This is probably for the best though because at 7'6" and 310 pounds, he was probably never going to be right again. I mean, once you can't even make it past 5 games with limited minutes, you've got to know the end is near, right? Right.
Now, this brings up an interesting discussion: Was Yao Ming a bust? At first thought that might sound crazy, but when you look at what Yao's career was supposed to be, it isn't really. Yao was supposed to be the next dominant big man, but in 9 seasons he only played 486 of a possible 738 games and made it past the first round of the playoffs once. And in that same year (08-09) he only managed to play 3 games into the second round before being hurt again.
Now he did average 19 points and 9.2 rebounds for his career, but it's hard to say that was ideal for him coming into the league. He was a #1 overall draft pick after all. He was supposed to rival Shaq, not average just under 20 and 10 in an injury riddled 9 year career.
Let's put it this way: Say you are the Houston Rockets and today is the day before the 2002 NBA Draft. Let's also say I'm a psychic, but my powers only work on Chinese players entering the NBA. You ask me how will Yao's career play out and I tell you he's only going to play through 2011 and average 19 points and 9.2 rebounds. Do you still take him #1 overall the next day?
Considering the fact that the next 7 players taken in that draft were Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Drew Gooden, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Dajuan Wagner, Nene Hilario, and Chris Wilcox, you probably still do (even though you would have had no way of knowing only 1 of them would even still be a starter by 2011 at the time), but you'd think about it long and hard leading up to draft time.
Okay, maybe Yao isn't a bust, but he was definitely overrated coming into the league. Yao was supposed to be great, but instead was just very good. In my opinion, the only reason he won't be seen as a disappointment is because he was the first Asian NBA All-Star and his draft class was a pathetic cesspool of soon-to-be nobodies. I really like Yao, but he did not live up to the hype.
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