Would those stats (including every changed shot not in stats) not make him the best big man in the league today counting both PF and Centers? Top 5 player as far as value? I get what your saying about durability but I said a prime Yao uninjured would have been the best player the Rockets had since The Dream.
Tmac will never be above Yao because at least Yao led the team past the first round. Would have led the Rockets past the Lakers too that year. Harden needs to pass the first round this year to go above Yao. He is already ahead of McGrady.
Yes Yao had some embarrassing moments but I think a lot of y'all have forgotten just how good Yao was a lot of the time and how at stretches he carried this team. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/773129-yao-ming-10-best-games-of-houston-rockets-career Even though I was a very frequent critic of T-Mac he was also a phenomenal player. This isn't to take anything away from Harden but it's way too early to declare Harden the best Rocket since Hakeem.
Because Yao wasn't worth **** once he was down. Ridiculous how much hate T-Mac is getting. I'm happy to see some guys standing up for him in this thread as this has certainly not been the trend over the past couple of years. Tracy was definetely a Superstar for Houston and Orlando. He also had heart(but didn't practice enough) and really took his game to another level in the Playoffs. Something Harden still has to show us. T-Mac was sooo good against the Mavs and Jazz. It's just unfortunate that the team couldn't make it. From Yao not able to deal with fronting defenses to JVG's stagnant half-assed offense which didn't allow any of the (really weak) role players get into a real groove. Whoever wants to say "Toronto Game"...look no further than Harden's past two seasons in Houston. They were like Toronto Game times 82. His off-ball D also sucked in the Playoffs, so that was really a pain in the ass to me. So if you wanna complain about a stupid game at the end of a superstars career who had lots of frustration because he couldn't play as well as he did before than don't stop with T-Mac. Direct all your hate to Harden also. Not that I encourage hating the Beard. Just being rational. James is great. Harden owns T-Mac though in making his teammates better and setting up an offense. He has also been super clutch, but I'm always afraid that refs swallow the whistle at the end of games when he drives. That's why I would prefer Tracy to take the Game-Winning Shot as he is looking for an opening or just takes a J instead of looking for contact and eventual Free Throws (Harden vs Spurs last year). Yeah, Harden is getting there, but we have to wait a little longer until he takes us to the promised land. I'm pretty sure he will leapfrog over T-Mac soon.
http://youtu.be/wl__rl66hbs 06-07 Yao was entering super star territory until that moment killed his season. He had just won player of the month, was Avg 25 -10-2 blk. Rockets were killing.....then he tripped over chuck hayes. At that pace , those numbers , he prob would of won MVP. he only played 48 games that year and the rockets still won 55 games. No injuries and we prob easily clear 60 wins. smh...yao was really good ..but you know injuries suck
I also think ppl that say T-Mac defense was horrible are playing the same game as people saying that Hardens defense sucks because that's what's popular to point at. The T-Mac i remember was always guarding the top guys like Kobe and Lebron while still scoring in bunches. Even JVG when he was fired always pointed out how his defense is always undervalued.
Tracy's defense was not horrible by any means. He came into the league as a lockdown defender and later when he became one of the best offensive players in the game, he started to cruise on the defensive end during the regular season. In the Playoffs he was 100% though and guarding Dirk while still giving a mad output on the other end. Came to ball when it counted. That's what we should remember. His efforts in the Playoffs weren't enough, but they certainly left me in awe. Tough luck. AND...we should certainly not pay most our attention to the end of his career as a Rocket when he was washed up anyways and it didn't really matter to the success of the team whether he quit or not. He was there when it counted.
It's not "LUCK" if you don't lead any team to a playoff series win, especially when you are were one of the highest paid players in the league. When you constantly do not win a playoff series in 17 years it's not LUCK.
You're right, it isn't luck. 5 guys play on a basketball court at any given time. They win and lose as a team.
1. Create plan on how to trash on T-Mac 2. Ignore historically great Playoff (First Round...) stats 3. Trash on T-Mac 4. Mention salary 5. Mention Toronto Game 6. Ignore Harden's defense last season ... .. . Profit?
To me, a superstar is someone who you can reference in a conversation with even non-basketball fans, and they'll know who he is. I think Harden, Tmac, and Yao were all there.
Agree with the title, didn't read past the first page. Yao was too unreliable health-wise and McGrady was too inefficient.
Well, in listening to XM 86 today, there are a LOT of fans around the country, and even all 3 radio show hosts, who would not put Harden in their top 5 of franchise players. Lebron, Durant, and Curry were mentioned by all. The other two were Chris Paul and Tim Duncan for one, Davis and Paul by a 2nd host, and Cousins & Westbrook by a 3rd. Among the fans, over 40 phone calls, and maybe 10 mentioned Harden. Other franchise players who were named other than Harden included Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Paul Millsap, Kobe Bryant, Klay Thompson, and Carmelo Anthony. Yes, Millsap. You read that right. The ignorance and/or hate is real.
the year when Tracy didn't play we win a playoff series. The year Tracy didn't play Vince Carter in the Raptors win a playoff series. When Tracy left Orlando a few years later they went to the NBA Finals.
It wasn't all Tracy's fault, the lack of success was a 5 headed monster, an awful gm, bad coach, the owner who put them there and two stars who couldn't get it together for a variety of reasons.
Didn't lose in the first round in his last season. Really, if you going to blame our loss against Dallas on McGrady, then you're just being stupid on purpose. Which is unfortunately your downfall and why no one takes you seriously, any good will you build with your fandom over the likes of Rockets greats like Dream and Maxwell is ruined by your pettiness over McGrady. Sure, he didn't achieve much success in the playoffs, and had some questionable moments, but if you honestly feel that McGrady wasn't a great player for the Rockets, then it's not debatable- you're being intentionally idiotic. If you're OK with that, great- you're in the small minority.
