this is not kidding. There is a probability that Yao will come back to NBA and play again. If that happens, Yao will be the 1st HOF who still plays on court.
Mullin was on the Original Dream Team. That alone could be HOF enough. He'da been their only player not in the HOF (except token Christian Laettner) Case against Yao, Yao's career ended at 30. While Mullin and Walton played well into their 30s.
Yao deserves to be a basketball HOFer, period. He meant alot to the game as a contributor and a player.
I don't know. I'm a big Yao fan, and I see a lot of people say this, but you never actually see any fact based reasoning to support the claim... perhaps it's impossible to get, because clearly he'd be getting in as a contributor due to further ingraining basketball into the minds of the Chinese..... but I don't honestly know to what extent he has, or even if he has to a large degree, to what extent such work will translate... that said, i do think he should get in, just based on guessing about his contributions... China is huge, Yao is a celebrity there on levels almost unlike any we have here, and clearly basketball is a much more important sport in China now than pre-Yao.
It's the basketball hall of fame, not just the NBA. The Chinese national team have been struggling against other nations who have sent third-rate and or developmental squads to compete against them. It couldn't get any clearer how much Yao cotributed to their past success in the Asia region.
I could be completely wrong, but hasn't the Chinese team always struggled against even mediocre national teams, even with Yao playing?
they were definitely better with Yao. They kind of back-doored into the 2008 Olympics with the automatic invite, but then I think they did make it out of their group.
yao entering the hall of fame as a contributor is well deserved. i hope you make it to the HoF yao, because you derserve it!
Hah, you must have missed his post a few days ago where he speculated that there was a 30% chance that Yao was coming back.
IIRC, Ro8 in Athens. Ro8 in Beijing. So yeah, having an NBA borderline superstar does make a national team better.
Oops... I would have nominated Yao a few years ago when he was still playing, if I had known about this HOF category. :grin:
honestly, as a basketball player he wouldn't have got in. his career numbers and accomplishments just aren't there. i was getting used to the let down that he would never win a championship, mvp award, get into the hall, or even have his jersey retired by the rockets. however, when you think of yao as a "contributor" (a category i didnt know about until now) yao is a lock to get in. what he did for the nba, chinese culture, and the game of baskebtall by opening up asia as a HUGE market is one of a kind. definite HOF'er, and of course, if/when he gets in, the rockets will have to retire his jersey.
Yes. They have been more or less at the same level - before, during, and after Yao to be honest about it.
That can't be more wrong. European teams had become much better than pre-Yao era, just see how they played against USA teams. And the Chinese players other than Yao during that span had become worse compare to pre-Yao era. There was simply no way Chinese national team would beat teams like Germany and Serbia in Olympics and World Championships to advance without Yao. You'll see how badly they will do in the next Olympics, if they could qualify at all.
