KG and Yao Is a fair comparison...and all you haters need to back off

Yao will be fine...he's still an impact player, if not a carry-the-team-on-your-back player like everyone is hoping. And you're right, you do kind of need more than one player to do it. (Or at least for your surrounding cast to help you out. In our first championship, Dream was really the only 'major' star.)

But those numbers mean very little. All you have to do is watch a game. KG's focus is unmatched. He has a drive and determination on the court that you just don't see in Yao.

There's a lot more to a game than numbers. How you play is a big part in whether or not you win.

That's not a knock on Yao...because, really, there's a reason KG is one of the best players in the game. Few can reach his level of focus.

It's just not really a 'fair' comparison...not yet anyway.

 

There's still time for Yao to push that to ~21 ppg.

 

Thanks for bringing this up, just a little bit patience will solve the conflicts in Rox now!

 

Energy. Speed. Quickness. Agressiveness. Thats what seperates Kevin Garnett from Yao.

 

I think you forgot rebounding and passing too


KG is in at a whole other level to Yao Ming. Comparing their 4th season in the league is NOT as 'equal' as you make it out to be.... there's a big difference between a guy who is 18-8 and a guy who is 21-10-4 with almost 2 steals

 

KG is always playing with heart and desire out there. I don't see KG tipping the ball he grabs it. Yao ming is no KG.

 

don't forget 6 straight all-defensive first team selections and 3 all-nba first team selections. since he was drafted in '95 no other forward besides Malone and Duncan has been selected more than once to the first team.

 

But yet I can see how we should be comparing the two.....

 

He's comparing their first 4 years geniuses.

 

Yes, you are so right. I never stopped to contemplate how close Farragut Academy was to the competitive levels of the Asian Games, World Cup, Olympics and pro ball for the Shanghia Sharks. How could I have been so short-sighted?

 

KG has more impact on the game than Yao ever will. While their stats are somewhat comparable, Yao usually disappears in the 2nd half of games, almost completely in the 4th sometimes.

The first 4 years of stats never tell the whole story, the truth is that Yao is still getting out muscled by players a lot smaller than him. He isn't the great rebounder we thought he would be. And most important to me, his fatigue factor isn't what I thought it would be after a summer of rest.

 

Just look at my Sig.

 

Look, all he's doing is looking at statistics. There is really only one comparison for Yao at this time. He's the 2nd player to come out of China and play in the NBA. Nobody else has had to come from the culture of China into the NBA save Wang. Is there any comparison to Wang?

So for all intent purposes you can't compare Yao to anybody. You can't compare him to American High Schoolers and you can't compare him to American College players. You can't compare him to Sabonis. Sabonis didn't play in the NBA until he was an old man.

About the only thing that we can consider is how different the international game is compared to the NBA. After all, I think we all agree, the best basketball players in the world, the country which produces the best basketball talent is America.

But we didn't win the last Olympics. That's how different the style of play is. We have the overwhelming best talent and we lost. We struggle in the international game because the American game has become a cross between basketball, wrestling, and rugby. While the international game has remained a game that favors skill and finesse and de-emphasizes athleticism and physicality.

At the same time the most talented players in the world were struggling, Yao thrived. China lost, but nobody had an answer for Yao. All the while Tim Duncan is fouling out of games. Notice, Tim Duncan, not Ben Wallace, not Jermaine, but Tim Duncan, the Big Fundamental.

That should tell us something. It should tell us that the NBA game is night and day compared to the international game.

Yao is carrying an entire nation, the largest nation on this planet, on his skinny shoulders. He has played competitive ball year round in the NBA and for his country 3 out of the last 4 years with this last offseason being his first break since he was drafted into the NBA. He has come to a foreign country, learned a foreign language and had to adapt as best as possible to a whole different lifestyle, a whole different mentality, a whole different culture, a whole different style of basketball. Don't forget, after the season, he's gotta go back to playing international ball again and not be so American agressive that he takes himself out of games. I can understand why he could be confused at times, and tentative, and exhausted. Remember, when he plays the game, he has to think about how he is representing his country, not just winning the durn game. He's gotta try to win and still be an ambassador of China all at the same time. The Americans only have to play to win. The way they play, the style in which they play, the tattooes, the piercings, the rebelling against the dress code, the drugs, the violence on court and off court, the street culture, the idea that if you want something you just take it, everybody else be da____, and take no prisoners............that is America. All that style of play on the court is overlooked because it is the American way..........I'm sorry to say at times. Anything less would almost be un-American.

What we have here is a clash of cultures, continents, wills, and ideas. A country trying to break out of the cocoon shell of government control and abuse of power coming together with the free world and struggling to embrace capitalism...........with some of the same polluted influences still living and running both sides of equation. Yao is just one of the pawns in that game.

We gotta face facts. In this environment, the system is against him. The refs may not be intentionally calling the game against him or have a bias against him purposely but the league has a bias against the international style of play. It's not American. And we Americans are proud. We're not gonna accept foreigners running our nation, running our economic system, running our sports system. We think our style should be the international style.........not only in sports but in every facet of life. We feel that our way is best. And we're not gonna yield an inch until we're pinned, until we are checkmated, until we are forced to concede.

