Yao or Amare

[Lava Rock Kid]

Nothing really to talk about right now, I always liked Yao but was he worth the number 1 pick over Amare.

Yao was the better player definately, but he played for 8 seasons and missed 250 games due to injury which means he really only played 5 seasons.

Normally after 5 seasons is when a player is at their peak. Imagine if he was not injured how good he might be today?

Mabey 15-20 years with Amare is worth more than 5 years with Yao, especially at less cost.

Not trying to troll I am a Jazz fan, but after reading a story on ESPN about this I had to wonder.

[texasholdem]

Amare has missed 144 games himself so he's not exatly Karl Malone when it comes to health.

I wonder how good Scola would have been had he joined the NBA in 2002 (he was also drafted that year along with Yao and Amare)

[spolgar]

Yao:

Nobody envisioned Yao's career to be this short. He came into the league and got himself better as a player every year. He is a better defensive player, he played with less talent around him, he is a better rebounder and by far and away a better team mate. Yao at his peak was a much better basketball player than Amare, despite Amare's superior athleticism and length.

Yao and his marketting team took a fledging market in a corner of the globe where the NBA had little to no reach after Jordan retired and opened it up. Yao has done much for basketball in the way that the World Cup has done for soccer. Basketball now provides me with plenty of conversation fodder that I've never had the ability to leverage before.

<Being Mushys>
Because of Yao's presence and success in the NBA, there is more subject matter to communicate with. As an expatriate and an emigre that is at times unfamiliar with local politics in Hong Kong and China, you cannot put a dollar amount on the ability to find common ground quickly in social situations. I like how I can talk about basketball now to folks where as 10-15 years ago it was a bit more difficult to do so as less people cared about basketball. No amount of Sports Center coverage on Amare could do that.
</Being Mushy>

I would pick Yao every time as the number one pick. As will every other franchise in this league.

Amare had micro fracture surgery in both knees. He could've easily turned out like Kenyon Martin. And he was never a defensive presence, nor was he much of a rebounder. With Carmelo as well as Amare at the 3 and 4, the Knicks frontline seems about as robust and air tight as a sieve made out of bone china. That's the kind of basketball that would make Red Holtzman do cartwheels in his grave.

If we got Amare instead of Yao, we'd be bitching about the same thing. I'd rather feel disappointed as a fan when a player's career is unfortunately cut short from happenstance that no one has control over, than a fan whom is frustrated when a player refuses to address fundamental gaps in his game.

The question that decided my preference is below:
If you were a basketball fan and you liked your kids to play right, whom would you rather take them to see?

[CarMalone]

Yao.

Amare wasn't an iron horse himself and had problems with Suns coaching/management. From a business perspective, the Rockets hit the jackpot by drafting Yao. Stoudemire is good but the money generated from Yao alone makes this debate one-sided (from an owner's perspective).

[rdehonney]

Of course if we could go back now we'd take Amare but thats not possible. Only reason why amare>yao is health. Yao was a prospect that couldn't be passed up just like Oden was, the fact that they have had injuries doesn't mean that there was a mistake in judgement when they were drafted. Plus like dude above said, when you add all the money he generated on top of that he was a great #1 pick, things just didn't work out the way they should have

[rocketsballin]

healthy prime yao > healthy prime amare. if we the same info we did when we drafted yao, i'd still get him

[Meatcookie]

From a pure basketball stand point and winning... probably Amare.

From a business stand point, Yao.
Better for the NBA, Yao.
Better for Les to make $$$, Yao.

If I was the owner of the team, Yao
If I was the GM, maybe Amare.

[College Boy]

I would definitely take Yao as a GM, owner, coach, or fan. As a GM, you knew you had someone that was loyal and quite the opposite of greedy, so that would make things that much easier when it comes time to re-sign. Whereas Amare has shown that he is only interested in going to the money. As an owner, well that point has been discussed ad nosium. As a coach, you had a very humble keystone player that was very teachable and eager to learn to boot (amoung other things). Whereas if Amare was unhappy with something, it was well publicized. As a fan, going to see a 7'6 Chinese man was far better than another 6'11 BBG lol. And heck even as a player, you knew you would get much more global exposure playing along siide Yao (Kyle Lowry and Chuck Hayes) than you would with Amare.

While Amare is an exceptional talent, his game has been seen before and will most certainly be seen again. On the other hand, Yao was a very one of a kind figure. When it's all said and done, Yao's name will carry much more weight. I'm not saying this to downplay Amare's contributions and impact, but Yao was on a much higher level. Then when you add in the potential impact if he had been able to stay healthy, we might be comparing him to some of the greatest centers of all time.

[aznkillabeezZz]

Yao. If it weren't for him, Rockets wouldn't gain a billion of fans

[rocketsfan1]

no doubt about it yao. i don't see amar'e winning a title alone. im a rockets fan living in los angeles and i remember that year yao lead us past the blazers and had he not broke his foot i truly believe we would have won the title. I went to a few games during that rockets lakers series and it just wasnt the same without yao. but no doubt about it yao, at his peak when he played in the NBA he was the best center in the league. yao had a very good shot but he didnt dunk much.. he could have been even more dominating had he learned to dunk it. he was a great free throw shooter also, and Tracy and Yao just didnt get it done, but i dont regret the rockets drafting yao

[rocketsfan1]

And Dont Forget Yao had been a professional long before he got to the Rockets.

[tisbee]

False choice.
It's like asking if any of the 8 teams that passed on Kobe would have been better off taking him instead of whoever they drafted.

For starters,Amare wasn't taken #2,he was taken #9,after the following bigs-Yao(1),Gooden((4),Tskitishvili(5),Nene(7),Wilcox(8). At the time Amare was a High-School teenager w/serious,serious question marks-like going to about a bazillion different High Schools.
Combining him w/Francis-yikes!

If Yao doesn't get drafted by Houston,he goes to Golden State-huge Asian market,a natural fit. W/the Chinese income,perhaps GS is able to keep Arenas and Jamison.
McGrady wanted to play w/a big man and his choices were Hou(Yao) and Pho(Amare).Assuming Hou drafted Amare(heh!) instead of Jay Williams,it would have been between Hou and GS,and Otis Smith,at time personnel guy,loved him some Arenas and would have pushed for a GS trade.
So a McGrady/Amare pairing would have been pretty unlikely.

Amare blew out his knee after his third season,came back and blew out the other one. Like to be the GM explaining to Les that the max extension was worth it? At least when Yao wasn't playing,he was generating huge revenue for Les.
And let's ignore Amare ISN'T ON THE TEAM THAT DRAFTED HIM,and hasn't been for a season. Morey has several times seriously thought about trading for Amare,and each time walked away.

Now if you want to talk about should they have,how about should the Rockets have drafted Monta Ellis instead of Luther Head? Or David Lee? Or Marcin Gortat?

[texasholdem]

False choice.
It's like asking if any of the 8 teams that passed on Kobe would have been better off taking him instead of whoever they drafted.

For starters,Amare wasn't taken #2,he was taken #9,after the following bigs-Yao(1),Gooden((4),Tskitishvili(5),Nene(7),Wilcox(8). At the time Amare was a High-School teenager w/serious,serious question marks-like going to about a bazillion different High Schools.
Combining him w/Francis-yikes!

If Yao doesn't get drafted by Houston,he goes to Golden State-huge Asian market,a natural fit. W/the Chinese income,perhaps GS is able to keep Arenas and Jamison.
McGrady wanted to play w/a big man and his choices were Hou(Yao) and Pho(Amare).Assuming Hou drafted Amare(heh!) instead of Jay Williams,it would have been between Hou and GS,and Otis Smith,at time personnel guy,loved him some Arenas and would have pushed for a GS trade.
So a McGrady/Amare pairing would have been pretty unlikely.

Amare blew out his knee after his third season,came back and blew out the other one. Like to be the GM explaining to Les that the max extension was worth it? At least when Yao wasn't playing,he was generating huge revenue for Les.
And let's ignore Amare ISN'T ON THE TEAM THAT DRAFTED HIM,and hasn't been for a season. Morey has several times seriously thought about trading for Amare,and each time walked away.

Now if you want to talk about should they have,how about should the Rockets have drafted Monta Ellis instead of Luther Head? Or David Lee? Or Marcin Gortat?

Kobe was taken 13th not 9th.
Chicago would have taken Yao 2nd overall not Jay Williams so he would have not gone to GS at 3rd.

[LHead2]

False choice.
It's like asking if any of the 8 teams that passed on Kobe would have been better off taking him instead of whoever they drafted.

For starters,Amare wasn't taken #2,he was taken #9,after the following bigs-Yao(1),Gooden((4),Tskitishvili(5),Nene(7),Wilcox(8). At the time Amare was a High-School teenager w/serious,serious question marks-like going to about a bazillion different High Schools.
Combining him w/Francis-yikes!

If Yao doesn't get drafted by Houston,he goes to Golden State-huge Asian market,a natural fit. W/the Chinese income,perhaps GS is able to keep Arenas and Jamison.
McGrady wanted to play w/a big man and his choices were Hou(Yao) and Pho(Amare).Assuming Hou drafted Amare(heh!) instead of Jay Williams,it would have been between Hou and GS,and Otis Smith,at time personnel guy,loved him some Arenas and would have pushed for a GS trade.
So a McGrady/Amare pairing would have been pretty unlikely.

Amare blew out his knee after his third season,came back and blew out the other one. Like to be the GM explaining to Les that the max extension was worth it? At least when Yao wasn't playing,he was generating huge revenue for Les.
And let's ignore Amare ISN'T ON THE TEAM THAT DRAFTED HIM,and hasn't been for a season. Morey has several times seriously thought about trading for Amare,and each time walked away.

Now if you want to talk about should they have,how about should the Rockets have drafted Monta Ellis instead of Luther Head? Or David Lee? Or Marcin Gortat?

Kobe was taken 13th not 9th.
Chicago would have taken Yao 2nd overall not Jay Williams so he would have not gone to GS at 3rd.

Remember that the previous year, Chicago had taken Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry to be their frontcourt of the future (lol). Would they have taken yet another big man - an international project - or rather go for the highly-touted point guard from Mike Krzyzewski's Duke system? If Amare had been taken 1st by the Rockets, I'm not so sure Chicago would take Yao. They might have made a move to trade the pick though.

[texasholdem]

Well a 7 milion a year Kelvin Cato and rookie phenom Eddie Griffin was our frontcourt of the future. Plus Jason Collier who we drafted in 2000.

Granted we didn't need a PG as badly as CHI did because of Franchise. I think they would have taken Yao and traded Curry.

[moofs]

Really, it doesn't matter much, and since neither of them is a true franchise player, it's kinda moot anyway.

If we're talking hypotheticals, why not "what if we'd had the #1 pick in the 2003 draft instead of the 2002 draft?" I'd take LeBron over Stoudemire 5000 days of the week.

[texasholdem]

I'd take Wade 5000 days of the week over LeBron

I would have picked Luis Scola #1 overall in 2002

[moofs]

I'd take Wade 5000 days of the week over LeBron

I would have picked Luis Scola #1 overall in 2002

I can go with that, considering that they're pretty damn close and Wade doesn't randomly forget how to walk for an entire series in the playoffs.

Wouldn't have taken Scola with #1, but top 10, yeah.

(I still think there's a legitimate reason that LeBron stops playing when he does - the drasticness of it makes it look like he's either being paid or threatened)

[cheolee]

Yao put the Rox on the map for a billion people.
What did Amare do for PHX?