Yao Ming retires?!?!?!?!

http://twitter.com/#!/WojYahooNBA/status/89383420307841025

Wow...sad ending for one of the most well respected man on the court and off the court.

So much for you getting Yao as your C in the draft game

Bummer. Yao will be missed. At the very least for the fact that it now means Yi Jianlian is going to be a perennial All-Star in his place...*sigh*...

Wow!
A definite shocker!

But I guess it was the best decision considering his injury woes.

OH MY GOD SRF! YOU'RE ALIVE!

Why's everybody surprised? He said he would retire if he had another major injury.

So he got another major injury. And retired.

Pretty sad the way it ended....
Hope everything works out for him...


He had a huge impact on and off the court though...gotta salute that!

Does he deserve the HOF? That's the big question.

Tar Heel wrote:

Does he deserve the HOF? That's the big question.

I think he does. I mean when you consider all the racism and hatred he received when first coming into the league (Bill Simmons, Shaquille O'Neal, Dick Vitale, I'm looking at you), he barely knew English and by the end of his career he's in the HOF discussion, that's a pretty significant leap. Statistically he's not an ALL-TIME great Center but when he was healthy he was definitely a great center. There's no question in my mind that if he had been healthy his whole career he would have been a first ballot hall of famer. And then you throw in his global impact. China has NEVER had as famous an athlete as Yao Ming in America and he's returned the favor by popularizing the NBA in China. With China's economy booming by the day, who knows, maybe in a couple decades all the great players will go to China or come from China and we can pinpoint all of this to the brilliance of Yao Ming. People thought Yi Jianlian could be the next Yao, but he never will be. There will never be another Yao Ming, on the court and off, and I think that's what's going to make him a future Hall of Famer.

You could probably make a HOF case for what he did to the game of basketball worldwide...
...and our All-Star voting.

meh..anyone with that height would do it

Anyone with height would bring the NBA to foreign countries and revolutionize the game into more of a worldwide sport?

maybe even better..

Raza wrote:

Anyone with height would bring the NBA to foreign countries and revolutionize the game into more of a worldwide sport?

lol woot. It's like he's the only decent foreign player.

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, Wilkins and shit load more..way before Yao. your point?

wow total bummer!!

Chris wrote:

lol woot. It's like he's the only decent foreign player.

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, Wilkins and shit load more..way before Yao. your point?

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, and Wilkins combined didn't popularize the game worldwide as much as Yao did.

Raza wrote:

Chris wrote:

lol woot. It's like he's the only decent foreign player.

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, Wilkins and shit load more..way before Yao. your point?

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, and Wilkins combined didn't popularize the game worldwide as much as Yao did.

whoa calm down there buddy.

It's because of dirk that little kids all around the world are growing out long blonde hair... even people that don't have blonde hair find a way to do it.

Chris wrote:

Raza wrote:

Anyone with height would bring the NBA to foreign countries and revolutionize the game into more of a worldwide sport?

lol woot. It's like he's the only decent foreign player.

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, Wilkins and shit load more..way before Yao. your point?

Gheorge Muresan - 7'7
Manute Bol - 7'6
Shawn Bradley - 7'6
Chuck Nevitt - 7'6
Slavko Vranes - 7'6
Pavel Podkolzin - 7'5
Mark Eaton - 7'4
Priest Lauderdale - 7'4
Randy Breuer - 7'4
Keith Closs - 7'3
Swede Halbrook - 7'3
Big Z - 7'3
Alexsander Rodojevic - 7'3
Peter John Ramos - 7'3
Ha Seung-Jin - 7'3
Hasheem Thabeet - 7'3


Guess what? Those guys are ALL around Yao Ming's height and NONE of them accomplished what Yao did on the court. NONE OF THEM. Do a little research before you go around claiming something ridiculous like "anyone that height could have dominated". And what you fail to realize is that China is a MUCH bigger market than Germany, Canada, wherever these guys came from. And the thing unique about Yao is also the fact that he is the ONLY, I repeat ONLY, great basketball player ever from China. There have been other players who tried but have all failed. Yao is clear cut the best Chinese player of all time.

Yes, the same could be said about Nash, Dirk, etc. But there's a difference because there have been some pretty good players where they come from, where as there have been NO good players from China except Yao.

Canada - Samuel Dalembert, Bob Houbregs (Hall of Famer), Rick Fox.
Nigeria - Kelenna Azubuike, Michael Olowokandi. OK, not many other great players from Nigeria but nobody even gives a shit about Nigeria, lol.
Germany - Carlos Boozer, Anthony Randolph, Shawn Bradley, Chris Kaman, Detlef Schrempf.
France - Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Joakim Noah, Tony Parker.