What's happening to Yao? He's under immense pressure to cave and just become another Rik Smits, another Vlade Divac, another Mark Eaton. Yao is fighting to be more than that. Yao is trying to become a world recognized superstar, being more successful than those before him in an environment that is really against him being successful and represents everything anticultural to him.

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, from my good friends...Americans, trying to classify Yao as just a tall, clumsy, white dude who doesn't have any real athletic ability and shouldn't be getting the recognition he is getting just because he is Chinese. It's kinda funny actually. I heard the same thing from all my black, American friends when Larry Bird was lighting up the league. They would say things like.....the league showed Bird favoritism because he was white, there had to be a white superstar, Larry shouldn't even be in the NBA because he couldn't jump over a piece of paper, he was slow, etc. etc. etc. All the while I was watching Joe Barry Carroll lumber up the court like he was dragging a hay bailer behind him, slower than a sloth, wondering why he was in the NBA. Talk about a lack of athleticism and drive, the definition would be JBC. Yet he was lumbering around making big dough......and my black friends were telling me how bad a player Larry Bird really was. They didn't want to admit how good he really was. I bet you guys can relate to what I just said. The wars that took place between Bird and Magic were microcosyms of what was going on in our culture during those years. A majority of white people favored Bird over Magic and were Celtic fans. And a majority of black people favored the Lakers and Magic. Let's not deny it or pretend it wasn't so. It was. But when the dream team was put together, we realized at the bottom of it all was the fact that they were both American and we were all for America. I became a huge Magic fan and now I look back at those classic Bird Magic finals and see how great a player Magic really was. And most black americans that would not admit it at the time, now admit how great a player Bird was. They finally viewed Bird outside of highlight reel dunks and blocked shots into the 18th row.

I said all that to say this. America wants to win. They want to win the Olympics. They want to win the international game. Hey, they want the dollars that the Chinese are bringing into the NBA. I would bet in time that Stern and the basketball officials in this country are going to realize that it is in their best interest, if they want to make more money, if they desire to maintain our status as the premier basketball playing country, the premier producer of the best basketball talent in the world, that they change the style of play in the NBA to reflect more truly with the international game and to come to a harmony with the international game.

When that happens, Yao will dominate.........provided he hasn't grown into a 38 year old worn out old player ala Sabonis. And when that happens the NBA will win as well. The money will roll even more than it is now and Stern will continue his legacy of great promotion and advancement of the NBA. Because Yao is so much more than a clumsy Rik Smits, or a cigarette smoking Vlade who was softer than a cream puff; he's much more than a totally unathletic Mark Eaton who really could not get both feet off the floor at the same time.

Yao is one of the most talented, skilled big men to ever play this game. He's the white Kareem Jabbar playing in an era of Shaq physicality and the zone defense, two things Kareem never had to deal with on the court. Whether he gets the proper respect and recognition for it are very much out of his control unless he wants to make a conscious effort to move away from the culture he was raised in and subconsciously 'diss' his heritage. I would say at this point the odds of that happening are slim and none. We'll just have to ride out the storm with him and watch his career unfold. In the end, I think it will be amazing and will be defined by so much more than just scoring and rebounding statistics. I believe Yao will break barriers and transcend statistics just like Bird and Magic did and will help TMac and the Rockets win multiple championships along with making his native China a force to be reckoned with in international basketball. After all, we have to realize whether we be American, Chinese, or Euro......we are all human. And the NBA should represent the best players in the world, not just the best players in America.

 

Part 2?

 

Your argument is completely awful. When Garnett joined the NBA he was four years younger than when Yao joined the league which is quite important in this comparison. After Garnett's fourth season it was completely obvious that he was a beast in the making and on his way to being one of the top 5 players in the game. After Yao's fourth season he's a pretty good player and an All-Star center in a league where there are few quality centers. Nobody takes Yao Ming at 22 years old over Garnett at 22 years old. That's not even a serious thought.

 

Not to mention the fact that it is WRONG

EVEN THE NUMBERS don't show that Yao Ming in his fourth year is equal to Kevin Garnett in his fourth year.

I'm not saying I don't like Yao - but trying to say that he is statistically equal to Kevin Garnett in an equal season is r****ded when it is just plain wrong!!!!!

 

Not to mention KG makes everyone around him better. he is Quicker, Smarter, faster, more agile and is a way better player. you wanna compare yao anyone to, try rick smits.

 

Are you even Chinese? Have you ever been to China?

I dare say the 'culture' of Shanghai bears more resemblance to that of New York City than it does the image in your head of peaceful gardens and babbling brooks.

Plenty of players are not aggressive on the basketball court - be they North American, European, Asian, South American, African or Australian! Being brought up a certain way doesn't have to affect the way they put on their pants to play basketball.


And if Yao Ming is in the top 5 most skilled big men to ever play this game then Zaza Pachulia is in the top 5 rebounders to ever play the game

 

Well considering that Yao's numbers are already better than anything Rick ever achieved, I would posit that this is an equally r****ded thing to do...