you think Yao would have said "If you switch me out with Kevin Garnett" or "If I had been fortunate enough to play with Kobe Bryant?"
Awww man forget it. Its useless to debate things with you. It's always going to result in Yao this or Yao that. Have a nice day.
So let me get this right, by your rationale...any SCRUB on a team that got out of the first round, you would rank higher than YAO, just because he got out of the first round...no matter how sorry of a player he was riding the coattails of his team mates.....Daryl Morey you are NOT. - Sushimaster
You don't think Yao would have won a championship or atleast gone deep in the playoffs with Kobe on his team?
I didn't say that. I said he wouldn't say that publicly http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/02/27/weekly.countdown/index.html "I haven't been the guy who's been fortunate enough to play with Shaq, to play with Tim Duncan. I always seem to have average teams,'' he said. "You take me back in my Orlando days with Shaq? Come on, there are no questions. You take a healthy me and switch me out with Paul Pierce [on the current Celtics]? There's no question. There's definitely no question.'' and you know that's a dumb question, kobe is an mvp, last time we had mvps on our team we made it quit far.
Durvasa, I think this is a good thread, the only problem is anytime Yao is involved, the supporters get bent out of whack. Look at a guy like Bullardfan that says because he doesn't like ewing or malone, he can't recognize that ewing is clearly the better player. That's one reason why I've started going into the d&d and the nba dish. There seems to be better dialogue in those forums. That's also where a lot of older poster go. I talk ball with you all day, but some of these guys or kids make it difficult. Where would yao rank if you dropped him into the nba in 96? Where would yao rank with Ewing,shaq,dream,robinson,zo, and deke?
From a historical standpoint based on skills and not other criteria like popularity, Yao is a great center just like Souljah Boy is a great rapper. If we are truly being honest Yao hasn't accomplished anything to put him above the majority of players on that list. He hasn't even had one dominant playoff series yet (impact, not "stats"). I would take him above every center today besides Howard...but that just shows you how weak the position has become.
An interesting side question to this thread: Out of those centers, which one would be most likely to totally eat Yao's lunch in head-to-head competition? My vote: Dream, without question. He was so quick, there's absolutely no way Yao could keep up with him. Defensively, Yao would be exhausted by halftime. Dream could go around Yao or simply shoot over him. And he was quick enough defensively to give Yao fits. Yao would probably get a few of those turnaround jumpers in, and maybe a put-back or two on someone else's miss, but I see him being completely undressed by Dream all game long. Moses would also be an ugly matchup for Yao, simply because he was so relentless. I don't think Yao has EVER seen a player whose motor ran full-out for every play of every game. Against some of the others, Yao would do pretty well. I see him holding his own against Ewing like he does against Shaq.
I understand your point now. And it is valid. I guess the challenge is that Yao has yet played much in the playoffs. It is somewhat difficult to judge Yao's impact until he and his team has some playoff success. I am not among those who value a player simply by counting playoff victories. However, since you are talking about championship, teams have to get through the playoffs to be champions. The playoffs is a completely different kind of game than the regular season. And Yao's grade for playoffs performance is incomplete. The sample size is just too small. Hopefully, this year, we will see a little more of Yao in playoffs form.
Walton led the Blazers to the title, and was widely regarded as one of the best skilled, most intelligent centers of all time before got injured. It's difficult to compare Yao to those other players, either based on the team success since Yao hasn't done anything in the playoff yet, or the individual success since they played in different eras, face different opponents & rules. There are only two players had similar buildup as Yao, that's Smith & Sabnos, but neither of those guys had a long career in the league. It's laughable that people even try to compare Yao to Shaq, they forgot how dominate Shaq was at his peak. Even near the end of his career today, Shaq can still play Yao to almost a draw.
Why are the Power Forwards Duncan, McHale, Hayes, Stoudemire, J'ONeil, Wallace included in this list. If the answer is because they are tall then you should include all the rest of them
no b/c the center position is weak nowadays, PFs can play C easily. hell, lebron james can play C on most nights and you won't be able to notice.
I think Yao would be in Ewing/Zo territory ... probably a shade under. Not the same category of defender, of course, but I think he'd be a 20/10 guy, shooting 50+% from the field. Yao has problem catching and securing the ball in the post, but when he does get it down there he's a very talented low post scorer. In 1996, Ewing was a declining player and he shot 46% from the field. Zo had perhaps his best offensive season that year.
I say above Parrish, but I would do a little re-arranging overall. I'd put Zo above Parrish too, and I never saw some of the old-timers play.
Yea...the point i was trying to make was that IF Yao had said that, he would have been correct, just like I think Tracy's statements were correct. We would or would be going deep in the playoffs if we had a prime Shaq or Kobe or Duncan or some other for sure future HOFer. If he had said something that definitely wasn't true then I'd probably understand more why people are getting worked up about it.
wow. ewing territory and a shade under. i wonder if ur buddy leebigez is going to try to flame you now for even putting yao near ewing. and (to leebigez) i never said that the sole reason for picking yao over ewing was that i didnt like the guy (you just flamed me for putting him over ewing). so, leebigez, go back to nba dish if u dont like it. excuse me for having an opinion which by the way seems to almost correspond with the owner of this thread. Yao will win a ring or two before his career is over.
