Yao Ming retires from basketball after 8 years in the NBA

[NJTank]

Bill Walton also won a 6th Man Award for the Celtics, so he was more than a one hit wonder.

He's a two time all-star that was also a sixth man award winner. So was Danny Manning, who also has about the double the points then Walton did over his career. If I can take his accomplishments and match up against other players who nobody would regard as an all-time great, its usually not good.

1/3 of the guy's points come over two seasons. I cannot of anyone else who's in the NBA's top 50 where that would even be remotely close to being true.

True, but the NBA Top 50 team was kind of a joke was Pistol Pete really a Top 50 guy? They picked all the MVPs for that list except Bob McAdoo, Shaq was on the list after only a few seasons.

[loogodude90]

Man, of the 2 Chinese players in the NBA, why did the good one have to get injuries and retire?

And more importantly, why did the :censored:ty one have to end up on my team?

[DPV713]

[NJTank]

Man, of the 2 Chinese players in the NBA, why did the good one have to get injuries and retire?

And more importantly, why did the :censored:ty one have to end up on my team?

I feel your pain Yi was once with the Nets

[pmoehrin]

Bill Walton also won a 6th Man Award for the Celtics, so he was more than a one hit wonder.

He's a two time all-star that was also a sixth man award winner. So was Danny Manning, who also has about the double the points then Walton did over his career. If I can take his accomplishments and match up against other players who nobody would regard as an all-time great, its usually not good.

1/3 of the guy's points come over two seasons. I cannot of anyone else who's in the NBA's top 50 where that would even be remotely close to being true.

True, but the NBA Top 50 team was kind of a joke was Pistol Pete really a Top 50 guy? They picked all the MVPs for that list except Bob McAdoo, Shaq was on the list after only a few seasons.

I didn't object to Shaq. They were obviously picking him more on his potential then what he had actually done and it wound up being the right call.

Walton I thought was the worst guy on the list, but Maravich was another that I don't even think could make an argument for belonging. Neither could Dave Cowens or Earl Monroe.

Guys that I thought got jilted were Richie Guerin (the best player out there not in the HOF), Reggie Miller even then, Dominique, Buck Williams (seccond best guy not in the HOF) and Tom Gola.

I wouldn't be allowed to do the list though because I would leave too many popular guys like Willis Reed, Maravich, Walton and Cowens off in favor of the people I previously mentioned. You would also have to understand the difference in guard play today versus yesterday to understand why a guy like Tom Gola is so valuable even though his numbers don't look all that great by compairison to today's guards. Not many do.

But there's alot of guys out there that get by solely on reputation more then what they did on the court/field in all sports not just basketball, especially the older guys who I think have benefited from a limited media outlet building them up to be gods and there just wasn't the criticsim of players back then like there is today. I got some old Sporting News that read more like comic books then actual reporting.

I know with Baseball the worst guys in the HOF are from the early days and the worst guys I can find in the HOF are generally from 1910-1940 and the best guys not in come from the same era. Jesse Haines gets in somehow, but Bucky Walters can take a hike.

[slapshot]

If Yao goes into the game, it should only be as an "innovator" (best choice of terms) for his contributions of expanding the NBA and its empire to China. He was an ambassador for the game, regardless of his skills or injury-depleted stats.

Like admiral mentioned, Yao's commitments to China and its national team did more harm to his knees than good, but he still was instrumental in marketing the game overseas, and eventually bringing in companies like Li Ning to have their products endorsed by NBA players (Shaq, for one).

[Brass]

Somewhere, Greg Oden is crying into a pizza, knowing he's next.

[NJTank]

Greg Oden is still playing?

[slapshot]

Bumping this up for an article on ESPN...

Yao Ming could join Hall in 2012

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6847642/yao-ming-join-hall-fame-contributor-early-2012

[The_Admiral]

Outstanding Achievement In The Field Of Being Chinese

[pmoehrin]

Outstanding Achievement In The Field Of Being Chinese

Pretty much. Its not something I have a major issue with though. He's being put in as a contributor and not a player. That's fine with me. He's not a HOF contributor but he's by far the most popular athlete in the world's largest country.

