[Chron Blog] Yao's not great, but he doesn't have to be

List the top 10 all time centers. I do not think he will catch people like Shaq, Wilt, Kareem, Russell and Dream, but Drob or Ewing , could be a good possibility.

 

I agree with Jeff 100%.


Too often people have this unreasoned bipolar reaction to players. Either they are the greatest in the league and any possibly negative comments will not be tolerated, or else they are the most horrible in league history and must be replaced or even talked about positively.

The truth is most players are somewhere in between, and there's nothing wrong with supporting our players when they are not neccessarily the greatest in the league.

 

Chamberlain
Kareem
Shaq
Russell
Olajuwon
(top 5, not right now or ever in this class unless he just goes ape-$h!t win the next 3 out of 4 titles, keep your fingers crossed)

Maybe (this is probably where he might fit in around 8 -13, but remember he is only 26 years old)
---------------
David Robinson
Ewing
Mutombo
Mourning
Thurmond

Better Than (statistically)
----------------------
Walton (his numbers weren't spectacular)
Parish (played with a great team, but I don't think his skill was on-par with Yaos)
Daugherty
Sampson

Yao has had pretty good NBA career and if he played few more season at his current pace, he probably get in to the Hall of Fame on numbers only, but still think he hasn't reached his full potential yet. Most players don't hit their prime or the championship year until about 28-31 (see Shaq, Jordan, or the Bad Boy teams). You have to be a good team to win a title.

 

I should state here as well that I think any predictions of where Yao will be either way are overstatements. We just don't know. For those of you who remember, Brad Daugherty was one of the premier big men in the game. People were predicting he could be the greatest center ever until he hurt his back. Ditto Ralph Sampson, who was off to a better start than Yao is now until he hurt his knee.

A big part of success in this or any league is consistency over an extended period of time. Steve Nash, with his run over the past three years, has solidified himself as one of the great point guards ever to play the game. It only really takes a run of 3, 4, 5 years of INCREDIBLE play to get your name whispered among the giants.

Yao CAN do that and Soloman or anyone else who claims he'll never be top 10 is full of CRAP because they no more have the crystal ball than we do. However, Yao has to sustain a high level of play over a number of years AND avoid injury. If he can do what he was doing in the first third of this season for 3 or 4 years in a row, he'll absolutely be worth of this discussion.

 

From this list there is every reason to believe he might one day make the top 10 center list.

 

Dont put Sampson, he was AWESOME TIL HIS KNEE INJURY.
This guy was quick as a PG and had awesome skills.

 

You missed Willis Reed, George Mikan and Wes Unseld, all of whom rank within that list easily.

 

Exactly.

Soloman has a valid point: Yao is not among the Top 10. I agree with that. However, he forced his point of view by some far-fetched supporting arguments. That is what made me think his whole article is BS. Jeff made the same point, but his examples are way better than Soloman’s.

 

all Yao has do is...............WIN A TITLE and he will be immortalized forever. That's the golden ticket in the NBA, NFL, and MLB, that's what really separates the very good players from the very best.

 

... and dunk every chance he gets!! And then be like Shaq and make silly faces running down court --->

 

This guy also has his stars crossed.

 

I just watched some video clips on yahoo NBA coverage. What makes me feel sad for Yao is that he is in the league 5 years, has done so much for the league and city, his hometown newpaper won't accept the concept that he is "dominant".

However, Greg Oden has not even step on the NBA court, he is already labeled the "most dominant" player of his generation...

 

so damn true, Oden hasn't done much except look like a 50 year old man and block a few college kids shots. Let's see him average 25-10

 

I kind of liken this article to previous 'analysis' of Yao in the past. They used to say Yao wasn't a good center because he wasn't as good as Shaq, ONE OF THE MOST DOMINANT CENTERS of all time, and the BEST CENTER AT THE TIME.

I think most people's problem w/ this article is along the same lines. Supposedly Yao is not dominant right now (despite easily being the best center right now) because he's NOT ONE OF THE TOP 10 CENTERS OF ALL TIME. Well if that's the writer's perogative, fine, albeit ridiculous.

 

I wholeheartedly agree that Yao is not among the top 10 centers to ever play the game right now. Ewing, Robinson, Moses Malone have all had superior careers to Yao's current track. However, the guy is basically stating that Yao will never be able to crack the list. That's just ridiculous, plain and simple. Until Yao plays fom at least five to eight more years, we'll never know where his career will rank among the all-time greats.

 

Being a dominant player is not about how nice it looks on game highlights. It's about how much does for his team, and how much damage he causes on the opposing team. Guys like Solomon make the "Yao not dominant" argument because he doens't value Yao's chasing all the way to the perimeter to challenge Fisher's 3pt attempt in game 2 as much as Shaq's swatting away a lay up. The truth is, Yao denied 3 points from the Jazz, and help the rockets ended up with the possesion after the shot, whereas Shaq would have denied 2 points, and the opponent would still inbound the ball after the block. Here is another example. When Shaq gets hacked and go to the FT line down the stretch, he is as helpless as a cheerleader on the sideline. When the rockets inbound the ball with 10 sec to go and a 2pt lead, the opponents are in sheer desperation, because even if they manage to lock down all our guards, there is no way they can deny the ball going into a 7'6" centre's hands who then easily makes two FTs and put the game out of reach. I am not trying to use these two examples to argue that Yao is better than Shaq or whoever. What I am saying is that when someone like Solomon talk about dominance, these little things done by Yao will never be in their consideration because they are of little theatric value.

 

not sure if you're trying to say yao is underrated defensively or not but i guarantee you there's no way boozer could score 41 on shaq.

 

I think Yao will go down as one of the best offensive weapons at the center position. His defense and rebounding will keep him from being mentioned with the best of the best, but I will take that. He doesn't "suck" in those two latter categories.

 

You forgot giving himself a min. of 10 nick names