Although I luv yao, I would still switch Yao And D.Howard. Barring future injuries, D.H will go down in the history as a better Center than yao is.
Key word is will or may.. But as of right now Yao has done a little bit more then Dwight.. however Dwight is starting to come in to his own..
Dwight has won a gold medal, won a multiple playoff series and is playing in a conference championship right now. Don't get me wrong, I love Yao, but what exactly has Yao done that he can hold over Dwight right now?
Yao has a polished offensive game. Dwight is largely ineffective when he's more than 5 feet from the basket.
Dude, he was playing for the USA. Yao was playing for China. If Yao pulled an Olajuwon, got his US citizenship and played for the USA in the Olympics, he'd have a gold medal too. I mean, Vin Baker has a freakin' gold medal. I don't think anybody would say he was better than Yao and use that to back up their claim. The other points are valid. But we probably would have more than 1 playoff series win (to Orlando's 3) the last few years if we were playing the Sixers and Raptors instead of the Jazz.
The defensive scheme and philosophy of opposing teams are always to stop Yao. Thus he always commands double and triple teams. Yao gives up many rebounds to team mates, and Yao is officiated differently than everyone else. The officials' mantra is when in doubt make the call against Yao. Howard does not get this much defensive attention from opposing teams, he tries to take rebounds even from his own team mates, is officiated "normally" by the NBA and often gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials. Howard is a one dimensional offensive player-dunker- and thus gets into the ESPN highlights often, no range in his shots, and above all a Shaq like free throw shooter. Put all these things together and the result should be obvious that Yao is a far better center than Howard. It is also because of the above mentioned reasons that the stats are skewed for Howard over Yao. We need to look beneath the surface to see that Yao is substantially a much better player than Howard. Yes, Howard is spectacular and is an excellent player. Yao is just much better overall.
shaq is also largely effective when he's more than 5 ft from the basket. dwight has 2 all-nba 1st team already, yao has 0. dwight has 2 all-nba defense already, yao has 0. dwight has DPOY, yao has 0. dwight has gone farther in the playoffs. 1-on-1, yao is better. but career-wise, dwight will have yao beat. his individual accomplishments are already more than yao.
The ONLY person on that list that AI sould *maybe* be ahead of is Coleman. Putting him at #4 is an absolute joke. Also, Duncan should be number one IMO. The rest is fine... although, soon Lebron will probably take over that number one spot.