So yeah, even though there aren't GREAT players from Canada and Nigeria, you tell me if they're worse than the other players to come from China.

Mengke Bateer
Sun Yue
Wang Zhizhi

That's it.

Yao, like Dirk, Nash, and those who came before him, helped globalize the game of basketball with his performance on the court and off the court. However, what Yao did was different than what anyone else has done before him. He helped popularize basketball in CHINA, the largest global market in the world. The future of the NBA lies in China, and when the NBA inevitably expands to China in who knows how long, we can pinpoint the international success in China back to Yao Ming.

There has only been ONE player 7'3 or taller to make it to the Hall of Fame. His name? Arvydas Sabonis. And you know why he was inducted into the Hall of Fame? Because of his contributions to basketball from an international standpoint. So why can't Yao be inducted for the same reason?

YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE DON'T HATE ON WANG ZHIZHI

No Longer DEAD wrote:

Chris wrote:

Raza wrote:

Anyone with height would bring the NBA to foreign countries and revolutionize the game into more of a worldwide sport?

lol woot. It's like he's the only decent foreign player.

Hakeem, Dirk, Nash, Wilkins and shit load more..way before Yao. your point?

Gheorge Muresan - 7'7
Manute Bol - 7'6
Shawn Bradley - 7'6
Chuck Nevitt - 7'6
Slavko Vranes - 7'6
Pavel Podkolzin - 7'5
Mark Eaton - 7'4
Priest Lauderdale - 7'4
Randy Breuer - 7'4
Keith Closs - 7'3
Swede Halbrook - 7'3
Big Z - 7'3
Alexsander Rodojevic - 7'3
Peter John Ramos - 7'3
Ha Seung-Jin - 7'3
Hasheem Thabeet - 7'3


Guess what? Those guys are ALL around Yao Ming's height and NONE of them accomplished what Yao did on the court. NONE OF THEM. Do a little research before you go around claiming something ridiculous like "anyone that height could have dominated". And what you fail to realize is that China is a MUCH bigger market than Germany, Canada, wherever these guys came from. And the thing unique about Yao is also the fact that he is the ONLY, I repeat ONLY, great basketball player ever from China. There have been other players who tried but have all failed. Yao is clear cut the best Chinese player of all time.

Yes, the same could be said about Nash, Dirk, etc. But there's a difference because there have been some pretty good players where they come from, where as there have been NO good players from China except Yao.

Canada - Samuel Dalembert, Bob Houbregs (Hall of Famer), Rick Fox.
Nigeria - Kelenna Azubuike, Michael Olowokandi. OK, not many other great players from Nigeria but nobody even gives a shit about Nigeria, lol.
Germany - Carlos Boozer, Anthony Randolph, Shawn Bradley, Chris Kaman, Detlef Schrempf.
France - Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Joakim Noah, Tony Parker.

So yeah, even though there aren't GREAT players from Canada and Nigeria, you tell me if they're worse than the other players to come from China.

Mengke Bateer
Sun Yue
Wang Zhizhi

That's it.

Yao, like Dirk, Nash, and those who came before him, helped globalize the game of basketball with his performance on the court and off the court. However, what Yao did was different than what anyone else has done before him. He helped popularize basketball in CHINA, the largest global market in the world. The future of the NBA lies in China, and when the NBA inevitably expands to China in who knows how long, we can pinpoint the international success in China back to Yao Ming.

There has only been ONE player 7'3 or taller to make it to the Hall of Fame. His name? Arvydas Sabonis. And you know why he was inducted into the Hall of Fame? Because of his contributions to basketball from an international standpoint. So why can't Yao be inducted for the same reason?

I didn't question w/e he did to popularize the NBA worldwide. I said other players did it as well even before him. What i did say is that considering his height what he has done on court isn't that impressive keeping in mind accomps, injury's etc.

Sabonis also got inducted because he was an animal. Better than Yao.

And Z>Yao

cbi wrote:

Sabonis also got inducted because he was an animal. Better than Yao.

And Z>Yao

Sabonis: 12 points, 7 rebounds for his NBA career.

Yao: 19 points, 9 rebounds for his NBA career.

Hmm...

R.I.P. My condolences to his family.

Uhh Sabonis came into the league when he was 31 Ben.... if he played his whole career in the NBA no doubt he's one of the best, if not the best centers of all time.

Shut the fuck up..that was just stupid!