On the eve of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the Chinese men's basketball team participated in the summer league held in California, and Kobe Bryant, who was still a rookie at the time, led the Lakers to beat the Chinese men's basketball team 105-85, Kobe Scored 24 points at half and scored 36 points in the whole game, which was the highest scoring player in the two teams, and Chinese player Hu Weidong scored 30 points and Kobe Bryant.
Yao Ming was shocked to watch this game, on the one hand, he felt that the Lakers could beat the best team in our country by just sending a summer league lineup. On the other hand, he feels that Kobe Bryant is just a rookie under the age of 18, has not yet played a formal regular season game for the Lakers, but can play with some of China's best basketball players, and feels that his strength is far above that of Chinese players.
Yao Ming said in an interview that he knows that China's basketball level is improving, but he feels that the gap with the NBA is out of reach, which makes him feel that he cannot play in the NBA. But then he met a player who made Yao Ming think he could play in the NBA, and that person was Tyson Chandler.
Yao Ming said of Chandler: "It's not me turning over old accounts, I can really blow him up at will." Yao Ming did not brag, he was invited to the Nike Global Training Camp in 1998, he showed a level far beyond his peers in the training camp, but before playing against Chandler, someone specifically reminded him not to take it lightly, because Chandler is one hundred percent of the players who enter the NBA and will be selected in the high picks.
Yao Ming learned that after concentrating on preparing for the game, he did not expect that he easily blew up Chandler, after this incident Yao Ming was crushed by Kobe Bryant's NBA dream was rekindled, he felt that players like Chandler could enter the NBA, then he could also enter, and since then he has trained harder and regarded entering the NBA as a dream that must be realized.
In 2001, Chandler joined the Los Angeles Clippers as a top player, but was traded to the Bulls without playing a game. In 2002, Yao Ming joined the Houston Rockets as a champion, they are all centers, the team must be in the right place, Yao Ming can play Chandler like before entering the NBA?
According to statistics, Yao Ming and Chandler have played each other 13 times in the NBA, Yao Ming averaged 31 minutes per game, averaged 20 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.1 blocks per game, shooting 54.6% from the field and 82.2% from the free throw line, helping the team achieve a record of 7 wins and 6 losses.
Chandler averaged 29 minutes per game, averaged 9.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.9 blocks per game, shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 53.2 percent from the free throw line, helping the team achieve a 6-7 record.
From the point of view of record, the two are equally divided, Yao Ming's team won one more game, slightly dominant, and in terms of personal performance, Yao Ming in addition to the average rebound per game is lower than Chandler, the rest of the data are higher than Chandler, the average score per game is 10.8 points more than Chandler, and the shooting rate is also 8.4 percentage points higher than Chandler.
Chandler is not a player who is good at offense, but in terms of defense, he can't prevent Yao Ming, allowing Yao Ming to average 20 points per game and shoot 54.6% of the shooting rate, Yao Ming averaged 1.1 blocks per game, which is also more than Chandler's average of 0.9 blocks per game. It can be concluded that when the two are in position, Yao Ming plays better than Chandler on both offensive and defensive ends, and Chandler is still his source of confidence.
In terms of personal honors, Chandler has been selected as an All-Star once, the All-Team Team 3 times, the Best Defensive Player 1 time, and the All-Defensive Team 2 times 2 times. Yao Ming was selected as an All-Star eight times, the Best Team twice, the Best Team three times, and the Best Rookie Team once.
Honors as a whole is still Yao Ming dominant, but Chandler won the NBA championship, but also played in the NBA for 18 seasons, he is much better than Yao Ming in terms of health, if Yao Ming can play for such a long time, he retired due to injury at the age of 30 is really regrettable.