May 10th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Yao’s Gone
No more Yao Ming for the playoffs, and no more hope for the Houston Rockets. Are there any examples of truly super-sized players who didn’t wind up having careers that were constantly marred by injury?
50 Responses to “Yao’s Gone”
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May 10th, 2009 at 10:06 am
How big is “truly super-sized”? Kareem played 1560 games, second-highest in NBA history.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Shaq?
May 10th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Wilt Chamberlain?
May 10th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Andrew and Craig come name the two most obvious. But even David Robinson and Akeem/Hakeem Olajuwan were over 7 feet and had relatively injury free careers.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Grant Hill during his Orlando Magic gig. He wasn’t the starting big man, but what a disappointment.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I am surprised that a blog about politics and basketball doesn;t has not produced a single post ever on the “Wilt Chamberlain Argument.”
May 10th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Tis a shame because I thought the Rockets had an excellent shot at winning this series.
But Yao was pretty severely hobbled after game 1 due to the knee bruise from the bump with Kobe, even before this fracture.
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Charley Rosen had an interesting point:
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“Are there any examples of truly super-sized players who didn’t wind up having careers that were constantly marred by injury?”
It’s the super-tall skinny guys who have perpetual foot/ankle problems. Truly super-sized players like Shaquille who are a bit thicker seem to fare OK.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Bill Walton was perhaps the most injury-plagued big man in NBA history, at least among the elite players. But for his bad feet, and some lousy/unethical decisions to rush him back on the court by the Blazers, they might have gone on to win one, two or even three more championships after the one in ‘77. That’s how good BW was.
Kareem played a ton of games for 20 yrs or so, but the last 10, imo, were mostly phoning it in during the regular season (even more than most players), then showing up to play primarily on offense during the playoffs.
Shaq was injured a lot during his final few yrs with the Lakers, but that was directly due, again in my opinion, to his lack of self-discipline in the off season as he put on huge amts of weight which created problems for his body on the hardwood.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Kareem!!
May 10th, 2009 at 10:39 am
no more hope for the Houston Rockets
Uh, I believe NBA officiating meant there was never any hope for the Rockets.
I’ve given up on the NBA, this postseason.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:44 am
No kidding, Freddie. It’s very hard to win 5 on 8, as the Blazers learned in the first five games of the previous series. Though, to their credit, Houston closed out that series in game six on their own merits.
Too bad about Yao.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Bill Simmons and Rockets GM Darryl Morrey actually discussed Yao’s unique medical situation on a podcast prior to game 3.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Zydrunas Llgauskas had nagging foot injuries early in his career, but has amazingly been able to keep playing for a while now.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:06 am
The Lakers were going to prevail over the very good Rockets with or w/o Yao, probably in 6. A little more depth, better coaching and the unstoppable Kobe. Rockets should contend next yr by adding one more quality player and by keeping Yao healthy.
As for Wilt, he played at the same weight (iirc) throughout his long career, helped by off-season training playing with pro/collegiate volleyball players at UCLA (just down the street from his mansion in Bel Air).
Then there was that other well-known way he “stayed in shape” and maintained his élan vital throughout the year …
May 10th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Rik Smits was 7′4″ and skinny, and he played 12 seasons, and in only three of them did he play less than 73 games. That’s pretty good.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Ralph Sampson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Sampson
May 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
“Rik Smits was 7′4″ and skinny, and he played 12 seasons, and in only three of them did he play less than 73 games. That’s pretty good.”
Smits is actually a pretty good example of the foot/ankle problems normally experienced by super-tall skinny players.
While he was frequently in uniform, that was accomplished by drastically curtailing his minutes. Dude averaged only 26 minutes per game for his career. And his foot problems left him essentially immobile while on the court.
As his Wikipedia page notes:
If Smits’ feet had been healthy, the Pacers would have won some titles.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
This is what, his fourth injury to his left foot? He had big toe surgery and has broken it three times since 2005.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Artis Gilmore? Played in 670 consecutive games at one time.
He was 7′2″, playing weight about 240 lbs. Does that make him super-sized or just tall? Yao is over 300 lbs, I believe.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Bill Russell?
May 10th, 2009 at 11:43 am
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Literally.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:44 am
.
