might not have any rings, but he internationalized the game. The NBA is much bigger because of him. The Rockets are also a bigger team because of him. That being said, he deserves to have his jersey retired. He bleeds Rocket's red...
Fair enough. I'm not taking that away from him. Like I've said, if he gets his jersey retired I won't complain. I just like to oppose the people who think Yao is unquestionably worthy of hall of fame / jersey retirement / endless life-time fan-paid dinners at Fogo de Chão.
Forgive my sarcastic mood today. I don't think the problem you're worried about is Rockets homers, it's YOFs. Fans of Yao would want his jersey retired even if he played like Yi Jianlian. Rockets homers are going to compare Yao's accomplishments to those of other Rockets -- whom they are also partial to as past Rockets heroes -- and decide where they see Yao fit in the pantheon. I've seen posters do that in this thread, pointing out other greats like Murphy didn't actually win a championship, or on the flipside that he falls far short of Dream, or to the extreme comparing him to Joey Dorsey. Rockets fans don't want all players or even all fan favorites to have their numbers retired. No one is arguing for McGrady or Francis despite their great play as Rockets, nor (with any seriousness) Hayes or Mobley despite being favorites. Rockets fans who are more than mere fans of Yao are emotionally invested in the whole franchise and don't throw out jersey-retirement recommendations willy-nilly. Besides, it may just be that your criteria is a bit different, just like in the board's annual argument over who should be an All-Star. I don't think you have to be "one of the greatest" to get a jersey retired. You just have to mean a whole lot to the franchise. If there is a homer bias, it probably doesn't matter in this sort of measurement. Yao would be important to homers because he was important to the franchise.
