The only race I would like to see is Yao versus Ralph on a fast break. Game over. Yao versus Ralph throwing an outlet pass. Game over. Yao versus Ralph handling the ball. Game over. Yao versus Ralph blocking shots, one you would expect Yao to either win, or be even... advantage Ralph. By Sampson's 3rd season, Akeem was blocking so many shots that, in my opinion, he caused a decrease in Ralph's shot blocking numbers, lol. Yao versus Ralph rebounding. Game over, but Yao is finally getting close. He's just not the natural rebounder Sampson was, in my opinion, and lacks the quickness, jumping ability, and lateral movement needed to come close to Ralph as a rebounder. Still, Yao has improved a great deal, based on the second half of last season. Yao versus Ralph passing, game over. Now, based on what we saw during Yao's rookie season, you would imagine that Yao might have an edge here, or at least be even, but Ralph was a far better passer, based on results prior to injury, and perhaps the way Yao been used has some influence on that. Not sure. Yao versus Ralph shooting, advantage Yao. Yao is just money from mid-range, in. Ralph could get on fire and score 35 points, or he could suck. Doctor of Dunk pointed that out. Turnovers, easily advantage Yao. Ralph would have cut down on his turnovers with time, in my opinion, but he kept thinking too often that he was a 7'4" guard. Would drive us all crazy! Consistancy, advantage Yao. Easily, and that's a big one. I think Yao is finally showing the high level of play consistantly that we were all hoping to see. Freethrows, advantage Yao. Could become the best big man at the line we've ever seen. Steals, advantage Ralph. See rebounding above for the reason, and look at the stats. Ralph wasn't great at stealing the ball, partly because he was so damn tall, in my opinion, but was certainly better than Yao. Dream made them both look silly. Scoring, I'm calling it even. Ralph outscored Yao his first 3 seasons, easily, but I'm basing much of this on the last half of last season for Yao, since he didn't come out of a top college program, where he spent 4 years learning the game, and he had that stupid toe problem he should have had fixed a long time ago. I'm sure I'm forgetting some stat, but if you compare Ralph's first 3 seasons, the only ones in which he was healthy, with the last 3 of Yao, I don't see how someone could say Yao is the better player in comparison, unless they are just a big fan of Yao. I'm a big fan of Yao, as I was of Sampson, but there you go, from your friendly Blade Runner. To compare stats, just look at Clutch's excellent stats from the players link on the ClutchFans.net front page.
With all due respect, not to nitpick, but the stats page (http://www.clutchfans.net/stats.cfm) linked to the front page shows: Code: Name G MIN FGM-A FTM-A 3PM-A OFF DEF TOT AST STL BLK TO PF PTS [color=red]Y.Ming[/color] 0 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Maybe you were looking at a different stats sheet ... I apologize profoundly if I am mistaken.
Go to the players tab first. Then click all-time Rocket profiles. http://www.clutchfans.net/players/ralph_sampson/ http://www.clutchfans.net/players/yao_ming/?career
I accept your profound apology, wnes! You have to click on a couple of those thingies... you know, those website things... the internets... the damn tubes. You click and you click, and somehow, through some sort of combination of divine intervention, and the hard work of Clutch and crew, this info just spills out. It's amazing!!
How did you get the above link to Yao's career stats from the All-Time Rockets Profile page? (Yeah I know where to look for Yao's name once I am there)
It's not that hard to make Yao look favorable compared to Sampson if one looks at basketball-reference. Yao's PER is way better than Sampson's. You can also see that Sampson's Usage Rate in his early years is significantly higher than Yao's, roughly corresponding to the fact that Yao doesn't get fed enough. Sampson also played more MPG than Yao, so it stands to reason that his raw numbers are higher. Basically Yao is significantly more efficient than Sampson. This much is demonstrated by the PER. Now what constitutes "better" is anyone's guess. Personally I voted that they are about equal at this point, because Sampson + Hakeem got deep into the postseason their early years, while Yao hasn't. Sampson's career subsequently fell off a cliff, let's hope that Yao's career doesn't.
But you're dealing in some massive hypotheticals. Yao was an absolute beast to contain and dominated the end of the season. You can't just say "what if Ralph's kneeds had held out". They didn't. That's a fact. Yao was a beast and still has years to improve unless he gets injury prone. Yao played inconsistent ball, but the fact is - he became a dominant player for at least half a season. Ralph had a few dominant years, but the fact is, his knees did give out. I recall (possibly incorrectly) Ralph was inconsistent even when he had good numbers overall (for the season) and he never improved from that. I'm swamped with work or I'd try to see if I could find game-by-game stats for Ralph. The other thing about Yao's inconsistency is that he's having to learn a new culture and an entirely new way of playing ball. Ralph played for years at Virginia and on playgrounds. His inconsistency was because he was well... born that way. lol. Gimme Yao!
