Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Yao Ming Deserves a Spot in the Hall of Fame



Reports first came out that Rockets center Yao Ming was going to be retiring from the NBA on July 8th. Though Ming and company have denied those reports, he has scheduled a press conference for the 20th to discuss his future as a basketball player. After numerous injuries throughout the past 6 years, it's looking more and more likely that he's going to be hanging up the high tops. The more I keep thinking about his career and what he has meant for the sport, I keep coming back do the same question. Does he belong in the Hall of Fame?

Now before you roll your eyes and move on, you have to remember that it is not the NBA hall of fame, it's the basketball hall of fame. There are college players, international stars, and WNBA players all enshrined so you can't just take what happened in the NBA into consideration, you have to judge the player over his entire career. And while Yao never had the chance to dominate the NBA because of his feet, he did have enough time to show us just how talented he was before he came over.

But the real reason that Yao deserves to get the call is because of everything he has done in terms of exposure for the NBA in China. He has done more for the popularity of the NBA then anyone since Jordan hung up his sneakers in favor of golf cleats. Add that to the fact that he was on his way to being an elite center in the NBA, was an international level elite center, and showed enough pride to rush back from injuries to play for his country and thus shortening his career, I think he deserves at least a spot. Maybe he isn't a first ballot guy and maybe he isn't in the very top echelon of players all time, but no player meant more to the sport's growth these last few years then Yao and in a 1000 years, I think that is something worth remembering.

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