Where is yao ming from in china

It has been nearly a decade since Ming stepped away from the NBA due to injury, but it has given a more precise picture to reflect on his legacy and ability on the court. It was the injuries that genuinely prevented him from putting together a long career that could have seen him accomplish much more in the league.

He had an entire skill-set that made him a challenging defensive assignment for any defender due to his all-around ability in the low post and the mid-range.

There is no question he belongs in the discussion as one of the greatest big men the league has seen, and his legacy will only grow as time passes along. Home NBA. In the athletic gear maker Nike invited him to the United States for a series of basketball camps. It was an important milestone for Yao, as he told Peter Hessler in a profile that appeared in the New Yorker.

But in America I finally played against people my own age, and I realized that I was actually very good. That gave me a lot of confidence. For the next few years, Yao was caught between his country and the chance to become an international superstar.

China wanted to keep him with the Sharks and on the national team, and was not eager to see him leave the country for a million-dollar contract to play with the NBA. A sports marketing firm almost engineered a deal in , but it involved giving the Sharks a large percentage of his potential American paycheck, which would have been prohibited by NBA players' union rules.

In the spring of , Yao was invited to the Nike Hoop Summit—where many international players show off their talents before NBA scouts—but the Chinese government refused to let him go. The Chinese national team was about to begin its Olympic workouts, the official explanation went, and wanted Yao to be prepared for the Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. Yao and his national teammates made an impression in Sydney.

They were dubbed the "Walking Wall of China" for their prowess, but China was defeated by an all-star U. Wang went on to become the first player from China to enter the NBA draft in , and Batere was also signed that year by the Denver Nuggets, but Yao remained in China. One of the reasons may have been his age: if a player has not come up through the college ranks, he must be twenty-two years old to play in the NBA when his rookie season kicks off.

During one of the playoff games, Yao he took twenty-one shots and sank every one of them. Reproduced by permission. When the Houston Rockets won the draft-pick lottery that gave them first dibs, Yao was their first choice as a center.

He was also the first number one draft pick to come from the international players' ranks. The NBA's newest player attracted immense media attention, but Yao had to give most of his press interviews through a translator at first. He did not start for the Rockets during the first months of his rookie season, but began to show impressive talents whenever coach Rudy Tomjanovich put him in a game.

On November 17, , in a match against the Los Angeles Lakers, Yao scored twenty points for his team and made all of the shots he attempted—nine for nine. A few games later, he scored thirty points in a game against the Dallas Mavericks and took sixteen rebounds.

In December he was named the Western Conference's rookie of the month. Relations between the two players had been slightly strained when Yao first came to the United States, because sportswriters liked to ask O'Neal, the NBA's most famous center, what he thought of his new competition. At one point, O'Neal made a disparaging remark in which he mimicked the Chinese language. In response, Yao reacted gracefully. With his own English-language skills improving, Yao began speaking to the media on his own more frequently.

He quickly emerged as a fan favorite in Houston. During his rookie season, ticket sales for home games at Compaq Center jumped to about two thousand more than the previous year's figures.

His nice-guy attitude and easy smile, combined with his immense height and lantern jaw, prompted the press to nickname him the "Gentle Giant. In one of his first, which required no dialogue, he appeared alongside Verne "Mini Me" Troyer from the Austin Powers movies in an ad for Apple Computer. He also starred in a Visa check card commercial. Yao was an even bigger celebrity in China now. He pitched the Yanjing brand of beer, made in Beijing, and appeared in television commercials for China Unicom, a telecommunications company.

In he returned home to play on the Chinese national team, and also hosted a multi-national telethon that raised money for SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome awareness and prevention. Back in Houston, Yao had another excellent season with the Rockets in , averaging In one match against the Atlanta Hawks in February of , Yao scored a career-high forty-one points.