Wey-yull, Sumotori, who are all supersized, have an average life expectancy of something like 45. Kai-ho, one of the greatest (though not necessarily the largest) of all time, was unusual in that he lived to 54.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Sorry it appears that Yglesias did adress the Wilt Chamberlain Argument. Google missed it because it didn’t know what Wilt Chamberlain Argument meant.
http://yglesias.blogspot.com/2002_02_03_archive.html#9555006
May 10th, 2009 at 11:51 am
So, given that the Rockets are done, do the Nuggets have any hope of beating the Lakers?
On one hand, I’d like to see a Cleavland-LA final, just to see LeBron vs. Kobe, but I really hate the Lakers, know the Celtics have no chance to make it to the finals and have some Denver sympathy, so I’d kind of like to see the Nuggets beat LA.
May 10th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Folks, the fix is in. The powers that be in the NBA are fully aware that the best finals television ratings will occur for LeBron vs Kobe.
May 10th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
TW Andrews — The way the Nuggets are playing, I think there’s a reasonably decent chance a Denver-LA series could be pretty competitive.
Back in Feb, Denver smashed LA at home by like 20+. Of course, that was the second game of a back-to-back for the Lakers, after they beat Phoenix at home and didn’t arrive in Denver until 4am.
Anyway, having watched all the Nuggets’ playoff games and many of their last regular season games, they have really turned up their defense a notch or three, and I think they’re quite capable of pushing the Lakers to 6 or 7.
May 10th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Yes, the Yao injury problems remind one of Bill Walton. His feet and ankles seem too fragile to withstand the rigors of the NBA. But he is only 29 years old.
Paul Molitor couldn’t stay on the baseball diamond when he was young. Repeated injuries led to lost seasons throughout his twenties. He too was deemed too fragile and it seemed he was headed toward an injury plagued early retirement. But Molitor spent the last ten years of his career relatively injury free.
So you never know. Hopefully Yao has just had a string of bad luck, and the fates will play hands off in the future and allow him to experience a dominant prime.
May 10th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Robert Parish. Great career, not much injury.
May 10th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I’m looking forward to seeing exactly how the Nuggs will get shafted against the Lakers. Will it be the classic “horrible ref’n”? An unforeseen injury? A fight leading to lengthy suspensions? There’s so many possibilities, I just can’t wait!
That said, I’m hopeful for a Cavs-Lakers showdown w/LeBron shattering Kobe, just destroying him both professionally and personally, and ending any serious comparison of the two players, other than “Kobe is no LeBron”…
May 10th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
There are actually more examples of long careers for big men than one’s shortened by injury, it’s just such a big deal to lose a talented center than everyone remembers it for a long time. For every Yao or Sampson there are 5 Ewings, Robinsons, Duncans, or Shaqs.. Plus, when the big men have a serious injury, they always come back and manage to limp around the court for a few years, reminding us of their frailties. If they were guards and they couldn’t run, we’d just never see them again…
May 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Hollinger wrote the following about healthy big men: “If you look at the average career length for NBA players, it increases with height up to 6-11, drops slightly for 7-footers and decreases sharply at heights taller than that. The reason why isn’t rocket science — oversized centers have incredible difficulty staying healthy because of the pounding their legs and ankles take in an NBA season.” Also, Yao’s a bit of special case because his Chinese national team commitments wear him down even more.
Also, the Nuggets look scary good right now. Too bad they won’t have a fair shot against the Lakers. Vince McMahon has nothing on David Stern when it comes to fixing contests and screwing over people he doesn’t like.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Life must be awfully disappointing when you pin you hopes on seeing Kobe Bryant fail.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
The folks who annually whine about the officials rigging games come playoff time are sorta dim.
Home teams get the calls. That’s why home court advantage is so valuable.
If the League Office wants you to win, they’ll assign Steve Javie to call your away games since he doesn’t give the home team the benefit of the doubt, but that’s about as far as it goes.
—–
“That said, I’m hopeful for a Cavs-Lakers showdown”
Of course.
“w/LeBron shattering Kobe”
Of course.
Cavs/Lakers definitely would be entertaining, though I don’t think LA has much of a shot to actually win. Cleveland is rocking this year.
It’s really too bad KG got injured. Celtics/Cavs would have been the series to watch.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Chris D brings the answer to Matthew’s query:
May 10th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
wow, looks like I’m the only Laker fan here.
