Who is better, Cooper or Yao?
Chuck Cooper leads with a GOAT score of 74.0 against 73.9 for Yao Ming — a gap of 0.1 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Cooper vs Yao
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Chuck Cooper above Yao Ming: 74.0 vs 73.9. Chuck Cooper leads on Longevity, Honours. Yao Ming leads on Dominance, Peak.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
CooperWinner
74.0Cooper wins: Longevity, Honours
Yao
73.9Yao wins: Dominance, Peak
Candidates
Locked to BasketballShareable URL · /compare/chuck-cooper-vs-yao-ming
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Chuck Cooper
74.0
Cooper leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Chuck Cooper
2. Yao Ming
Category breakdown
Season form · Form index per season
Career timeline · Form index per season
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Career stage · GOAT pace
Through season 5 · Form index per season1. 🇨🇳 Yao Ming5 seasons played · career day 3,65196.6 points per game
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Chuck Cooper5 seasons played · career day 1,82536.8 points per game
-61.9% vs Yao at the same stage
| Ghost race · career day | 30 | 100 | 365 | 1000 | 1825 | 3650 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 Cooper | 0 | 0 | 9.3 | 17.5 | 36.8 | 40.2 |
| 🇨🇳 Yao | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 71.6 |
Careers are aligned from debut; the first 5 season periods are measured against the same career window.
| Metric | CooperRetired | YaoRetired |
|---|---|---|
| NBA seasons | 6 | — |
| Career points per game | 6.7 | — |
| Career rebounds per game | 5.9 | — |
| Games played | 409 | — |
| Hall of Fame inductions | 1 | — |
| All-Star selections | — | 8 |
| Points per game | — | 19 |
| Rebounds per game | — | 9.2 |
| All-NBA selections | — | 5 |
| Olympic appearances | — | 3 |
| Dominance w25% | 66 | 72 |
| Peak w20% | 82 | 84 |
| Longevity w20% | 66 | 60 |
| Honours w20% | 78 | 74 |
| Statistics w15% | 82 | 82 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Cooper74.0
Yao73.9
FAQ
Where does Yao beat Cooper?
Yao scores higher on peak, dominance. Cooper leads on honours, longevity.
How is the Cooper vs Yao score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Cooper: 74.0, Yao: 73.9.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Cooper vs Yao. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.