I would still have him go through the usual five year waiting period though. Its almost certain that he will never come back, but lets just make sure. The idea of the five year waiting period is not to have HOFers on the court. If he's not back in five years then yes you can say for sure he will never come back. As it stands now though I'd be willing to bet money he won't ever come back, but not my life.

[BBTV]

I think the 5 year wait is as much about being able to vote with a clear head as it is about making sure the player doesn't come back. Especially in this day and age when lots of players are branded "future HOFer" while they're still playing, it'd be easy to just go ahead and vote them in as soon as they retire, but the 5 year waiting period lets a lot of those feelings fade away, and should give the writers or whoever is doing the voting a chance to look back and really analyze the player's career. If not for the 5 years, I'd wager that every HOF would have a lot more players in it (even the NFL and NHL who seem to put a lot in.)

[NJTank]

If they waive the waiting period it will further confirm the Basketball Hall of Fame, as the cheapest HOF of all the four major sports.

I mean for crying ut loud they did not waive it for Jordan, and to me Yao Ming is not worthy of the Hall of Fame, he did not play long enough and have enough of an impact on the court.

[pmoehrin]

I think the 5 year wait is as much about being able to vote with a clear head as it is about making sure the player doesn't come back. Especially in this day and age when lots of players are branded "future HOFer" while they're still playing, it'd be easy to just go ahead and vote them in as soon as they retire, but the 5 year waiting period lets a lot of those feelings fade away, and should give the writers or whoever is doing the voting a chance to look back and really analyze the player's career. If not for the 5 years, I'd wager that every HOF would have a lot more players in it (even the NFL and NHL who seem to put a lot in.)

There's something to be said for that as well, although I'm not sure if that's as true as it used to be. There's alot of old time players that got in solely on reputation and there was nobody to question it because the media was so limited, but in this day and age where every single player is disected to the nth degree by a much larger media sector, I think players are generally viewed in much more accurate light with regard to their level of talent. There's still some truth to it but not as much as their used to be.

As far as Yao goes, I've never been a big fan of the Basketball HOF so I really don't care about what they do. I don't like the fact that the voters are anonymous. I hate how if you go to the building you'll find next to nothing on the ABA, but 10,000 things on the WNBA. I don't like how they pretty much only focus in on a handful of players. Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bird, Bill Russell and Dr. J to some degree. If your name is Oscar Robertson, Karl Malone, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor or Elvin Hayes you get no love at all. I believe Cheryl Miller has as many displays as Wilt Chamberlain. Just very selective about what they showcase in general and it creates this warped view people have on the game's history now, especially younger people and I feel bad for them because its not their fault.

[loogodude90]

I mean for crying ut loud they did not waive it for Jordan, and to me Yao Ming is not worthy of the Hall of Fame, he did not play long enough and have enough of an impact on the court.

This is a tough one for me. I agree with you that Yao is not worthy of the Hall of Fame in terms of his actual on-court performance. And IMO that should be the main criteria for someone making it to the HoF. If I were running things, he wouldn't be considered worthy.

However, Yao did really help spread the popularity of the NBA in ways no non-Asian could. Asia is a gigantic continent with a gigantic population. Yao didn't have the most amazing career, but he was a one-man marketing machine for 1.3 billion people (and that's just China). And by "marketing" I mean even more than money, I mean spreading the popularity of the sport around the world in ways that no one else in the NBA could without talent alone. So I guess what I'm saying is that if he does make it to the HoF then I can understand why.

[The_Admiral]

If they waive the waiting period it will further confirm the Basketball Hall of Fame, as the cheapest HOF of all the four major sports.

It wouldn't be that they'd be waiving the five-year waiting period for him, it would be that they're backdooring him into the Hall of Fame in a non-player category that doesn't necessitate five years of retirement. Mild semantic point, I guess, but worth making the distinction anyway. "Contributor" is a BS category of Hall of Famer, anyway. Players, of course. Builders, yeah, David Stern essentially built the league. But to be a contributor? That's like being the Jud Buechler of enshrinement. Way to find a way to contribute out there!

[evanmaldonado]

To me, he's best known for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7rm-yadkGY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Happy trails Yao