You guys are completely forgetting that Yao would actually be that much better if he spent his incredible work ethic improving instead of recovering. Easily top 10 of all time.
Exactly, Yao without healthy issues would be top 10 easy.. Never got to see his prime, the closest we will get is that stretch of 30/10 games before Tim Thomas ruined another career.
Yao was a better scorer and rebounder than Ewing, despite always being set back by injury. Facts are facts.
A lot of people are missing the point of this question that is Could Yao have been a top 10 center? I think its pretty solid that if Yao could've stayed healthy he would've been top 10.
http://www.basketball-reference.com...um=1&p1=ewingpa01&y1=2002&p2=mingya01&y2=2011 16.5 > 16.4 Clutchfans: Where unknowledgable fans get mad @ facts, lulz.
Ewing in the early 90's (before Riley took the air out of the ball completely) was a badass on offense, easily the most productive offesnive center in the league. Yao was capable of top-10 or even top 5 quality play in stretches obviously - but in the end he wasn't for a whole season, which is what it takes to make the top 10, so taking small sample size what-ifs like this is kind of pointless. I mean if LaBradford Smith has a whole career just like the that night in 1993 when he murdered Jordan, he's an all-time great. He didn't, so he's not.
on the low block, no one person/center could really STOP yao... he had as good or better of an offensive game from the post than a few of the centers everyone keeps listing ahead of him. he was automatic in the post! dont forget that! his defense was sometimes suspect because he wasn't always the quickest to the spot, but he plugged the paint as well as anyone could - his teams defenses were always great. so i might be biased, but i think yao's game was certainly top 10 all time worthy. but i guess we will never KNOW. and that is the sad part. another rockets 'what if'... on another note, he will never be forgotten for his contributions to the NBA off the court. in that sense he probably is a top 10 center. yao ming brought the NBA to the east and visa versa.
According to your link you pick *Total Rebound percentage which is an obscure stat. In every other rebounding stat on the page, Ewing wins. But based on your posts, we understand you.. you never saw any basketball in the 90s .. at all. Somewhere DURVASA is shaking his head.
while playing next to Charles Oakley. Even then, in his prime, Ewing was regularly posting rebound ratings of over 17 and 18, Yao topped 17 once in his career (and doesn't have a bunch of over-33 years dragging down his average rating)
someone who has been around like Old Man Rock saying Yao was better than D Rob. that's crazy. do people remember how good these guys were? apparently not. they dominated games day end day out. D Rob was probably a better all around athlete than Hakeem.
Yao was truly great when healthy - as to top 10 - that's hard to say. Especially since I propose this question - if we're going to speculate on whether or not Yao would have been a top 10 center if he remained healthy, do the other dominant centers who didn't remain healthy also get to remain healthy in this scenario? Bill Walton, Ralph Sampson? Does Roy Tarpley stay off the drugs? Basically, my point is Yao didn't remain healthy and he is what he is. A great center with an injury plagued career.
Those stats also compare one person who had a relatively short career because he broke down in his prime and someone who had a better prime but includes the years in which he dropped off in productivity because he actually had a long NBA career. I know it's the offseason and all, but it seems like people are just trying to come up with anything they can to build Yao into some legend that he never was. He was a very good player...sometimes great...but there are a LOT of other players that would've been just as great if not better if they would've just been healthy. Health is a HUGE factor in an NBA player's greatness...which is why Yao, the basketball player, will never be known as 'great'. Maybe some of his other contributions to the NBA will make him great(hall of famer), but as a player he fell very short of expectations and no amount of 'what ifs' will ever change that...ever. Sorry folks...
Your stat is rebound %? Ha ha ha, what? I guess we'll look past career average, rebounds per 36 minutes, playoffs, and playoff %. You get the one state out of the 5 that Yao has the tiniest advantage in and think that proves a point. Awesome.