Well Yaos Blocks have gone down each year, and I believe without looking so has his assists. Until the second half of last year, Yao was still around 19 pts and 9 rebounds a game. I dont see how anyone can claim Yao has been more consistant. Really what stands out to me is that Ralph was forced to play out of position, and had to deal with Akeem in the Paint. Most similar thing I can think of is to put a current Shaq on the team with the Rox and see what Yao's numbers would be like. I know Yao plays with TMac, but TMac isnt in the box where Yao is supposed to be. For me personally, Ralph was (for a very brief time) the superior player offensively and defensively.
I agree. Everyone brings up Yao's second half performance again and again. But I still have doubt if he could repeat it in a full season. To be honest, Yao did post monster numbers in a good stretch of 15-20 games. IMO, it was due to: 1. He was injure free after the toe surgery 2. He had a long layoff because of the surgery and it greatly helped his stamina. He was fresh. 3. He was the only option offensively becasue T-Mac was out and anyone else really sucked. The Roxs had no option but passing the ball to Yao. It was probably the first time in Yao's NBA career that the ball was truly passed to him EVERY SINGLE possession even he was tired or couldn't make shots. In NBA, it is not very hard to post moster numbers if a quality player has ball in his hand all the time. And I don't think it will happen to Yao again and it will be a good thing(meaning Rox are all healthy). I will predict he gets 20/10 in the new season. Rebounding and shot blocking are keys. I wish he post better numbers in those areas than last year.
If you think Samspon was better than Yao, apparently you haven't grasped just how much Yao changes the game and what he does. Sampson wouldn't have even averaged 15 points against today's defense, plus he was soft he liked to float on the perimeter. Yao is not only better he is signifcantly better, frankly it's not even close.
Hey, remember the time when a teenaged Yao Ming was playing against the 1996 Bulls, and then threw down 5 straight monster dunks in Scotties face and blocked Jordan 4 times, and then screamed 'hey, hijo de puta, come bring it harder next time' and then got ejected from the game, and then he and Bobby Sura went out and had sex with the entire Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue? I remember this because I was there. Man that was awesome.
Showdown in the Pivot By GORDON S. WHITE Jr. December 11, 1982 LANDOVER, Md. [Saturday]-The $1.25 million production of the Ralph Sampson‚ Patrick Ewing show had an excellent one-night stand this evening in the Capital Centre. Sampson led topranked Virginia to a 68‚63 victory over Ewing's Georgetown in a game that many agreed came close to living up to its billing as a unique attraction for the crowd of 19,035 and the millions watching on television. The play within the play also went to the 7-foot-4-inch Sampson, who had 23 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocked shots; the 7‚0 Ewing had 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots. Sampson, a senior, won the battle because he had the moves to beat Ewing, a sophomore, more often than Ewing was able to use his strength. Sampson also had the better supporting players, though Ewing's sophomore and freshman teammates grew up in a hurry and made a magnificent charge at the end. Georgetown eliminated Virginia's 14-point lead in the second half and tied with 3:48 to go, and again with 3:19 left. But Virginia held on for the victory. Following the game, Sampson said he had played while suffering from flu, which he had had for the last few days. He also said that he injured his left knee in practice on Thursday, and had had fluid drained from a deep bruise on the knee last night. Sampson was clearly exhausted after the game and said he would take an intravenous feeding of glucose for quick energy absorption. Both he and Ewing had given as much as could be asked of them. Sampson downplayed his performance while praising Ewing. "I don't think I played well," Sampson said. "Pat is an excellent player. There aren't enough words to describe the guy. He's great. He was tough on defense, and when he tried to front me, I tried to fight him and get inside." http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/12.11.html One could say a lot of things about Sampson, but he wasn't soft.
Not only was he born, but he even delivered himself. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=2555223#post2555223
Sampson would have lasted 2 weeks against the defense yao faces. I know for a fact that anyone arguing Sampson was better than Yao is simply obsessed with nostalgia. Sampson didn't want to go in the post versus single coverage in an era of wide open ball, with one of the top 4 centers ever playing next to him.
Good lord. Anyone younger than 30 has no business in this poll, or has any right to argue. Here's a "fun fact" for the YOF'ers, Portland was willing to trade Clyde Drexler AND the rights to Michael Jordan for Ralph Sampson. AND JUST ABOUT ANY ANALYST THOUGHT IT WAS A LAUGHABLE TRADE FOR THE ROCKETS! No offense, but Yao has never garnered that respect. Who knows. Maybe in a few years. But this line of reasoning is similar to saying who was the better running back? Earl Campbell or Jerome Bettis? Bettis played a lot longer that Campbell, but Campbell in his prime was better than Bettis in his.
