BEIJING: Basketball Hall of Famer, business magnate, cultural ambassador – no Chinese athlete carries a more potent legacy than Yao Ming, whose towering 2 . 29m stormed into the NBA 20 years ago.
The centre was drafted by the Houston Rockets on Jun 26, 2002, kickstarting a glittering career that won him a succession of private accolades and transformed the Shanghai-born Yao into a household name in both China as well as the United States.
A languid but deceptively agile player, Yao’s gentle personality and wry humour off the court cemented him as a fan favorite and boosted the NBA’s popularity in the home nation.
Since his introduction, no Chinese participant has come close to matching his achievements, as well as the prospect appears even less likely as the little league has become mired within simmering tensions in between Beijing and Wa.
In 2002, Yao was a face of an increasingly self-confident and open China, one whose economic rise was being matched by global wearing prowess.
“He brought the NBA into China, but he also got China into the NBA, ” said lover Gao Dabao, thirty, outside a golf ball court in Beijing.
“It was the time when the NBA had its biggest influence on Cina, and we all used to watch it on TV, ” he additional.
The boy of two former basketball pros, Yao cut his the teeth with Shanghai Sharks before joining the Rockets as their first pick in the 2002 NBA draft.
He averaged nineteen points and nine rebounds per online game over nearly ten years with the Texas-based group who were dubbed the “Ming Dynasty”.
Yao played within eight All-Star Games and made the All-NBA Teams on five occasions, but injuries forced your pet to retire this year at the age of 30.
“Yao Ming is the only Chinese participant to have become a real NBA star, inch said Chinese basketball writer Wang Meng.
“He increased into one of the best players in that Rockets group, which is something most Chinese player has managed to do, ” he told AFP.
Yao has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Popularity in 2016 alongside Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson.
Yao now serves as chairman of the Chinese language Basketball Association.
Despite his wealth, he keeps a comparatively low profile, dabbling in winemaking, preservation and charity work.
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