Do you think Yao deserves to be in the hall of fame based on basketball merits?

Why don't you read their resumes and figure it out. Unless you're pretty young, their resumes are pretty well known if you're a basketball fan.

 

pretty strong and rational argument there, lol.

let me borrow a comment from the op,,, it means you have nothing to add.

 

Here.

Patrick Ewing
11× NBA All-Star (1986, 1988–1997)
All-NBA First Team (1990)
6× All-NBA Second Team (1988–1989, 1991–1993, 1997)
3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1988–1989, 1992)
NBA Rookie of the Year (1986)
New York Knicks all-time leading scorer
NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
NCAA champion (1984)
NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1984)
College national player of the year (1985)
3× Consensus first-team All-American (1983–1985)
2× Big East Player of the Year (1984, 1985)

Alonzo Mourning
NBA champion (2006)
7× NBA All-Star (1994–1997, 2000–2002)
All-NBA First Team (1999)
All-NBA Second Team (2000)
2× NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1999, 2000)
2× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1999, 2000)
2× NBA blocks leader (1999, 2000)
NBA All-Rookie First Team (1993)
Consensus first-team All-American (1992)
Consensus second-team All-American (1990)
Big East Player of the Year (1992)
2× USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year (1990, 2000)
McDonald's All-American MVP (1988)
Naismith Prep Player of the Year (1988)

Dikembe Mutombo
8× NBA All-Star (1992, 1995–1998, 2000–2002)
All-NBA Second Team (2001)
2× All-NBA Third Team (1998, 2002)
4× NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001)
3× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1997–1998, 2001)
3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1995, 1999, 2002)
NBA All-Rookie First Team (1992)
2× NBA rebounding leader (2000–2001)
3× NBA blocks leader (1994–1996)

Calvin Murphy
Murphy attended Niagara University, where he was a three-time All-American, averaging 33.1 points per game. Murphy was one of the best free-throw shooters ever, setting NBA records for most consecutive free throws made and for the highest free throw percentage in a single season (1980-1981). Both records have since been broken. He set many other records within the Rockets organization, including that of all-time leading scorer until that record was broken in 1994 by Hakeem Olajuwon.


Here's Yao's bio.

8× NBA All-Star (2003–2009, 2011)
2× All-NBA Second Team (2007, 2009)
3× All-NBA Third Team (2004, 2006, 2008)
NBA All-Rookie First Team (2003)
CBA champion (2002)
CBA Finals MVP (2002)
3× CBA rebounding leader (2000, 2001, 2002)
3× CBA blocks leader (2000, 2001, 2002)
2× CBA Slam Dunk leader (2000, 2001)
3× FIBA Asian Championship MVP (2001, 2003, 2005)


I don't know what level of competition you would consider the CBA or FIBA Asian league, maybe like division III college perhaps? I dunno.

 

lol, you dont have to copy and paste these stuff. most people here wouldve well known that. and it's still just nba stuff. the dpoy's, 1st nba teams, etc. you forgot this is not nba hall of fame.

no matter how you slice and dice it, for centers, ewing's 21/9.8, mourning's 17/8.5 and dike's 9.8/10.3 were either on par or not as good as yao's 19/9.2, is that not true?

when all in their peaks, yao wouldve beaten those great centers, imo. and that's what should count. because championship is a team thing, and awards are not always cut and dry (actually there's almost always controversy). e.g., who's rookie of the yr. in yao's rookie yr.? yeah, i remember there's some controversy there. did kobe deserve the allstar starter this yr.?

btw, did murph get in largely for his ft's?

as to what level the chinese league is,,, i know it's probably laughable compared to the nba, but again, that's part of the world's bball. they (the voters) obviously dont only count plays of the nba. china getting into the top 8 of the world is significant to world's bball, just maybe not to the "our national champs are the world champs" crowd.

 

If Yao doesn't deserve to be based on his merits then neither does Bill Walton.

 

yao easily deserves the hof. it's the basketball hof, not the nba. there was absolutely no question.

 

yea, the walton comments lack complete knowledge. walton is an easy as a lock there is...even despite his injury problems.

 

Not sure why people are analyzing it so much. Yao had HOF-worthy stats. They don't make your eyes pop out or anything, but they're good enough to at least let him be under consideration. Some people act like some objective list of accomplishments equates to a formula that says "yes or no" to the HOF. I don't think that's true, unless someone can cite a source to this formula.

Yes, I think you have to get past the objective part and look at the stats to make sure the minimum level for consideration is reached. But after that it's purely subjective and requires some more in depth analysis than just looking at some numbers. And the fact is that as a player, he was a unique talent that no one had ever seen before in the basketball and will never be seen after. A 7 foot 5 giant with soft touch and high basketball IQ. There has never been a player that massive with as much fundamental basketball skill.

I think that "unique-ness" (really in all of basketball history) allows him to fill a gap in the HOF and earns him the right to be inducted.

I also think it's somewhat dishonest to use high school (LOL) or college basketball accolades as some way to discredit Yao. He didn't have that opportunity. He most likely would have absolutely annihilated that competition. You can't hold that against him.

 

Of course Yao deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. That injury plagued so much of his career is hardly unique. Another former Rocket great who is in the Hall, Ralph Sampson, had his own career cut short due to injury. It makes me feel good to know that both have taken their place in the Hall of Fame among the best to ever play the game. Arguing about Yao's election (or Sampson's) is part of what we do here, I suppose, but celebration is the mood I'm looking for. This is truly wonderful news for both fans of the Rockets and fans of the sport of basketball.

 

And as far as defensive achievements...Yao was just as important of a defensive player as some of these guys that have all these defensive player of the years and defensive first teams to their resume. Sure, they got an extra 1 or 2 block per game over Yao on some flashy help defense, but that's not what made Yao such a defensive juggernaut. This ESPN article from way back explains it pretty well.


http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6789672/nba-houston-rockets-replace-yao-ming-defensive-impact

 

If you had "complete knowledge" you would know that Walton played fewer NBA minutes, scored few points, had a lower TS%, and a lower NBA career WS than Yao.

Again, Walton was a great player and deserved to be in the HOF. But just because he had a higher peak than Yao does not mean that his total NBA achievement is significantly, if any, higher than Yao.

 

Post of the year right here.

CONGRATS to an all time Great, and Hall of fame player from the Rockets - Yao Ming!

DD

 

Yao deserves it. So does Jeremy Lin.

 

True rockets fan alert! !

 

thank you, dckid. you said it way better than i did.

 

I agree this was a common problem when Yao came into the league. I remember being disgusted at Charles and Kenny seemingly dismissing him because he wasn't from the US; and more particularly, because he was from China. Like he wasn't worthy of being in their club. I remember watching that on Yao's draft night and just getting so pissed off at that.

Yao made them look really stupid with the way he played the game.

Ultimately, however...if he were not Chinese, we wouldn't be talking about this guy going into the Hall of Fame. He broke barriers and was hugely significant to the game for that. On the court, I don't think he had a long enough or distinguished enough career for him to have made it without the other outside trappings.

 

I don't think Ralph makes the basketball HOF without having had the college career he did. His was college player of the year for 3 years in a row! That was unreal.

 

When people put up Deke, Ewings, and Zo's stats a lot forget the last 2-4 years of their career, they were bench warmers and backups. This killed their "real" stats.