If Kyrie Irving never plays another game, is he a Hall of Famer?

[Professor Emeritus]

Kyrie has a better case than Yao Ming and Bill Bradley who are in the HoF

Yao has 8 All-Star selections, 5 All-NBA selections, was the first asian superstar ever, and was arguably a top-2 center of the late 00s and usually punked the #1 center when they played head to head.

Not sure why you mentioned him when there were far worse examples available.

Kyrie would probably deserve to get into the HOF as it is currently constructed, though personally I've prefer stricter standards with a lot fewer players.

 

[Piff Huxtable]

Yao has 8 All-Star selections, 5 All-NBA selections, was the first asian superstar ever, and was arguably a top-2 center of the late 00s and usually punked the #1 center when they played head to head.

Not sure why you mentioned him when there were far worse examples available.

Kyrie would probably deserve to get into the HOF as it is currently constructed, though personally I've prefer stricter standards with a lot fewer players.

lol there were literally 1 billion chinese people voting for him every year so don't bring up All-Star games

Best year of his career he got punked by Carlos Boozer in the playoffs. I was there. I remember.

Yao is nothing more than a less successful, asian version of Brad Daugherty

 

[BrehWyatt]

If Kyrie Irving never plays another basketball game, is he a Hall of Famer in your mind?

I suspect the vast majority would say that he is.

Still, he has only played 582 NBA games. Among Hall of Famers, that's near the bottom. And most of the guys down there were largely international players.

I just ask if he has put in the longevity to warrant it.



Edit - I have to say that I'm shocked at the voting results. Way more people voted NO than I would have guessed. I think he gets in. But I do think there is something to be said for longevity and milestones.

He'd be a HOF-er in every aspect EXCEPT the actual hall of fame.

HOF handles, HOF finisher at the rim. An elite 1-v-1 scorer. NBA champion with one of the most clutch shots in sports lore.

Basically, he'd be Sterling Sharpe but with more people talking about his legacy.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

lol there were literally 1 billion chinese people voting for him every year so don't bring up All-Star games

Best year of his career he got punked by Carlos Boozer in the playoffs. I was there. I remember.

Yao is nothing more than a less successful, asian version of Brad Daugherty

Yao made the All-NBA team 5x, which has nothing to do with Chinese votes. Every single player in NBA history who has made 5 or more All-NBA teams is in the HOF other than Kevin Johnson. And Yao made 8 All-Star teams to KJ's just 3. Complaining about Chinese votes is silly when Yao was clearly a top-2 center in the West for almost his entire career.


And Brad Daughtery was a great player, but his #'s are juiced from playing in a far faster era. Yao was a better scorer, better rebounder, and MUCH better defender than Daughtery ever was. So he was better at everything a center is supposed to be better at.

Yao per 100 possessions: 32 and 15 with 3 blocks/game
Daughtery per 100 possessions: 25 and 13 with 1 block/game

Or you could look at advanced stats and Yao shyts on Daughtery across the board. Can you imagine Yao in Daughtery's era? He would have been a monster.


And that's beyond his impact as the first Asian superstar or helping further open a giant new market to basketball. Trying to talk like Yao don't have a HOF case is just silly.