Exactly, I tried to make this point a long time ago. I don't think people remember how many times when getting Hakeem the bball, the opposing team would be called for Illegal Defense whenever a pass was just faked to him and the defense bit. Now, Yao is constantly somewhat double/triple teamed. The defense just kinda plays inbetween their man and Yao, when on the same side of the hoop. This compounded with the times they just blatently have one guy in front and one behind. Defensively, he will never be hakeem or shaq. Offensively, i think he's better, or possibly the best ever center in the league. He can pretty much do everything except cross you over.
Let me tell you this: this kind of critique will go on until Yao gets a ring. It is that simple but it is true. The only and necessary criteria for a dominating center is to lead his team get a title/titles. And this criteria applies to other dominating players too. If you want to say someone is dominating, he should lead his team to get a title. So my point is that it is meaningless to discuss whether Yao is dominating or not. If people want, they can always find flaws in a domination player's game, e.g., Shaq's poor free throw. You cannot persuade other people whether Yao is dominating or not. Let's fact to tell the truth. I believe Yao can do this for us.
Yes while they now allow zone D's but at the sametime you can't hand check. If you watch some of the games from the 80's and before you will see players practically getting mugged in the paint. Also in regard to the quality of centers in the NBA being down from before that is true. When Hakeem first made it in the NBA there were a lot of great big men. In addition to Hakeem, Sampson, Ewing and Kareem there were also guys like Artis Gilmore, Laimbeer, Robert Parish who were also very good. Even the maligned Joe Barry Carol would probably do very well if he was playing today. So I agree Yao is great, and probably would be great playing in a previous era, but that doesn't mean that the quality and toughness of the center position in today's NBA is the same as it was before.
One minor cliarification here Sishir - you can't hand check/hand hack anyone except Yao and even Tmac at times. Seems to be a blatant anti-Rockets prejudice by the refs allowing hard hacks against our stars. Remember JVG got his T last night for continuing to complain about a non-call while play resumed. Bill & Matt then made the point that JVG was then questioning the ref as to whether this "no coach complaining after play resumes" was being consistently called against other coaches - because he didn't think it was. Tmac had to go get bandaged up for bleeding from a non-call. I think this was the 3rd time this season Yao & Tmac have been bandaged up after a non-call. Yao has numerous visible scars from fingernail cuts on his front, arms and back. I also remember Tmac taking a forearm to the nose last season for a broken and bleeding nose. No flagrant call. Does this kind of cr@p happen in the rest of the league? I don't really jump around to any of the league wide forums so I am not sure. Someone else commented on Arenas tripping Battier last night; I witnessed Arenas throw a 4Q high elbow at I think Rafer in our previous game - thank God he missed. I thought the old Pistons were all retired? But Yao and Tracy do not seem to get a lot of hard hacks called; Hayes seemed to be a poster child for being hacked when he is trying to put back shots - rookie I understand. I really appreciate a game when the other team just plays us and isn't trying to hurt one of our guys. Bruce Bowen seems better behaved than in previous years. Is Fortson still playing or did he get let go? I remember the Sonics and the league were both warning him last season to "improve". But some teams and the refs seem to not respect us as a team - I wonder at times if our coach is one of the reasons but I admit, nothing hard to go on here, just my own observations and trying to be Sherlock and establish a trend.
What i dont get why are you guys sweating so much for a bunch of Inbreds like the ESPN crew to respect yao?.. who cares. the numbers are doing the speaking for yao.
How ironic for another thread on this when the tide has turned and everyone's starting to jump on the Yao bandwagon.
excitenews said it correctly. Just win the championship at least once. Hakeem brought Houston two championship titles. Until Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady can bring the championship, people just won't notice them. Just win it all. They have to be able to beat Pheonix, San Antonio, and the Los Angeles Lakers in the West, the maybe Orlando or Miami or Detroit in the East. The hype will follow after a win.
That's a pretty absurd statement. KG and Steve Nash have won the MVP award and neither of them have won a championship. Neither player has even been to the NBA finals, yet they get noting but love from the media. Lebron is the next big thing in the NBA and he hasn't won a championship either. Lebron and Yao were hyped up when they entered the league. Both players have lived up to the expectations, yet only Lebron gets love from the media. Yao will never get respect from the media because he is Chinese.
It would do all of us well to remember just how long it took Hakeem to really receive his full due from the NBA, the Media, and from basketball fans in general...!