Yao is well-liked by his teammates, even though his stardom could have brought bad feelings. They call him "Dynasty," a reference to the Ming era of Chinese history. A beat passes, and a bigger thought forms. Because the spotlight, because the fame, some guys try to stay in there forever. I went to NBA because I felt that's a place to challenge me. Next level. The offices of the Chinese Basketball Association occupy a single-story building in south-central Beijing, next to a public park, behind a thin cluster of bamboo trees.

A cheery older woman is stationed at the entrance on this mid-March afternoon. Neither of us speaks the other's native language, but that problem disappears when I hold up a reporter's notebook. Grinning with realization, the receptionist stretches a hand above her head, as high as she can reach—though nowhere close to 7'6"—and motions to the open door marked PRESIDENT.

Inside, sunlight streams through half-drawn shades. Instrumental music, heavy on the flute, plays from a laptop. The white walls are almost totally blank. Parked at his desk, the height of which he earnestly apologizes for, the most powerful figure in Chinese basketball if not one of the most recognizable people on the planet sips from a steaming mug. A decade removed from his final full season with the Rockets, Yao is only Younger than Dirk Nowitzki, who just walked away at 40; younger than Vince Carter, still going strong at Watching from afar, Yao is happy for his NBA contemporaries—"It's good to have them still [representing] us, the guys already gone"—but those jump hooking, shot blocking, Shaqbattling days are far behind him.

But I don't want it to be too good. I have to learn to be in my new position. And there's plenty to learn. I have to report to my superior officer. Roughly half of Yao's hours are spent in another building, on the opposite side of Beijing, chairing the privatized CBA, the country's professional league.

The rest of his time is spent in this office as president of the state-run basketball federation, which handles the Chinese national team programs, oversees grassroots youth efforts, operates the professional women's league the WCBA and represents China in FIBA, the sport's governing body. More complicated. Among NBA peers Yao stood out for his unmatched work habits, poring over data packets and conducting hourlong weightlifting sessions both before and after games.

Former Rockets teammate Shane Battier recalls once seeing Yao, less than a week after major foot surgery, putting up shots from a folding chair on a practice court.

So it should come as no surprise that he has continued grinding after nagging injuries forced his retirement in July Some of his early pursuits were straight out of the ex-athlete handbook: He opened Yao Family Wines in Napa, invested private equity money through Yao Capital and directed charitable initiatives for the Yao Ming Foundation.

He founded an athlete marketing agency, collaborated on a series of public info campaigns that spurred a Chinese ban on commercial elephant ivory sales and filmed an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls. Brave enough to rappel down a rocky cliff-side, Yao declined a bite of roasted maggots.

Granted, these were extracurriculars compared to his actual career transition. He served as owner for eight seasons, bringing an NBA-minded perspective to the team's basketball operations while occasionally offering tips to Sharks big men on their low-post moves. But now, to borrow a phrase from his gamer-geek side, Yao has advanced to the boss stage. As his nation's first NBA player he made basketball relevant in China; now he needs to make Chinese basketball relevant across the world.

Years ago, his arrival in Houston was thought to signal an opening of the floodgates, with scores of Chinese talents sure to follow his path. This bothers Yao. We need a new star to rise up. Then I can sit behind desk. This is my goal. Before the winemaking and the maggots and all of that, Yao went back to school.

Fulfilling a promise he made to his parents before signing with the Sharks at 17, he enrolled at Shanghai's renowned Jiao Tong University shortly after leaving the NBA. Given his celebrity, those who knew Yao expected him to hire professors for private lessons or to take online courses. But as he explained to Silver, "I want the classroom experience. I want to be a student. And so he raised his hand in lectures. Compared notes in study hall.

Packed his lunch each morning and drove an hour to campus. He considered bunking in a dorm, "to try something I never had," but balked because he didn't want to be away from Ye Li and Amy. It took seven school years of work, including a mind-bending advanced mathematics course he had to repeat, but Yao proudly delivered the commencement address to 3, fellow graduates in July , wearing perhaps the largest cap-and-gown set in collegiate history.

His major, economics, continues to prove useful as Chinese society—and, by extension, the CBA—opens to free-market forces.