Heroes cherish each other! Yao Ming praised Sharks as a weapon to break the ball, and he was not on the same level as him

In the program "The Legend of Yao Ming", Yao Ming talked about some of his views on legendary center O'Neal, which attracted heated discussions among fans. In the

program, Yao Ming directly said that if he and O'Neal were at the best time in his career, they were not at the same level at all.

The original words say: "It must be said that he is not of the same magnitude as me, and they both met at the best time, so I feel that I am lucky, so when I met him, his condition was relatively declined, so everyone seemed to be almost evenly matched."

From this, we can hear that Yao Ming admired O'Neal's ability from the bottom of his heart. The host then asked a very interesting question: If Yao Ming, who was in full peak, joined the Rockets team with the small ball style in 2017, could he become the most competitive team in the championship?

Yao Ming's answer was quite realistic, saying that he was very happy and didn't need to make this choice; he said that small ball play, especially outside offense and flexible attack, has become the mainstream of the basketball world; no matter whether everyone likes it or not, they have to accept it, otherwise they will be eliminated. If he is still playing, he has to make changes and keep up with this pace, unless he has the ability of O'Neal at his peak. Obviously, Yao Ming praised O'Neal's strength, which is enough to become a magic weapon to crack the small ball play.

As Yao Ming's old opponent and a good friend, O'Neal praised Yao Ming a lot and said bluntly: "He is the first person to block my hat three times in a row, and he is also the first person to take the ball in front of me and turn around and look at my face and shoot the basket. You can't stop him, so you can only raise your hand high and try your best to defend him until he can't make a shot."

Being able to get O'Neal's evaluation is enough to prove Yao Ming's strength in the NBA arena, and his outstanding performance has indeed left a deep impression on O'Neal. As time goes by, why does Yao Ming feel that he and O'Neal are not on the same level? Judging from his own reasons, O'Neal's physical condition and basketball talent are too good.

O'Neal was at the peak at that time, he was like a "big master" at the basket. Whether it was strength, speed or explosive power, he was at the top level in history. It was too difficult for the opponent to stand at the basket to prevent him, so he could only be forced to commit a foul. Compared with

, although Yao Ming is also a very powerful center forward, there is indeed a gap between him and O'Neal at his peak in terms of absolute strength. Moreover, O'Neal is also particularly rich in offensive methods, such as hooking, dunking, and back-to-body scoring methods, you can use them at will.

When Yao Ming entered the NBA, O'Neal had already passed his absolute peak period and was already on the decline. If their peak periods completely overlap and there are more opportunities to meet in the game, Yao Ming will face greater challenges and the gap may be more obvious.

In addition, the league's basketball style at that time was very different from now, and the pace was relatively not that fast.

The small ball style has been popular for many years. Its characteristic is that it values ​​outside shooting and quick conversion and offense, and wins the game with a flexible way. Big inside men like O'Neal can become a powerful weapon to break conventional defense under their current style. If he had been in this small ball era, with his dominance in the inside, he would have been enough to change a team's defensive tactics and make the small ball play less easy to succeed.

Maybe Yao Ming himself understands this, so he said that only with the strength of O'Neal can he do not have to follow the trend and still succeed.

I have to say that the heroic love between Yao Ming and O'Neal is really touching; this is the charm of basketball and competitive sports, which can cross national boundaries, skin color and race, making two seemingly unrelated people friends for life.