For those that are saying that the league has the fix in for the Lakers…please. The refereeing in this league is atrocious for ALL teams. How does Rajon Rondo essentially punch Brad Miller in the face and hurl Hinrich into the scorer’s table and get nothing while Fisher gets suspended? Don’t get me wrong, Fish deserved to be suspended..but how does Rondo get nothing? Artest gets a flagrant 2 on Gasol at the end of the last game, that wasn’t even close to a flagrant 2. It’s as if the refs are making it up as they go along.
Now as far as saying the Lakers have no chance against the Cavs…The Lakers DID beat Cleveland twice this year…
May 10th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
It’s really too bad KG got injured. Celtics/Cavs would have been the series to watch.
Everyone’s sleeping on the fact that Cavs/Magic is going to be an awesome series.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Manute Bol
While he did not have an illustrious career, he managed to play in over 600 games over the course of a ten year career, and his career was not beset by injury after injury.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
You know, I never thought about it that way, Crusty Dem, but I bet you’re right. Big men are thought of so effusively that whenever one of them takes a fall, it’s a big story in the basketball world, but no one gives a whit for the tons of guards who fail to stay in the League for too long.
May 10th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
“Now as far as saying the Lakers have no chance against the Cavs…The Lakers DID beat Cleveland twice this year…”
It should be an excellent series. I think the Lakers can push the Cavs a bit, but I don’t think they can ultimately win 4 games.
May 10th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Don’t forget Mark Eaton….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Eaton_(basketball_player)
He played 875 games over a 13 year career, and did not suffer from injury difficulties until late in his career (knee and back). Retired second in all-time blocked shots, and is first in blocked shots per game. At 290 pounds, he was probably the heaviest player in the league until Shaq came along.
May 10th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
The Yao’less Rockets are spanking LA right now.
May 10th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Gene Nitzky played over 1200 while suffering only a few minor injuries.
May 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
[...] be time to revisit this morning’s prediction that Houston is [...]
May 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
The Rockets are odd. Can’t get out of the first round w/ BOTH McGrady and Yao, but this year they get past the first w/o McGrady, & if they keep up the way they’re playing now can reach the finals without either. WTF?
May 10th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Today’s game is a great effort by Houston and a big ol’ pile of steaming cow turd by LAL, but the Rockets are not going to win 2 of the next 3 from the Lakers. Particularly given that the Lakers have two of the next three home games.
May 10th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
[...] Neither Yao Ming nor Tracy McGrady have proven themselves physically strong enough to make it through an entire NBA playoff run, so after lifting the Rockets out of the first round, Yao being out for the rest of the Rockets’ season is no surprise. Discovering how his remaining teammates handle the Lakers with small ball is why they play the game, as my husband would say. Let’s not count them out before the series is over. [...]
May 10th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Walton, Parish, etc don’t count as “super-sized.” Walton was 6-11 and Parish 7-0, that’s just normal size for an NBA center. “Super-sized” means above 7-2 — Yao, Smits, Big Z, Eaton, Sabonis, etc. Those guys do tend to have injury problems. Eaton’s the only one I can think of without any real injury problems. (Although does Kareem count as “super-sized”? He was listed at 7-2 but I suspect he was taller.) And don’t give me that Manute Bol crap. I love ‘Nute, but he played 18 minutes a game for his career.
May 11th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Since the examples of Kareem, Shaq, Parish etc. are so obvious, I can only conclude that Matt’s speaking of Muresan, Bol, Bradley. Makes sense, no? Maybe Sampson and Mutumbo are close, but there seems to be a big difference in career expectations when you get up to 7′6″ (and above).
May 11th, 2009 at 11:20 am
There’s Mark Eaton. 7′3″, 275, not quite in the freak class but close. Played between 79 and 82 games a year, averaging about 30 minutes a game, for ten years running. Never suffered a serious injury to my knowledge.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Like toomany steves (I guess I count as one of the too many) I think once you get above 7′3″ you’re supersized. 7 footers seem to be about a dime a dozen these days.
I also think Kareem was taller than the 7′2″ he was listed, but Hakeem I heard was closer to 6′10″ than 7′. It does seem like Yao is pushing the limits of what you can do at that size given human architecture. Even if Kareem was coasting during the regular season through his later career, he still had remarkable endurance.