Dwight Howard is the best center in the game of basketball. The only real argument out there would be Tim Duncan(plays C +50% of time on court) or players of Christmas past. That being said, Yao's numbers against Dwight are fantastic. Check this out: They played 9 times and here are the stats: Yao: 23.6ppg, 10.4 reb, 2.1 blk Dwight: 12.2ppg, 9.8 reb, 1.7 blk Yao won 7 games, Dwight 2. Houston centers have always showed up against the best. Hakeem, Moses, Yao... the fraternity of great centers exists in Houston. Dwight will be no different. The only real question is who will challenge him? Center greatness makes its home in Houston.
He was still extremely athletic at his size. People take for granted how conditioned he had to be to even get up and down the court.
The question is, how good could he have been? Bigs take time, and every year of his career Yao improved. Yao was a smart guy and worked very work to improve his game; also he had a great personal coach in Tom Thibodeau. Yao's last year in the NBA (think it was 2009) he was a top 10 player in the league, and, having added a few moves to his repertoire from the year before, was getting to the point of unstoppable in the post. He didn't have great lateral quickness and couldn't jump very high; however he could still give you 10 boards a game. Yao never reached his actual peak: he could have been even better.
Yao was an overpaid boat anchor who couldn't put the ball on the floor and dribble nor could he move up the floor in transistion. He was Rick Schmits only without the mustache or physical tenacity, and that's putting it kindly. Yao's best shot was the 15 ft baseline or elbow jumper which he shot from his tippie toes and with moderate success, like Schmits. Yao's best trait was his FT shooting, which he shot better than any other center. Defensively, he could clog the lane but he had problems guarding guys who were quick or could stretch the floor, such as Carlos Boozer. Similarly, he had problems rebounding because he was a clumsy player who would allow even small guards like Nate Robinson to come steal rebounds from him. In today's era of 3 second paint rule and zone defense, this put players like Yao at a disadvantage. Yao didn't have the foot speed or ability to dribble or protect the basketball well enough to ever become a great center. It also didn't help much that he was overworked by coaches and opted on his own to play basketball for his national team when his body needed a rest.
This guy is one of the biggest reasons why Yao isn't still playing basketball. Thibs is notorious for overworking his star athletes. Yao, Tmac, Rose, Deng, Noah...they will all retire early due to nagging injuries.
Ban. Yao was incredible and always dominated Dwight. When healthy Yao dominated pretty much everyone. He was an amazing offensive talent, his health was the only thing holding him back. I can't believe someone on a Rockets forum would refer to Yao as an "overpaid boat anchor."
Yao was a beast. I believe he would've ended up top 5 easily had he stayed healthy. Had Stern not robbed us that playoff series against Dallas, Tmac and Yao's legacy would be more defined
when the Yao/Howard debate was raging I was always a believer that Yao was better but more importantly Yao was always one step away from proving it to the public.
They only played 9 games against one another in Yao's career, and Yao statistically dominated Dwight. Orlando played Yao poorly by trying to do a traditional 1 on 1 defense with Dwight setting up behind Yao. Had they fronted Yao instead they could have denied him the ball for entire quarters as the Mavs and several other teams did with role players like Brandon Bass. As talented as Yao was, his lack of mobility made him the easiest star player to deny the ball in the NBA at the time. As far as Dwight this year, here are some highlights from Dwights "bad" year last season to give people more of an idea of the minimum to expect: [youtube]TYO8Bawzmzg[/youtube]
Yao had great touch around the basket but he was terrible in some aspects of basketball. He had no balance and was worse at catching the ball than Asik. If you got the ball deep to him, it was over, but getting the ball deep to him caused lots of turnovers and missed opportunities.
Yao, at his peak, was the best low post player in the game. THE BEST. At his peak, he was so dominant, he ALWAYS needed a double team. Yao also had range. He was one of the few centers hitting jump shots, turnaround jump shots, hook shots and fadeaways from up to 20 feet. And ultimately, foul Yao at your peril. No such thing as hack-a-Yao in this game. Plus when the team had 7 foot 6 inches, 310 pounds in the post, no traditional post up center is going to be able to move him (except perhaps Shaq.... anyone remember how Yao used to love lighting up Eddy Curry?). Only range shooting centers like Mehmet Okur or quick pick and roll forwards like Boozer would give him problems. But hey, I take it as a package deal - for all his strengths, he was bound to have some weaknesses. Yao also had his head screwed on right. Full of class and character. He made the Rockets enjoyable again after the dark years when Hakeem left, Barkley retired and Pippen went Quitten on the Rockets. He was and will always be an awesome basketball player and person.
I have NBA JAM on my iphone, and Yao is AWESOME! In fact, he and Martin are undefeated in, like, 1000+ games for me. boom shakka-lakka!
Yao matched up well with other big, power centers; particularly Howard, it was when he occasionally got clowned by Memhet Okur, Eduardo Najera and Zaza Pachulia due to his lack of quickness was where he fell short of the standard of most all-timers.
imagine if Yao played during the illegal defense era, he would have posted monstrous stats (heck stiffs like Longley almost avereged double-double despite the lack of skill), he had his limitations, speed for instance, but his Bball IQ, work ethic and post skills made up for the shortcomings..
Keep in mind that Dwight entered the league at 19 years old, when Yao was 24. The numbers got better for Howard as he got older, although Yao still got the best of him.
