Happy Birthday Yao Ming!
Normally birthdays are a cause for celebration. But for basketball fans worldwide, Yao Ming‘s 31st birthday is just another thing to hang on the “What if?” wall. The summer of quite literally the NBA’s biggest retirements (Yao & Shaq) gives us two examples of two different paths. O’Neal somehow avoided serious injuries and was able to play until he was nearly 39, finishing his career with 28,596 career points and 13,099 rebounds. In his first seven seasons, before injuries basically kept him out for all of the last two years, Yao was at 9,196 points and 4,467 rebounds.
If Houston’s Great Wall had been able to stay healthy and play for another six or seven years, he could have been close to finishing his career with 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds, and sitting with names like David Robinson, Bob Pettit and Tim Duncan.
If Yao could have stayed healthy, how good of a career would he have had?
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September 12th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Promoman says:
Yao likely would’ve had an undisputed legit chance at the Hall of Fame. Other than health, he had bad teammates too especially at the point guard position. Yao consistently got frozen out on offense and he really should’ve griped about it rather than taking blame and playing damage control after losses. Everybody plays a role with success and failure in a team atmosphere but Yao took more than he deserved.
September 12th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Hot Fiyah says:
Yao was THAT dude.