Orlando Sentinel: Rockets' chances to join elite in West will flow through Yao

not to say anything bad about rich eisen b/c he's one of my favorite SC anchors, but i remember when hakeem retired and they were doing little montages and showing stats and when they showed his rankings in categories rich was like "woah, hakeem number 6 in steals, and as a center" or something to that effect. and i'm sure most sports people would have that reaction, like they didn't understand his huge impact on defense or to the overall game. but it's understandable given how little publicity he got throughout his career.

 

My being obtuse is certainly one way to interpret what the problem was...

 

But in reality Yao has more offensive treat than Shaq whose got nothing but force on the paint, nothing more!!Yao will dominate more next season!!

 

Say, what?

 

Let's face it, after the twin towers were gone, the Rockets weren't a powerhouse team like other teams with premier centers.

Also, Hakeem was averaging 21 ppg for a few years before Rudy T took over and unleashed Hakeem. You only have to look at how many more points and assists Hakeem got in the Rudy T years to understand that really became the focal point of the offense and got recognized across the league as the most dominant center. But that was towards the end of his career, for only 3-4 years until he began to fade.

If Hakeem had a better team and coaching for most of his career, I'm sure his profile would be a lot higher.

 

Emphasis of one. Touche. The strength of your wit exceeds the strength of your ignorance.

 

Look at Yao's arm. Can you see the POWER?

 

Hakeem's numbers got a bit better later, but not that much. the biggest improvement came when he finally got how to effectivley pass out of the double. When he did that, we went from being a center oriented team which could be stiffled or confused with hard doubles on Dream to a team that lived off of those doubles.

But his earlier numbers were still killer. He was second in the MVP voting his second year in the league, and was conceded to be the best in the game until Robinson came along and took some of that thunder.

 

http://www.dallas-mavs.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=14945

awesome to see other teams talking good about us

 

Then came 1995, when Hakeem stole all of Mr. Robinson's thunder.

There's really no argument to be made for Robinson, Ewing vs. Hakeem. Cases can definitely be made for Shaq and Duncan, but Hakeem still eclipses both.

 

Wow, they practically drool over Yao and we wanted to trade him very recently? Ewwwwwwww!!!!!

 

Wasn't saying Robinson was better, was talking about perception at the time...