What rocket would you use it on? guaranteed health for their Rocket career. past or present. (mental health in the case of royce white and ron)
Depends. Are we adding them to THIS team? Or considering all of the players who surrounded them during their years with us? Having a healthy Yao wouldn't do that much for us, because we would still have an injured McGrady and no supporting cast. I don't know who I would choose. Ralph Sampson?
Sampson all day every day. He was and could have been even more so of a transformative player. Sampson was a once in a lifetime talent that is awfully underappreciated. I love Yao, but Sampson's talent was beyond Yao.
I would say Sampson because the 80's and 90's would've been dominated by our twin towers. Rockets would've been in contention every season for at least 15 years. People would mention our rivalries with the Lakers and Celtics as some of the best.
Didn't read the op and voted T Mac. However, for Rockets career, definitely Yao. Woulda won a ship in 09.
sampson. he and hakeem were guaranteed to win a championship. we all love yao, but choosing him to be healthy with an injured tmac doesn't guarantee anything. we probably wouldn't have broken down the roster and stockpiled assets needed to get harden if yao were healthy and competitive. and if you give it to tmac we're stuck with an injured yao. in the end only sampson being healthy for a long career with hakeem would've made us a dynasty. they beat the showtime lakers in a 7 game series and only lost to birds celtics! they were both in their first few of years in the league and didn't even hit their primes yet. if the twin towers would've stayed together into their primes, they could've won multiple titles.
Agreed. Yao was also a once in a lifetime talent but I think we got to see some of Yao's best seasons. I don't think we ever got to see the best that Ralph had to offer and that is what is sad.
At 7'4" Ralph had a vertical leap of 36" <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Uz8FZ-AYWY0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I'm picking the guy who actually helped the Rockets make the Finals. The guy who was rookie of the year, who was averaging 20 10 before his injuries. hint, he's in this picture:
Lots of youngsters in here... A few quotes from the video below. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KRVJ-ttZb6o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Ralph Sampson and it's not even close. Three time college player of the year. NBA rookie of the year. Avg'd 20/10 first 4 NBA seasons. His health would have led to a Houston Rockets dynasty. At the very least a Rockets vs Lakers WCF matchup every season in the late 80s. The early to mid 90's (post-Magic) would have been dominated by Houston and Chicago.
