Yao had the most impact of any player since the Championship days, but skill-wise, it's still slight edge to T-Mac. Lets bump this thread in a few years.
Impact? Popularity wise? Best player on the Rockets during Yao's prime years was McGrady. It was trending Yao until he got hurt, then you could argue even then that AB was the most consistent in the playoffs. Yao was a hardworking giant who didn't deserve his bad luck of health. He was injury prone and never lived up to the immense potential. Nice guy though. He was really a great guy.
Harden is on his way to become best Rocket since Olajuwon. I would place him behind Yao and Mcgrady, tied with Francis right now.
Ok, no question Hakeem was the best Rocket - if you took a poll of "analysts" and "experts" of whom you'd take in their prime to start at center on your team Hakeem would be behind Russel and Chamberlin - though I'm a "homer" and would take Dream all day long. That being said... Harden is the best Rocket since Dream. This doesn't mean I don't have love for Yao, TMac, Franchise, whomever. Yao is my favorite Rockets player ever - he's so unique and has a great heart; he was just too inconsistant. TMac is undeniably one of the most gifted basketball players ever. That's the main reason he gets so much negativity - he just didn't seem to live up to his potential. Harden is coming into his own now - he is playing MVP ball and could get even better. As much as TMac, Yao, etc helped teammates, Harden does the same while staying on the floor and playing efficiently. He draws fouls like Kevin Martin while actually contributing in other ways Dream was a career 21 and 10 guy - if you disregard his last few years it was a much better average, but I don't need to convince clutchfans that he was great - that's just the bar Harden is going to be measured to. Yeah that's just avg points and boards - it's not like Dream is number 1 in blocks all time or anything
Lol sad but true..... I still remember Francis and cat like it was yesterday. My teenage years were a lot of fun lol
Although I have been really impressed with his improvements on both ends of the court, like many ppl here have stated, I think it's premature to make such as statement. Let's wait until the post season to make that assertion. If we lose in the 1st round again, then as far as I'm concerned, he's TMAC 2.0.
Gotta shake off the PLAYOFF CHOCKING that plagues T-Slack Until then . . . the title belongs to YAO! Rocket River
