If Yao had played on some of the teams that Dirk has he would have a ring by now. Defensively, he is light years ahead of Dirk. Offensively, Dirk is much better...but, Yao has a bigger impact. Dirk isn't really a threat to get deep post position and kill you in the paint. He scores mostly on drives, jumpshots, and turnaround fadeaways. This is the reason why his fg%'s are never as high as other dominant big men. His style of play is not conducive to good basketball. His amazing talent, touch, and freakish athleticism for his size make up for that but i think ideally you want a big man who consistently draws doubles in the paint or a perimeter player who can make plays off the dribble. Dirk is somewhere in the middle and it makes it difficult to build a team around him. He needs alot of help up front but he also needs plenty of help in the backcourt. Contrast that with Yao who holds his own in the post and creates so many easy opportunities that even scrubs like Head can average double digit points. People forget that we won 50+ games with Chuck Hayes as our 2nd best big man. Yao IS the better player. Unfortunately, Dirk has been on some good teams and will likely be remembered as the far better player.
To all that are saying Yao take off your homer glasses for a second. Dirk is clearly the better player. He's a legitimate go-to-guy in ALL 4 quarters. He's not a liability against a fronting defense, he doesn't get injured as often ( freak accidents or not), he runs the floor extremely well and has excellent coordination for a 7 footer. Plus Dirk can get off his shot from anywhere and everywhere. We all love Yao and hate Dirk cause he's on the Mavs and what not and it disgusts me to no end to admit it but Dirk is better.
lol @ some of the homers here. there isn't a single rational person living outside of houston or china that would pick yao over dirk.
Dirk Nowitzki as been on mutliple All-NBA 1st Teams, and he plays at a deeper position than Yao. He's won an MVP. He's led his team to the Finals. He's been a much more prolific scorer. He's been a pretty good rebounder also, in the playoffs. If their respective careers ended right now, it would have to be Dirk. In a landslide. When its all said and done, I'm hoping its Yao but most likely Dirk.
I agree, when their careers are over It's likely going to be Dirk as I said. However, at the moment I have to roll with Yao. Dirk does look like he has declined from his MVP years. Yao has more of an impact at the game than Dirk does. Dirk is almost useless if he is not scoring. Yao can still rebound and defend the paint if he's not scoring the ball. Dirk at this point may have surpassed Duncan and KG though, but not when those guys are healthy.
How??? He was the 4th scorer in the league behind the Holy Trinity (Wade, LeBron, Kobe). Made it to the 1st Team All - Nba. Just finished playing a series in which he averaged close to 35 and 10, with over 50% shooting in every game, and this against physical defenders like Martin, Birdman, Nene who supposedly trouble him. Again, how?
I get that Dirk has him beat in the awards and playoff success categories but what does he really do better than Yao? three point shooting? Yao has better scoring efficiency, better shot blocker, better rebounder, plays better defense, and gets his teammates more open opportunities.
Passes better, better free thrower, takes care of the ball more, way better ball handler, better scorer because he can get off his shot any where, can't be taken out of a game by fronting. You could argue he also is playing against much tougher competition at the PF spot, as the only decent centers now are Yao, Dwight and Shaq. Also he's only for his career less than 2 percentage points less than Yao in TS%.
Here's something to consider. Playing with scrubs (well, technically Yao had Yi and Dirk had Caveman, but I take seasoned veteran Caveman over busted NBA rookie Yi any day), Yao led his CNT to defeat Dirk's team in the Olympics, eliminating the Germans' medal hope. If Dirk supporters argue Yao had home court advantage, I'll counter that the pressure on Yao to advance to the next round is a disadvantage.
If by 'decline', you mean he only makes 1st team All-NBA instead of winning the MVP, sure, I agree.... the irony of this statement in defense of a guy who can be completely rendered useless as easily as simply putting his man in front of him is just too thick. if dirk is useless when not scoring, then yao is a complete liability. in fact, yao ming might be the only "star" player in the entire league that at times, is more of a liability to his team than an asset. any other star is simply "ineffective" on a bad night or against a bad matchup. who else can you think of that is considered a star that has to be taken out of the game because he is being exploited so badly? the difference between yao and dirk is that if you put stephen jackson or tracy mcgrady on dirk nowtizki, he'll give you around 17-20ppg on bad shooting while not giving you anything defensively. if you go as far as simply placing yao's defender in front of him, he will give you 5ppg with almost as many turnovers and be completely abused by the pick and roll on the other end to the point that you are better off just taking him out of the game. huge difference. oh btw, i'm a known "yao hater" (whatever the hell that means), so i'll get that out of the way up front since that's what this will bog down to anyways.
Dirk has the 13th highest PER in the history of the nba so he is a pretty efficient player. Yao did beat dirk in the olympics so that has to count for something.
I know it doesn't look like it but in this case Yao's 5ppg are better than Dirk's 17ppg on poor shooting. When Dirk is being defended by perimeter players they are playing him straight up. It's not a gimmick defense and it can't be exploited unless Dirk chooses to do so. The fronting defense can be exploited and it does routinely. If and when Yao is fronted it's open season on baseline drives and generally there is very little resistance at the rim. You can take Yao out but Brooks and Wafer are going to have a field day. There is no downside to defending Dirk with a SG. ...and Tracy Mcgrady is 20th in all time PER. That stat doesn't show much in the way of defense which people seem to forget is half of the game.
Dirk has a great atititude. He loves the game, works hard to improve it every year, and is willing to take less money for the sake of his team staying competitive. He has also won MVP and has taken his team to the finals.
Dirk Nowitzki is better than Yao "I can't stay on the court" Ming. Only homers would take Yao over Dirk.
Dirk the MVP winner. Mavs first round exit. Dirk is good but, Yao changes the game more than Dirk does. If you wanted to build a franchise around either of them you have to go Yao.
