YAO MING RETIRES FROM NBA BASKETBALL

Rockets’ Yao Ming is reportedly retiring from NBA

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/09/SPUQ1K8BH6.DTL

….An eight-time All-Star selection, Yao averaged 19 points and 9.2 rebounds in his eight seasons, but his impact on the league goes far beyond the numbers.

Yao single-handedly expanded the NBA’s reach throughout Asia, spiking merchandise sales and TV ratings for games after the Rockets made him the top overall pick in the 2002 draft.

Marc Ganis, president of the SportsCorp consultancy, said Yao’s worldwide impact on the league will probably never be duplicated.

“There’s never been anything like him before,” Ganis said, “and I doubt we’ll ever see anything like him again.”

Rockets center Yao Ming retires from NBA | NBA Basketball | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/7644941.html

Yao, who became the face of China’s new outreach to the West and the NBA’s explosive growth in China, reversed his previous intention to try one more comeback, concerned that further stress injuries would hamper him long after his playing career.

Yao’s first exposure to the NBA was a broadcast of the 1994 Finals between the Rockets and New York Knicks. Eight seasons later, the Rockets made him the first pick of the 2002 draft.

By the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, begun with Yao carrying his nation’s flag as he had in Athens for the Opening Ceremony, Yao’s impact as a beloved national hero was clear.

As Yao’s popularity in China soared, so did the NBA’s success in China, making it the second-most prolific market for the NBA after the United States. NBA commissioner David Stern said three to five percent of NBA revenue comes from China.

“Yao built the bridge for all of us,” Kobe Bryant said after the Olympics began with Yao hitting a 3-pointer before the United States rolled past an overmatched Chinese National Team.

“Yao is a key cultural milepost in our development,” Stern said in Beijing during last October’s China Games. “He gave the Chinese fans a huge reason to follow the NBA and become even more familiar with it and feel so good about themselves to have produced such a great player and person. Secondarily, it gave Americans a way to follow China through a different lens. It’s been wonderful.”

Solomon: Yao Ming a pioneer, ambassador of first order | Jerome Solomon on Sports | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/solomon/7645717.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fsports+%28HoustonChronicle.com+–+Sports%29

YouTube – Funny interview with Yao Ming on 8/24/2010 and update on his condition.‏

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01CMRGnZnaM&feature=related

Following Tuesday’s workout, Yao Ming said his foot is healed and he’ll be ready for the season.

An reporter felt during the interview, and Yao Ming “Helped” him out with his sense of humor.

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TIME Magazine: Asian Heroes – Yao Ming

http://www.time.com/time/asia/2003/heroes/yao_ming.html

Now comes Yao Ming—and all the ill-conceived clichés about those strange Chinese have been shattered like a glass backboard after a monstrous slam dunk. There is no living Chinese in the world today who is as famous as the lantern-jawed National Basketball Association rookie sensation. Striding in at a lanky 2.26 meters—who knew a Chinese could grow so tall?—Yao has single-handedly transformed his countrymen from nameless, faceless millions into mighty men who can jam with the very best. For Americans, Yao’s affable demeanor and witty repartee are a welcome antidote to the antics of the NBA’s bad boys. And for the Chinese, who are chronically obsessed with their overseas reputation, Yao’s maturation from a meek athletic machine to a charismatic basketball personality is nothing less than proof that China finally measures up. Ratings for NBA games broadcast on Chinese TV have never been higher than this year as the nation keeps track of its new favorite team, Yao’s Houston Rockets. Once worried that Yao would flub his NBA debut, local newspapers kept coverage of him to a minimum in the beginning of the season lest fans be disappointed; but now Chinese are delighted that their guy has established himself so dominantly. “I am proud that Yao is very talented and can show his skills in the NBA,” says Gu Limin, a 24-year-old Shanghai shipping agent and avowed hoops fan. “And I am even more proud that Yao is showing that we Chinese are good, polite people.”