I understand player rankings can be pretty subjective, so I'll define what I mean. Take Yao in his 3 peak years (or what you expect his 3 peak years to be), whichever you think they are. Where about would he fall in the pecking order amongst these big men, taking their best 3-4 years as well? The way I chose this list is I picked any all-star caliber centers (or forward/center hybrids like Duncan) that were on teams that won a championship or teams that won at least 70% of their regular season games since the 59-60 season. Roughly, this is a list of very good centers on very good teams since that time. I might have missed a few, in which case you can include that name. I gave a rough ordering of the players below, but its more of a partial, tier-ordering than an exact one. You can specify whichever players you'd put ahead/behind Yao. Wilt Chamberlain (LAL, PHI) Shaquille O'Neal (LAL, ORL, MIA) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (MIL, LAL) Hakeem Olajuwon (HOU) Bill Russell (BOS) Moses Malone (PHI) Tim Duncan (SAS) David Robinson (SAS) Patrick Ewing (NYK) Bill Walton (POR) Kevin McHale (BOS) Elvin Hayes (WAS) Alonzo Mourning (MIA) Dwight Howard (ORL) Robert Parish (BOS) Dave Cowens (BOS) Willis Reed (NYK) Amare Stoudemire (PHO) Dikembe Mutombo (ATL) Brad Daugherty (CLE) Jermaine O'Neal (IND) Wes Unseld (WAS) Ben Wallace (DET) Rik Smits (IND) Kevin Duckworth (POR) So what's the point of this thread? Right now, we're banking on Yao to be our foundation, our number 1 guy. So I think its a good idea to get a sense, historically, of where he fits in amongst centers on great teams. Because obviously that's what we want him to be.
I don't think he'll be able to have much success deep in the playoffs without a couple players close to his level or better. ...Is that what you were getting at?
Cant leave out Kevin Mchale, George Mikan, Kevin Garnett, or even our own assistant coach Jack Sikma. All were great in their own right. And Yao should go in between Robinson and Ewing
i don't think you can rank him against these centers because all(maybe?)of them have gotten past the first rd while yao still has to. but i will agree with anyone who says yao is better than jermaine o'neal.
Wilt Chamberlain (LAL, PHI) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (MIL, LAL) Shaquille O'Neal (LAL, ORL, MIA) Hakeem Olajuwon (HOU) Bill Russell (BOS) Tim Duncan (SAS) Moses Malone (PHI) David Robinson (SAS) Patrick Ewing (NYK) Bill Walton (POR) Robert Parish (BOS) Elvin Hayes (WAS) Dave Cowens (BOS) Wes Unseld (WAS) Yao Ming (Hou) Alonzo Mourning (MIA) Willis Reed (NYK) Amare Staudamire (PHO) Jermaine O'Neal (IND) Rik Smits (IND) Kevin Duckworth (POR)
Wilt Chamberlain (LAL, PHI) Hakeem Olajuwon (HOU) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (MIL, LAL) Shaquille O'Neal (LAL, ORL, MIA) Bill Russell (BOS) Tim Duncan (SAS) Moses Malone (PHI) Yao Ming (Hou) David Robinson (SAS) Patrick Ewing (NYK) Bill Walton (POR) Robert Parish (BOS) Elvin Hayes (WAS) Dave Cowens (BOS) Wes Unseld (WAS) Alonzo Mourning (MIA) Willis Reed (NYK) Amare Staudamire (PHO) Jermaine O'Neal (IND) Rik Smits (IND) Kevin Duckworth (POR)
Anyone puting Yao Ming above the mermaid is just a blind homer. DRob won an MVP, a scoring title, and was thought to be Dream's peer until Dream undressed him in the playoffs. Yao Ming isn't even a MVP candidate.
I'm a Yao fan. But to be honest. Yao has no class to be named as "all time great nba center". If Yao can help Rockets getting out 1st round, I would rank him right above Zo.
Zo was pretty good, maybe not the offensive player yao is, but a better defensive player. I would put Zo slightly over yao, but if yao plays a few more years then he can go above Zo.
how many of these fool are chinese? NONE how many of them get bull**** calls? NONE SO now i ask you where do you place him....ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This thread shouldn't even exist, actually. Yao came into the league right before the NBA era shifted from Olajuwon / Ewing / Robinson, to Bryant / Wade / James. Basically, in order to rank Yao, Yao has to be in the era of when big men were dominant. That's why you can compare Chamberlain to Olajuwon, because the big man era was basically from the start of the NBA to about 2001. After that point, this game has shifted to the fast, speedy people. Rank Yao from 2001 to now, to other centers. Rank him among Kaman, Howard, Curry, Camby, Ilgauskas, etc.
in terms of pure skill, gotta put him up there in terms of career achievements, gotta put him around Walton
