Yao Ming
In the 2002 NBA draft a precarious athlete from China was interested in playing professional basketball in America. A 7-foot-6 center, Yao Ming emerged onto the scene as one of the players with some of the most potential possessed to ever join the league. He was young, athletic, skilled, and most importantly, huge. But, like much like Greg Oden, Yao Ming’s career was cut short do to nagging foot injuries that sidelined him for most of the second half of his playing days with the Houston Rockets.
Ming was widely criticized by many NBA analysts as potentially being one of the biggest draft busts in the history of the NBA. But with the first overall pick, how do you pass up a 7’6 center who has proven he can play professional ball in China? And Yao silenced those critics and then some, nearly averaging a double-double in his rookie season.
Only improving on those stats, Yao became one of the premiere big men in the NBA in the following years being compared to Shaquille O’Neal, Dikembe Mutombo, and others NBA greats. He averaged 17.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game his second year with room to improve in the future. By the time his fifth NBA season came around he was pushing the Rockets along with Tracy McGrady as playoff favorites.
But Yao couldn’t sustain this success over a whole season. Over the next six seasons, Yao didn’t play in 50 percent of games and the Rockets couldn’t come up with any long-term success never making it out of the second round of the playoffs.
Ultimately, foot and ankle injuries which continually showed up throughout his career caused Yao’s retirement. One of Yao’s biggest Western Conference rivals, Shaquille O’neal once said of Yao: “He was very agile. He could play inside, he could play outside, and if he didn’t have those injuries he could’ve been up there in the top five centers to ever play the game.”
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