Yes, BUT - their complementary players weren't that good when Yao/Tmac were in their prime...and it DOES matter. One or two excellent players does not a championship make - just ask LeBron James.
He was relatively neutralized compared with game 1, and our offense did slow down... it had to, given that we were red hot in game 1. But, by fronting Yao, they also gave up their interior defense. Fronting Yao isn't without its price, as it opens up big gaps in their defense. No one ever said that Yao and Tmac would have won one regardless of who was on the team. People here are saying that the 2008 squad with Artest, Deke, Brooks, Lowry, Tmac, Yao, Scola, Landry, Shane would have won one. That team is vastly different from the one that lost to Utah. I totally agree that if it was the 2006-2007 team, they wouldn't have had a chance even if they got past Utah in round 1.
Remember when MerGady first got here... and everyone was saying "dude who WOULDN'T want to come play with our 2 dynamic duo??!" ...and then we were stuck with below average role players for the duration of their time together.
who gives a **** what t-mac thinks, he's payed to play, not talk. So he's pretty much saying that when he was his prime, he played with a 2011 version of Dwight Howard and couldn't achieve ****. Thats pathetic. However, i think Yao's ceiling was definitely higher than Howard. Too bad his knees couldn't hold his weight, and being the giant that he is, he is expected to follow a different life pattern in China than Howard down here. but **** u tmac, u owe like abut 10 tvs i broke with the my remote over ur dumb ass ****ing up over and over again, and chuck hayes blowing a layup
stop bring that up, i am about to cry really, can't think of Yao, too sad to see him go like this.......if yao were healthy, Dwight WHO???????????
I didn't notice the opponents fronted Yao either when TMac was playing healthy along with Yao. Think about that...
Yao was a veteran and Dwight was a younger player. They never played eachother during their peaks so you can't say who was better.
I think it's a fair statement, and arguable. Dwight got a lot better just these last couple of years, and Yao has of course gone done to injuries. But a few years ago, in T-Mac and Yao's primes? Yao was the better player.
Yao owned Howard in head to head match ups. He is a very superior player when it comes to Offense and passing. He is a very underrated passer. Great shooting touch for a big man. He plays very good defense but his big size limit some of his lateral movements. But I will take Yao any day of the week. One of my favorite player of all time. Howard is very athletic but so is Yao. He is the best athletic big man over 7'2". I missed Yao..
you are confusing athleticism and skill. I thought he was very skilled. I don't call him athletic. its not like he super quick and can jump very high.
Yao Ming, when he reached his peak, was at a level Dwight Howard could really never hope to reach. It was a level that was just slightly below Dream's level. He really was an unstoppable force at the height of his career. Unfortunately, his big injury also came at the height of his career, and was never the same since.
Yao can't do this. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Uz8FZ-AYWY0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
