Kelly, apparently you don't care to address the fact that you didn't even have your facts straight about how many games Yao played? What's with the condescending tone?
Totally blew that, there were so many late re-writes, I was on deadline and blew that. If I sound angry, it's because I have to deal with 30 teams, and fans of 30 teams that decide, in an instant, to forget everything I've ever written about a player since May of 2002 (literally, I covered Yao's first stateside workout in Chicago) to complain about a player ... who just happens to be the best player on their favorite team. Perhaps, even, they're favorite player. Healthy, in his prime, in the fourth quarter, two minutes left, do I take Yao over several of these guys? Of course I do. You people should know that. But he's missed time. And he entered the league in late 2002. And the list involves a sample size. Is it his fault? Of course not. Should that ranking change the way we think about him, or anyone else? No. But a B player playing 80 games is always going to top an A player playing 55. Always. The B player has contributed more. You can't argue that.
If you ever watch a game with yao versus howard, yao DOMINATES every single time. Dwight Howard is overrated and cant play against people his own skill level....while yao dominates everyone who he plays....just wait till he comes back with his new foot...he will dominate like always..and injurys will be a thing of the past, just like Big Z.
You need a standardized method of defining position. You also tended to include young players at the expense of people who played out the end of their career but still put up successful years(GP, Stockton overrated Mashburn/Robinson and Malone on the later articles)
I thought I already copped to that. And in the chat, several times. I also find it amusing that most of the prattle is from people who haven't contributed to CF.net. And the repeated, "they're terrible." Why are they terrible? Because I don't agree, and have an inherent bias because of the team I actively root for. Oh.
I'm not going into further detail because I typed it a bunch earlier, but even for the people who don't explain their reasoning, no explanation is really needed, it's obvious that many of your lists are quite off to say the least.
Stockton had a high PER in the few years he played on this list. Nothing before 1999 counted. Robinson's PER and contributions were incredibly, all-league worthy. Same with Malone. They weren't great for their age. They were great. Jordan was great for his age, not great. GP shouldn't have been on that list. He was an awful defender by 2002-03, and a poor contributor offensively in his post-Seattle years. GP had no business being on that list, and that's coming from someone who considers him the best PG of the 1990s. His drop-off was substantial. You seem to be contradicting yourself. I'm not sure if you agree with having the older players on there, or not.
As some people mentioned, your article is quite subjective. If it was a fan's argument, it would be fine. But, you are a professional sports writer. It is disappointing!
If you weighed PER heavily in your ranking, I see why they are so flawed, next time just watch the game and make your rankings based on that.
OK, here's the massive tome you "typed earlier." Z hasn't missed significant time since Bill Clinton was in office. He played 620 games over the span of this list, nearly two full seasons more than Yao, at nearly the same production rate. Amar'e has played fewer games than Yao, but he's certainly not injury-prone (he's had freak injuries, Yao has reoccurring injuries, there's a difference), and he hasn't missed playoff chances save for 2006. Jermaine O'Neal has played over two combined seasons' worth of games more than Yao. While acting as a far, far, far superior defender.
I thought about making a smartass comment, but I'll just respond honestly. No professional writer working today watches and re-watches more game tape than I do.
99-00 24.2-8.9-6.5 all nba team 1, all nba defensive team, lead league in assists 00-01 23-8-5 defensive team NBA team 3 01-02 22-9-5 NBA team 1, defensive team 02-03 20-8-4 15-6-4 NBA finals 05-06 NBA Champ So now defense matters? Yea cause Kidd hasn't slipped at all and if nash could fall any lower then I'm sure we could bring that up. GP was still a 3 time all nba defensive teamer, league leader in assist and had outstanding stats for 4 seasons. You are trying to tell me Deron Williams has accomplished more in his 3 productive seasons? Not even close.
If you're looking for an objective ordering of the top 10 players by position of this decade, forget it. (1) positions are not well defined (2) what it means to be "better" than another player is not well defined (3) what it means to be the best player over a period of time is not well-defined. There is no science to these type of lists. The ordering is much less important to me than the actually commentary, which I find quite enjoyable.
