How GOOD was Yao Ming Actually

not for basketball.

 

Leslie Alexander rubs those 2 trophies daily in Key West and thinks about Yao Ming money.


@tinman @Jontro

 

In today's game, even assuming Yao's game doesn't change, you'd easily surround Yao with 4 good 3 point shooters. Forget about it if you add an elite shooter. Yao would either mop up the paint or create so many open 3's, and he'd get a crap ton of rebounds being so much taller than everyone and with such higher shot volume. Yao had guys like Sura, Barry, TMac, Skip, Bowen, Wesley, Artest, all of whom were past their primes even.

 

Les would bomb Taiwan if it meant we get Yao back

 

Please stop with this - Yao was 290 when he entered the league, played at 315 for his Rockets career, and then ballooned even further (probably 400+) after he retired to the point where he's the spokesman for anti obesity campaigns - there was no universe in which he defeats metabolism, loses 50lbs, to play at 240 and becomes a perimeter player.

When i read posts like this, i sometimes want to ask of @roslolian if you can look at an old picture of Yao Ming? He had a wide lower body and base - that's where most of his weight was. His calves are the size of 3 Chet Holmgrens standing in line at the Ice cream truck.

People get enamored with a couple of fast break highlights from early in his career - shaq used to do that a lot too! Maybe even more. But physiology dictated that neither was going to do that for long, as well as the fact that they were monsters down low.

 

Yao was nearly 100 lbs heavier as a rookie.

 

Yes for basketball, he is a hall of famer.

DD

 

A perennial all star player
One of the most poised, most intelligent people
A very high work ethic
An ideal teammate
Represented an entire nation very well

Had one primary weakness that his teams werent built for in the playoffs: speed

 

Yao is VERY good but not great! However, I think if he could've played longer, he could've reached greatness.

 

I wish the teams were deeper and he was load managed. PRC had his balls wrapped in an Iron Curtain and paraded him like a show pony across the summers of Asia.

I don't think Tmac was the problem, but his little ego might've sabotaged himself for not working harder since he wasnt the main spotlight, but he mostly showed up the first round until either one of them didn't from injuries.

A lot of bad FO moves and zero commitment to spend over the cap.

That win streak year...prime symbol for that era of Rockets. "Scrappy" and "blue collar" because the core wasn't deep enough to expect more.

 

Yao was great. Obviously injuries plagued him. He was a legit 20-10 big with a fantastic low post game. He was a very good shooter too. I think in today's NBA he could have been an above average 3pt shooter.

 

Oh I remember the YOFs
@AroundTheWorld

when the GARM headlines were about Yao getting a haircut

 

Yao Ming better sell sell sell

 

lmao almost spilled my wine reading that.

 

Les would kidnap Enes Kanter and Daryl Morey and deliver them to Xi like it was a red envelope full of coin on Chinese New Year

 

Or fans following him home wtf

 

I remember that game against the Lakers. I think it was Yao's first time against Shaq. Shaq thought he could bully Yao but he didn't back down. Instead, he blocked Shaq twice in the first couple of minutes and scored on him at the other end. I was so thrilled.

 

Yao was ****ing spectacular. First of all, for his size, he was probably the greatest free throw shooter ever. He could have been amazing in any era. He could shoot, had power, finesse, you name it. Yao was a god damn treasure that nobody really deserved. On top of it, he was, and is, an unbelievable human being. Suffice it to say, he is one of my all time favorites.

 

That was a moment that will live in infamy

you know because it was Yao that nothing would happen. If it was harden or Chris Paul those dudes would have been beaten up by their entourage