Yao is far better than Ralph! Ralph neglected is reponsibility to his kids and Yao save the sharks! see what i mean GO ROCKETS
his kids neglected him! I hope Yao doesnt have to face some crappy women like Vernon and Ralph. look what they did to Vernon and Ralph.
Only when Yao makes a legengary mark in the playoffs do I put him ahead of Yao. To help destroy the Lakers when Dream was out of the game and putting a momment that will last EONS past this planet's destruction that people in the year 6094 will remember the legend of Ralph Sampson and his game winner vs the Lakers.. thats what Yao has to do, make a permanent momment that will last til the end of time. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AInAEdoyshY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AInAEdoyshY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
An impossible shot, but he made it. I'll never forget it. I screamed myself hoarse. Jumped around like a lunatic. You could have emptied a revolver into me, and I wouldn't have noticed. McCray is frequently overlooked for giving Sampson the perfect pass for his impossible bucket. Damn, that was a perfect end to a great series. Ralph and Dream played so well together. It was a trip. I even forgave Ralph his constant attempts to prove he was a 7'4" guard. Good times.
speaking of that western conference finals, anyone remember this moment? <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TMonqfh69J4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TMonqfh69J4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
In today's NBA, honestly, I'll take Ralph's incredibly versatile game. I can't imagine what a Don Nelson or D'Antoni would do with it. Though, for our Rockets, and Van Gundy, I'll take Yao.
Ralph was amazing but played soft and inconsistent. He was a great complementary star to Hakeem. But from now on, I would definitely take Yao over him and it's not even close.
Who could forget it? The Lakers fans thought they had this one pretty much in the bag after that lucky break. How many players would have been ejected in today's NBA because of that incident? Back then, it was a big surprise that the two of them were tossed. No one who came off the bench was. It was a different era, and in so many ways, better than this one. Today, they want a bunch of weenies wearing their nice, pressed suits, playing pattie-cakes, and singing kumbaya. Today, they would have tossed both teams entirely, suspended them all for several games, and fined them tens of thousands of dollars, lol... after drug testing them and checking for head lice. They would have had to drag guys off of IR to finish the series. For those of you too young to have experienced that NBA, you missed one hell of a different game, and one hell of a great era, inhabited by great big men, great guards, great power forwards. There were 23 teams, and today there are 30. In my opinion, the talent has been diluted, although the influx of players from Europe and elsewhere, like our own Yao and KillBill, is certainly helping. The large number of players leaving college after a year, or the ones who came straight from high school in the past, caused a serious decrease in fundamentals, to the detriment of the game. The style was so different, and yet defense could be as hard and tough as any you might see today. The rules have been changed so much, it's rediculous. Every season, it seems, there are changes. The Rockets, and some of their coaches and players, helped drive some of the changes, ironically. Lets hope some balance can be achieved, and that we can see a return to a game that is, in a lot of ways, more similar in style to that of 20 years ago. I'm hopeful a trend is in that direction. I just wish they didn't have to tinker so much with the game we all love.
Yao was very inconsistent until that point last year. Yao played 3 1/2 season inconsistent ball. How long did Ralph play his inconsistent ball before he blew his knees? Yeah, let's see how Yao turns out. And nobody would ever know how Ralph would have turned out had he played healthy longer. But Ralph did have more potential than Yao.
I think if you compare them straight up, Ralph clearly wins. But here's a twist that I think is interesting: Which would be a better teammate for Hakeem? Yao or Ralph. Ralph at 4 and Hakeem at 5 was a great combo, but would Hakeem at 4 and Yao at 5 be better? I don't think there would be any debate that Hakeem would have been the best Power Forward in history, and could have worked really well with another great center beside him.
If both players were available as 22 year old healthy players, Ralph would get drafted ahead of Yao 100% of the time. DD
I am absolutely shocked that so many fans here think Samspon was better than Yao. Sampson was SOFT. This thread is insulting to yao. VERY insulting to Yao.
I wouldnt say Sampson was soft, his career was cut short by injuries. That means Camby could be considered soft by that standard.
BS!! Those games in the 80s was WAR! did you not know anything about that? the Lakers throwing their thugs at Dream and Ralph. Comparing Yao to Ralph is a compliment. Ralph helped dispose of the Lakers and a great run at the Celtics. Both LEGENDARY TEAMS with HALL OF FAMERS. Ralph is part of NBA LEGEND. let me repeat NBA LEGEND. Lets see, the Rockets with YAO and Tmac lost to the Mavericks with Dirk and Jason Terry a couple years back... RALPH played against the LAKERS in the Western Conference Finals and the Celtics in the Finals. Take that Lakers team with Magic/Kareem/Worthy/Scott/Cooper , that team would have destroyed the Rockets with Tmac and Yao by 70 points!! And you call Ralph Soft? How DARE YOU CALL A LEGEND SOFT!!!! I left you YOFers alone, but you are going to feel the WRATH of the Tinman, if you DARE EVER INSULT ROCKET LEGENDS AGAIN!!
