Illustration: Liu Rui
When the lanky Shanghainese first landed in Houston in 2002, few expected him to amount to much. But while it's remarkable enough that in his nine seasons of playing in the NBA, Yao Ming averaged 19 points, 9.2 rebounds per game, yet his contribution to basketball and the NBA cannot be told by these stats, as Yao globalized the sport more than anyone in history.
The news came out over the weekend that the 7-foot-6 (226 cm) player is to retire soon due to recurrent injuries, which have already cost him the past two seasons. Yao's injury was a typical result of over-playing. Since the 2004 Athens Games, the "Moving Great Wall" found constantly himself flying over the Pacific Ocean to reunite with his Chinese teammates for glories in the Asian Championships, the Olympics, and other events. He also endured at least four surgeries.
There're claims from both the Rockets and the General Administration of Sports of China, about the other's irresponsible role in playing Yao too much. Yao himself tried to downplay the spat a number of times.
At 30, Yao could probably still play a reduced role in the NBA, but decided on retirement as his best option for future career development. And his legacy cannot be easily measured.
Yao Ming's humble image and witty quips not only made his compatriots proud, but also glued Chinese kids to the game. There are, according to the NBA's estimate, 300 millions of Chinese playing basketball. And most of these 300 million grew up watching Yao Ming play in Shanghai and then Houston and drew inspiration from him.
The game will not only make the next generation of Chinese more athletic and healthy, but more team-oriented through competition on the court.
But for the moment, this vast player base isn't being fully tapped, as there's a great divide between grass-roots and professional players.
The CBA, the country's basketball association, doesn't seem interested in organizing non-professional leagues in schools. In recent years, sports brands have assumed this role, because for them, schools are excellent opportunities to market their brands and products. Chinese basketball could further unleash its potential if the work was done to build grass-roots leagues.
The professional league, the CBA, has its own faults too. After 17 years of operation since its establishment in 1995, basketball players in the country still cannot be traded. This correlates with China's decades-old sports school system, in which a player, like Yao, is found, trained and developed in a sports school and then supplied to a local club.
Of course no Chinese club wants to lose a player of Yao's stature, but an average bench player also finds it very hard to move due to a lack of regulation on players' trading. The shifting of players every season is mainly done behind the closed doors between local sports bureaus and clubs, with too much guanxi (connections) involved. The result? There have been only three champion teams in the past 16 seasons and the same familiar faces every year in the CBA All-Star Game.
Yao may not be as fortunate as Mengke Bateer and Sun Yue, who received their NBA championship rings and are both still playing. Yet his fortune allowed him to do something his national teammates have never dreamed of.
In 2009, Yao purchased the Shanghai Sharks, his former team in the Chinese top league. The team is reportedly costing Yao 20 million yuan ($3.09 million)a season, but the new management he brought to the Sharks is strikingly positive and could herald change in the CBA if more investors come in.
On 20th this month, Yao will return to his hometown to announce his future plans. His decision of retirement will become yet another lesson to the many Chinese kids who look up to him: When things go wrong, we move on. It's his character, as well as his sporting skills, that have made Yao the greatest player in the history of sport in China so far.
The author is editor of China Sports Review. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn