Better career: Peja Stojakovic vs Yao Ming

[durantbird]

Peja Stojakovic:
3 All-Star
1 All-NBA Second (04)
1 Fourth place in MVP Votes (04)
1 WCF (02) + some more nice playoffs in 03, 04, 08
(role player on a champ - 11')

Yao Ming:
8 All-Star (including a bogus one in 11')
5 All-NBA (2 Second, 3 Third)
One time Semi WCF

They have more or less the same number of years playing at a high level. Peja probably peaked higher and performed better in PS, but Yao has better individual accolades on paper.

Who had the better career? If it's Peja, then does he have a HOF worthy career?

[rand]

Peja peaked higher offensively but not by a large margin while defensively Peja was one of the worst starting SFs in the league and Yao was an above average defensive center. Yao was a higher tier player but couldn't stay healthy. He would have made a lot more playoff runs if he had as many healthy years as Peja.

[MiamiBulls]

Yao.

Truly can't undersell how poor of a defender Peja Stojakovic actually was. It was problematic Defense that would detract from a Team's overall Defensive capabilities.

[SNPA]

Yao.

Truly can't undersell how poor of a defender Peja Stojakovic actually was. It was problematic Defense that would detract from a Team's overall Defensive capabilities.

True

- Longtime Kings fan.

[trex_8063]

I'd say Yao, but it could be argued the margin isn't too big.

I think Yao was pretty underrated defensively, though. While it may be true his D wouldn't translate well to the modern space-n-pace era, that's a relatively small window of NBA history. He was pretty substantial in his time, though (even if he was never officially recognized as All-D level [he more or less was]). And obviously he was not too shabby on offense, too.

Consequently, I think his peak and avg prime year are well above Peja's, so I gotta give him the edge, even though Peja's longevity is a little better.