EAT THIS RALPH HATERS. OPEN UP AND EAT IT. Hate on Hakeem, Jim Peterson, Kenny, Bill Fitch then.. they dont think he was soft http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/rox/3665930 Even in Houston, where he often electrified The Summit with his dazzling play, Sampson's legacy, of course, pales in comparison to that of adopted hometown hero Hakeem Olajuwon. "Not to take anything away from Dream," said former Rocket, Olajuwon teammate and now TNT analyst Kenny Smith. "But one was hurt and one wasn't. "I hear people say that Ralph only did it for three or four years. But for three or four years, nobody could touch him. He'd have been (voted) a Top 50 (all-time) player if not for his knees. When it comes to Sampson, everybody seems to want to go for the easy negative instead of looking for the truth." "But he could take the ball off the board and start the fast break as well as anybody I've ever coached. You take Dave Cowens, Nate Thurmond, Jim Chones and Olajuwon — none of them ever got the ball and cleared it for the break like Ralph." Sampson wrestled often with Fitch over how he should be used. But he did not complain when the Rockets asked him to move to power forward when they made Olajuwon the No. 1 pick in 1984. "Playing with Ralph was a lot of fun," Olajuwon said in an e-mail from Amman, Jordan. "He never showed me any jealousy over the position. We were a great complement to each other's game, and I believe we were way ahead of our time. I blocked so many shots because I was able to come from the weak side and behind Ralph. He gave me opportunities for tip-in dunks with his play around the rim. Those were fun years, and I only wish he would not have had the knee injuries. It was sad to see him not reach all of his potential." Ex-teammate Jim Petersen battled Sampson every day in practice. "Don't anyone tell me that Ralph wasn't a special player," he said. "I know what it was like to try to guard him. He was special." The bar, said former Rocket Rodney McCray, was simply set too high for Sampson. "It was never going to be enough," McCray said. "Ralph would have had to average 50 a game to make people happy, and I'm not sure that would have done it. I can't imagine anybody who played with him here in Houston saying Ralph didn't play up to his potential for us. In the end, it was all about the knees." Sampson says he has finally come to terms with the hurt of being traded by the Rockets and is looking forward to a reunion, of sorts, at the NBA All-Star weekend. He says that in a few more years, he'll be better off financially than at any time during his playing career. He wouldn't mind taking another shot at coaching. He says he plans to move back to Houston in a few years, even as a businessman, because he still has an affection for the city that has grown with his absence. What Sampson says he won't do is spend time looking back on his NBA career with regret. "There are so many what-ifs," he said. "What if I had left school a year earlier and gone to the Lakers in a coin flip and played with Magic Johnson? What if John Lucas, Mitchell Wiggins and Lewis Lloyd didn't go down to the drugs? What if my knees didn't go? "The only time I didn't enjoy playing basketball and didn't enjoy my NBA career was the two years I spent in Sacramento. They got my weight up to 280. With the knees, I couldn't move around at all. I was miserable. "But injuries are part of the game. I wish I could have played at that high level for many more years. I wish I could have spent more time playing with Hakeem. Obviously, if I'd have had a 15-year career at that early level, there's another perspective on everything. "When I played, people said big men are not supposed to be playing away from the basket. Now I see Kevin Garnett all over the floor. Hey, I had my time. I played my game."
Tinman, you have been voted down 79-21. That constitutes a landslide. It seems your view on this issue is not the mainstream, as much as it may hurt for you to think so. I never said you were wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that most people don't agree with you, and you don't seem to grasp that fact, rejecting the poll result by blaming it on YOFs.
http://www.nba.com/history/sampsonshot_moments.html man he sure was soft allright, here's his soft stats. Ralph Sampson averaged 18.9 points and 11.1 rebounds in 1985-86
who cares about this stinking poll? i care about fact and history. I love Yao, but we haven't done ANYTHING yet with him! so the YOFers think Ralph is soft. well fine, let them think that, but look in the record books and watch that Lakers vs Rockets ESPN Classic and look in the record books and you will find the facts. You think I care about YOFers more than,, HAKEEM? who's word do you trust? YOFers or Hakeem? hmm? who? maybe i'll poll that. Poll: if Hakeem says Ralph was awesome and YOFers say he was not, who as a REAL ROCKETS FAN, do you trust? Let me tell you back in the day people thought the Earth was flat too.
