Yao Ming
Yao Ming
Yao Mingis a Chinese retired professional basketball player who played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Associationand the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association. He was selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game eight times, and was named to the All-NBA Team five times. At the time of his final season, he was the tallest active player in the NBA, at 2.29 m. He is also the only player outside of the US...
NationalityChinese
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth12 September 1980
CityShanghai, China
CountryChina
Hometown is like my quilts. Sometimes when you are in sweet dreams, you don't feel it's comfortable.
There is a phrase in Chinese, 'Resolve is victory.'
Kobe's heart is as strong as his muscles.
If we buy ivory it makes all of us killers as well,
Be a journalist. I can't get away from you guys, then I just mingle with you guys.
Moving to the US was quite a transition for me, to say the least! There were, and still are so many new things to get used to: the language, food, culture, even the style of basketball is different here!
All of the Chinese people, the Asian people say, "Oh Yao Ming, you are all the Chinese, all of Asia's hopes." That's a lot of pressure. I'm just a basketball player.
The journalists are poking me all the time. It's impossible for me to stop even I want to.
To miss one year is a long time. I've never been in this situation before, and I'm getting as much information as I can about my foot, to see what's the best for me and best for the Rockets.
I'm just one of the 1.3 billion Chinese.
When I was young, we were taught not to dunk. We were taght not to stand out from the rest of the team. It's different now.
Westerners respect privacy, and they are very competitive in terms of work and personalities. My teammates in China and I can talk about everything. But with my Houston Rockets teammates, even though we're friends, we cannot ask each other about everything.
The Olympic Games is holy. Athletes from around the world, including myself, of course, dream to participate.
Others are improving very fast, and I'm not improving as fast, and that bothers me.