Fire Yao Ming as a Hall of Famer

Van Gundy looking up to Yao.

Now that Yao Ming has officially announced his retirement from the NBA, one of his former coaches is saying that Yao belongs in the hall of fame. Yao was a great player whose career was unfortunately cut short because of injuries, but he is not an all-time great.

Former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle that "he’s a Hall of Famer. I don’t care if you put him in as player, as a contributor or put him in with his own heading. This guy definitely gets in for the greatness as a player when healthy or what he did as ambassador.”

If you had a hall of fame vote, would you select a true center who was a #1 draft pick, made four all-star teams in eight injury-plagued seasons, averaged 15.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game? If you would, you just picked Ralph Sampson. Yao's numbers are almost identical: over parts of eight seasons he averaged 19.0 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, made eight all-star teams (but only played on six), was a true center and a #1 draft pick. But unlike Sampson, who reached the finals with Houston in 1986, Yao never got close to a title.  

Yao's career is almost identical to Ralph Sampson's, and almost nobody thinks Sampson belongs in the hall. Van Gundy could be right that Yao deserves recognition for promoting the game of basketball in China, but as a player Yao just doesn't have the numbers. He was great and a classic "what if?" because he was hurt so much, but the hall of fame doesn't judge players on what they might have accomplished. It judges them on what they did, and Yao just didn't do enough to get in.