Just a few hours after we signed off Friday morning, Adrina Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports broke the story of Yao Ming's imminent retirement from the sport of basketball. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApI4SniVr20M_TN8jxtNIga8vLYF?slug=aw-wojnarowski_yao_ming_retires_nba_070811
Former Rockets Head Coach Jeff Van Gundy (who will join us Monday morning at 9am to talk about Yao) told Yahoo,
“Yao was trying to do what no man his size had ever done before: Be the No. 1 option on a really good team,” former Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy told Yahoo! Sports on Friday. Van Gundy was emotional on the phone, subdued, because Yao is probably the man he admires the most in the sport. “People forget that when Dwight Howard(notes) and he were young, that was a mismatch. An utter mismatch. Yao scored on him at will. Give Howard credit, because he’s gotten a lot better, but there’s no doubt if Yao had remained healthy, he’d still be the best center in basketball.”
Yao leaves the sport with 8 All Star Appearences (at least 5 of them legit), 2 All NBA-2nd Team and 3 All NBA 3rd Team awards to his resume. He leaves the city of Houston IMHO totally and completely underappreciated because he wasn't Hakeem Olajuwon or Moses Malone. What a high curve to be graded on, high and unfair. There will never be another Hakeem Olajuwon on the floor, but one can also wonder how Dream would have handled the burden of 1 billion plus people watching his every move and judging his behavior. What if Yao Ming had punched out Mitch Kupchak? What if Yao Ming had a child out of wedlock? It would have an international incident and an embarrassment to Yao's people.
Yao Ming was a willing cash cow for his country, his team, and the NBA as a whole. The Rockets as of January were valued by Forbes Magazine at $443 Million 5th in the NBA, ahead of the likes of the World Champion Dallas Mavericks and Lebron's Miami Heat. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/32/basketball-valuations-11_Houston-Rockets_322525.html
Even without playing games the last 2 seasons, the value of the Rockets franchise is twice what it was before Yao was drafted by the team. The Rockets are also one of the nine teams in the NBA to make $$$ this season, and that is without making the playoffs.
Here's Jerome Solomon's Saturday column on Yao's legacy. I think he nailed it.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/solomon/7645717.html
Kelly Dwyer from Yahoo Sports said this about Yao:
"No, Yao isn't leaving us with memories of what could have been, or what should have been. He's retiring with November of 2006 still fresh in our minds. With January of 2006, right there. With February of 2003, still potent. With all those spins, turns, and "how-do-you-guard-that" plaudits. He destroyed every one of our teams. For a while there, Yao Ming couldn't be stopped."
Here's Yao working over Dwight Howard in one of their few matchups.
Here's some highlights of Yao's 1st meeting with Shaquille O'Neal.
Probably Yao's finest hour as a player was his game 1 performance against the Lakers in 2009 Conference Semifinals. Yao came back from an injury to dominate LA and win game 1 on the road. Two games later Yao would play his last meaningful game as a Rocket.
I have debated many a person including my good friend Matt Thomas about Yao's legacy with the Rockets and whether or not the team should (of course they will) retire his jersey. To me it's a no brainer. Perhaps you have to look beyond the basketball to understand what Yao did for the Rockets. He made them nationally relevant. Why do you think Houston made so many appearences on National TV? Yao brought 1 billion extra eye balls to every Rockets game and that meant serious cash for both the Rockets and the NBA.
As for the basketball, how many Rockets would you actually rank ahead of Yao?
After Dream and Moses Malone it gets a bit tricky. Did Clyde Drexler really play long enough with Houston to have his jersey retired? Well he did bring the team a title, but 4 years is half of Yao's tenure with Houston. Yao was certainly a better player than Rudy Tomjanovich who probably had his jersey retired partially for his coaching regime. Was Yao better than Calvin Murphy? I say yes. Yao's effect on the defensive side of the floor were readily apparent. Here are the defensive ratings of the Houston Rockets in years where Yao played:
2002 (Year before Yao) 29th out of 29
2003 Yao's rookie year 14th
2004 5th
2005 4th
2006 6th
2007 3rd
2008 2nd
2009 4th
2010 (Without Yao) 17th
2011 (Without Yao) 19th
For players who played 5 or more seasons with the Houston Rockets, I think Yao is this 3rd best player ever after Hakeem and Moses Malone but he is no worse than 5th. He had a bigger impact financially on the Rockets than any player ever. He'll have his jersey retired and justifiably so.
No comments:
Post a Comment