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

Based on his NBA career, does Ralph Sampson deserve to be in the Hall of Fame?

 

i am chinese? ok, genius.

 

Does you think Danny Ferry deserves to be in the HOF based on basketball merit alone?

 

I like Yao and respect him very much. If he hadn't led us to the victory over the Lakers in the playoffs with the famous 28 point performance coming out injured
from the tunnel, I would have said no. I think he deserves to be in the HOF.

 

Based strictly off his statistical output bball reference has him as a 52.6% chance as a HOFer. Ranking him 109 overall all time.

Only 19 active players have a better percentage. Including Harden at 73.48%

 

I would say people are not inducted into the Hall of Fame based on 'basketball merit' at all. Therefore, trying to isolate 'basketball merit' doesn't make sense. People are inducted for being important to the history of basketball. Some guys are important because they were dominant players. But, there are many ways to be historically significant. Yao was indubitably historically significant, so he should be in.

 

Yao played more minutes, scored more points, grabbed more rebounds, had higher FG% and FT% in the NBA than Sampson. The only big man category Sampson did more than Yao was blocked shots.

Sampson played more playoffs games because he played with Hakeem. But Yao had better per game stats in the playoffs.

You just don't think Yao was very good compared to the other injury prone greats. But if you actually looked at their numbers and not just your own impression, you'd know Yao has accomplished at least as much, if not more than those guys.

The only disadvantage for Yao was that he didn't have a chance to play in the NCAA. I am quite sure he would dominate college basketball in similar ways Walton and Sampson did if he was raised in the US.

 

Which is why you include Yao's time in the CBA as a pro at 17.

DD

 

With all due respect, you are making yourself look a bit silly. You've made your point ad nauseam and because a majority don't agree with you, you seem to believe that if you repeat your opinion over and over and over again, that it will somehow make a difference. Again, with all due respect, the only difference repeating yourself is making is a difference in the opinion many here have of you, in my humble opinion, and I don't mean that as a plus for you.

Oh, and for future reference, if you want members like me to vote in your polls, make them public. Unless Clutch starts the thing, public polls are the only polls where I'll cast a vote. -

 

Maybe Yao should attend college and skip national team duties to enjoy a more successful US based NBA career. He should also find a way to join some version of "big 3" and win some rings. I wonder why he didn't go that route...

 

OP obviously doesn't think Yao deserves to be in HOF based on performance alone if you compare to others who have better numbers. Unfortunately for OP, HOF admits entrants on more than just performance.

 

Really, not even close? That seems disingenuous. Especially when you use fairly meaningless "accolades" like a rookie of the year award or happening to be on a team with a single finals appearance as your ammunition.

Is there no room in the hall of fame admission to simply just look at the player and assess how good they were, and then make a determination based on that? Ability wise, there is no doubt that Yao was one of the best to ever play the game.

I'll say again, there has never been a basketball player in the history of the world that was that massive and had that amount of fundamental basketball skill. That uniqueness combined with his tangible NBA production is good enough for me.