With all the talk about Howard, I can't help but miss Yao Ming... Enjoy guys! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htm7b_saqcs
If Yao was healthy, but he never was, however I am still thinking a health Yao is better than a health Howard after following Howard's fifteen games in the rocket uniform.
Healthy Yao most likely would have gone down as a top 5 C ever in the nba, but health is a part of the game so too bad Great guy though. You can just see how he has virtually no haters -- speaks to his character and in a way, I always thought that was more valuable than his career not ending how he had hoped.
Yao out-performed Dwight in just about every game they played against each other... It was beautiful to watch. In the 9 games they went head to head, the Rockets won 7 of them. Yao had 23.6 pts and 10 rbs, Dwight had 12 pts and 10 rbs. Yao also shot nearly 60% in those games... Yao's size and footwork always kept Dwight in front of him and out of position on post ups and on the other end Yao could just shoot or hook it in right over him.
He's really an overall package. This man can shoot, defend, post up, and can even handle the ball well (cue the behind the back dribble in the video). I guess his health was his only flaw, and the only flaw that's needed to take down the giant. If he remained healthy, he's would definitely be one of the best Cs that has ever played in the league.
Yeah, the Chinese govt really messed up his health, hopefully if there comes the "next Yao Ming" they'll not make that mistake again.
When Adelman became the coach, it was already predicted that he would ruin Yao by overutilizing him. How many of you remember that Yao was punished to run back and forth in trash time？
for the lazy people <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/htm7b_saqcs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
oh man. I never heard the crowd cheer so loud before for the rockets. btw the team absolutely loves yao and they all seem so close. lol they jump so hard
That was really obvious to anyone who watched Yao - unfortunately most just saw huge guy, nice touch and automatically pigeonholed him as a lumbering offensive novelty who couldn't impact the game on both ends like Howard - a complete fabrication. As has been noted Yao was much better head to head, but also consistently was a massive defensive difference maker, he just didn't get the credit for it Howard did because of Dwight's athleticism and flashy blocks. Yao's Year 2 post game was substantially better than Dwight's Year 10 post game.
Yao was a joy to watch. He's really been historically underrated in a lot of respects. We know how offensively polished he was, but he was also an EXCELLENT defender who anchored a lot of top flight defensive teams. I miss the big fella.
Yao's shot was soooooooooo pure... Man that dude could ball. He would not fit in with this team though. He would be gassed after 5 minutes.
I've been thinking that Howard needs to stop trying to block every single shot. If he doesn't get the block, the opposing C is going to get the put back. It's happening way too often. It shouldn't be on the job of our rookie PF to box out his man and Howard's man at the same time. Howard needs to just make a couple of block attempts a game to make the offense honest, but really look for the rebound and box out his man.
