Good stuff - thanks Dwyer. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/yao-ming-is-a-hall-of-famer-221211283.html (please read from the link so clutchfans member Dwyer gets the #'s) my favorite part: For a small turn there, Yao was at the very least in the conversation for the best player in the league. For stretches in 2006-07 and 2007-08, in between injuries, Yao was a dominant force in the scoring and rebounding ranks for the Houston Rockets, pumping up double-figure rebounds and over 25 points on average. At worst, he was in the argument alongside Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and the all-around play of a burgeoning LeBron James. One wouldn’t be out of place in ranking Yao – who somehow managed 25 points, 9.4 rebounds, two blocks and two assists in 2006-07 despite playing just 33.8 minutes per game – ahead of all of them for those stretches; because defense and efficiency matter.
To the topic at hand, people hate on Yao for not deserving of making the HOF on just on-court merits, but he still has a good case without the off-court things. 8x All-star (only the rookie season one was "undeserved") 6x All-NBA team (1 1st, 2 2nd, 3 3rd) Basketball-reference has his HOF probability at 52.6% There have been far more undeserving HOF's than Yao on just on-court merits.
I just noted this in the article comments, but there's not a single (retired) NBA player in history that had a career WS/48 stat of 0.200 or a PER of 23 and did NOT make the Hall of Fame. Yao's one of the top 30 all time in both of those efficiency stats.
People outside of Rocket fans don't realize how good Yao was. They seem more fascinated with his size than his actual game. But IF he had stayed healthy, I believe he'd been a 25pt 12reb player, and top 5 GOAT center. It was fun watching his progression in the NBA
LOL, is this a joke? Yao is worthy since it's the basketball HOF, but he was not a HOF worthy player.
That article seem to be written by an intense fan person. It reeks of opinionated blogging rather than good journalism with substantiated sources.
His per minute production was more than HOF worthy. And imagine if we were quantifying rim protection when Yao played. It has to be pointed out that we were a far better defensive team with Yao/Battier/Rafer than with Howard/Ariza/Bev. If you're gonna let Walton in, you have to let Yao in.
