Yao Ming retires from the NBA

[get these NETS]

what makes yao ming better than joe barry carrol?

[BMOGEFan]

Yao did noone of those. He was never the best at his position and was not a top 10 player (I say not top 15) anddi not lead his team to any substantial playoff success and missed alrge chunks of half his seasons...what did he do to merit his draft slot and pay?

4 solid seasons?

I disagree. I felt the Artest/Yao run had a very legitimate chance to beat the Lakers that year. They really couldn't stop Yao/Mutombo. The moment Yao got injured, there went the Rocket's season.

[Draz]

Why are people saying the NBA is going to lose a ton of Chinese fans? The dude has been injury prone for a while now. He was a great player, wish I followed him more. Hope his legacy lives on.

[DetroitPiston]

I remember all the coverage about him when he came here, shame China pushed him so hard.

[Eat Like A Bosh]

Yeah, a legend in China.

[brantonli]

In China? Definitely.

In the US? Only for people who watched him play or watched the extraordinary media circus when he first came into the NBA. He's not going to come up in an All Time Great's conversation, but if you mention his name I think quite a lot of people will recognise it.

[KOBE24isdabest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T6M0SPjPfo china's official tv says he's not?!

[brantonli]

I am unashamedly taking this from another forum's poster's post, all credit to him for finding all these videos.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread...85#post6214185

Yao vs Shawn Bradley

http://youtu.be/wnEAy9WpowA

Yao and Shaq

http://youtu.be/LaEHa_SXTNs

http://youtu.be/uCTIVwb-0Ss

http://youtu.be/FbndYCLz3-Q

http://youtu.be/1fD7i4A9N40

Yao and Pau Gasol

http://youtu.be/nwBi5d8K6vc

Yao and Dwight
http://youtu.be/mFppQfs75Ro

Yao's behind the back dribble and dunk
http://youtu.be/hvvAMDrMcO0

Yao's 2nd three pointer of his career
http://youtu.be/me6Wn_-C0pU

In a sense, Yao's last meaningful game (slightly cheesy)
http://youtu.be/6jRXhj1PpFU

[Bigsmoke]

he will be but he shouldnt.

its only 10 years from now where people would be like "Yao Ming would have been the G.O.A.T. if he would have stayed healthy" and then bring up Yao's 2007 season like some people do with Tmac's 2003 season

[themurph]

he will be but he shouldnt.

its only 10 years from now where people would be like "Yao Ming would have been the G.O.A.T. if he would have stayed healthy" and then bring up Yao's 2007 season like some people do with Tmac's 2003 season

Being a legend and a GOAT are two different things....

[Sheed]

second best center of his era (guess who's first...) but in a time in the NBA where good centers are scarce, he probably would have made a bigger impact if he continued to play

[Bigsmoke]

Being a legend and a GOAT are two different things....

where did i said they were the same?

i said Yao will be overrated when time goes by

second best center of his era (guess who's first...) but in a time in the NBA where good centers are scarce, he probably would have made a bigger impact if he continued to play

Ben Wallace > Yao "decade wise"

[themurph]

where did i said they were the same?

i said Yao will be overrated when time goes by



Ben Wallace > Yao "decade wise"

I feel u...

But what I'm saying is Yao being a woulda-been, coulda-been GOAT is moot....

He will go down as a legend simply because of two factors...


1) He was the first successful player from China, arguably the most powerful nation on earth at the moment....

2) No one has ever had the combination of that size, 7'7, weight and ball skill in the history of the league...It's a miracle Yao was able to play three years...

[ShaqAttack3234]

It's a shame, he just kept getting better and better until his injury in the 2006-2007 season and even after that, it seemed like as soon as he'd shown signs, he'd get injured. I don't understand the soft label either, he didn't back down from Shaq and he always outplayed Dwight, he also showed real toughness in the 2009 playoffs.

I think he had the potential to be a borderline top 10 center of all time. Polished footwork, 7'6" with great touch on his almost turnarounds/jump hooks, range comfortably out to 18 feet and he developed some toughness inside, but you couldn't foul him because he was a fucking 85% free throw shooter!

Yao was doubled a lot, even without the ball, could pass and he did make an impact defensively and on the boards. I truly believe he was on his way to being a legit MVP-caliber player. Some had him as the leading candidate before his injury in 2006-2007. He was averaging 27/10/2/2, 52 FG%, 86 FT% iirc. And not long before he was injured in 2007-2008, he won player of the month. And once again in 2009 when he gets to the second round and has a 2-1 lead vs the Lakers(not saying he would have beaten them) he goes down with what essentially turned out to be a career ending injury.

The real frustrating thing is that the injury in 2007 was a freak injury where he came down on a player's foot, and playing with China in 2008 when he wasn't fully recovered was really bad, in fact, I don't think a player of his size should have been playing for them at all once he was in the NBA.

Even worse because as far as I can tell, he seems a nice, humble guy.

[Gundress]

Damn, sad day....