Yao Ming to retire

holy bull · Jul 10, 2011

BrianGriffin said:

Yao was on his way to the Hall, in my opinion, when the injuries struck down his career. He had gotten to the point where he was pretty much unstoppable inside. I'd say he was the most unstoppable force inside post-Shaq.

If he stayed healthy, he had a chance to make teams re-evaluate how much they value dominant post play (right now, they don't value it much at all) and, as a result, make people involved in player development re-evaluate how they develop big men. I still think it's inevitable that we'll again see an era where dominant big men will be deemed essential, but Yao's decline in health and subsequent retirement put it on hold.
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Agree with this all the way, in retrospect. But all of your "if's" are just that, "if's", sad to say.

BrianGriffin · Jul 11, 2011

holy bull said:

BrianGriffin said:

Yao was on his way to the Hall, in my opinion, when the injuries struck down his career. He had gotten to the point where he was pretty much unstoppable inside. I'd say he was the most unstoppable force inside post-Shaq.

If he stayed healthy, he had a chance to make teams re-evaluate how much they value dominant post play (right now, they don't value it much at all) and, as a result, make people involved in player development re-evaluate how they develop big men. I still think it's inevitable that we'll again see an era where dominant big men will be deemed essential, but Yao's decline in health and subsequent retirement put it on hold.
Click to expand...

Agree with this all the way, in retrospect. But all of your "if's" are just that, "if's", sad to say.
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True, but I'll say this for Yow: He reached an elite level of play before the injuries that most people didn't realize he reached. He was such a novelty because of his country of origin and his extreme height, people weren't really noticing that he was pretty much a 20-10 guy four years running.

CarltonBanks · Jul 11, 2011

holy bull said:

Love Yao, but no way does he belong in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Even though he deserves credit for the wildly increased interest in the sport in China, he was more a product of an already ingrained basketball popularity there than that popularity was a product of his NBA success.

I challenge anyone to write a more awkwardly worded sentence than that. If you drop-step, shot-fake, pivot and hook, you get bonus points.
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Michael Jordan did more to popularize the NBA in China than Yao Ming ever did (ducking). Hate to say it, but it's the truth.

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Yao Ming to retire

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Yao Ming to retire

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