“People forget how good he was”: NBA legend Yao Ming – More than just a pioneer

SPOX looks back on his 44th birthday and explains why this does not do the Chinese giant justice.

‘Tell Yao Ming: ‘Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-so!’ were the first words Shaquille O’Neal uttered to Yao Ming in an interview on FOX Sports Net in January 2003, accompanied by kung-fu-like gestures. Many described this action as racist, and Shaq himself rowed back a little later and apologised publicly.

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Yao Ming? ‘No place at all in the Hall of Fame’

Of course, Yao has a completely different CV than O’Neal or Iverson. He has no MVP awards, no titles, no scoring crowns and has never reached the conference finals. His career points (9,247 points in 486 games) are extremely low for a Hall-of-Famer. Several injuries forced him to play a career that was far too short (9 seasons).

Accordingly, his induction was harshly criticised in many quarters when the Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 2016 class. Former player and current ESPN pundit Jalen Rose, for example, said that Yao ‘has no business being in the Hall of Fame’, echoing the sentiments of many others.

Everyone is allowed to have opinions – but this statement can only be made by someone who has not understood the purpose of the BASKETBALL (not NBA) Hall of Fame. Because there can be no doubt about Yao’s influence on the game.

Kobe Bryant: ‘It all started with Yao Ming’

Yao played a bigger part in the globalisation of the game than anyone else, perhaps excluding David Stern and Michael Jordan. The NBA had been trying to establish itself in China for decades, but had never really succeeded – until Yao came along.

‘Back then, people thought we were only good as bookworms and had no chance in sports,’ recalled Brian Yang, a Chinese-American actor and producer (of the documentary “Linsanity”, among others). ‘So when someone like Yao, who looked like us, became a star in the NBA, we were all mesmerised. Even my mum, who wasn’t really interested in basketball, really wanted to watch Rockets games.’

The proof: Rockets games that were shown in China had an average of 200 million viewers from China alone – higher than the last Super Bowl, for example. Although no other Chinese became NBA stars after Yao, the hype there has never died down , and Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong tweet did little to change that: no sport is written about more on social media there than the NBA.

The most popular player in China has been Kobe Bryant for years – and the Black Mamba already said in 2011: ‘When it comes to who opened the doors here, on the one hand for the professionals, but also for the kids who dream of an NBA future or are generally interested in the league – it all started with Yao.’

Yao Ming: ‘A special person’

Ming was a perfect ambassador for the sport because, despite all the hype, he remained incredibly down-to-earth and never took himself too seriously – for example, he appeared in adverts in which he made fun of his own communication problems in the States. Or about the prejudices.

He’s a special person in the history of the NBA. He opened up the sport to China and presented himself with dignity and grace every day, even though many people initially wanted to see him fail. He gradually changed that with his personality and also his game

Jeff Van Gundy

Said his former coach Jeff Van Gundy.

Yao Ming: Forgot about Yao?

Van Gundy is perhaps Yao’s biggest advocate as a Hall of Famer to this day, even if it’s ‘only’ about his NBA career. Of course, he also knows the criticisms: Only nine years in the NBA (one of which he missed completely due to injury), only the first two years with 82 games played, little team success – but he doesn’t care.

People forget how good he was. I guarantee none of his critics saw him the way I did as a coach. He was the second-best centre in the league after Shaq for years. And he regularly made the next best big man, Dwight Howard, look like a schoolboy.

Jeff Van Gundy

In fact: Between 2003 and 2007, there were regular phases in which Yao even looked like the best centre in the league, despite Shaq and Tim Duncan, even though the latter was officially a ‘power forward’. He repeatedly led the centres in the Player Efficiency Rating and even finished with the ninth-best centre PER in history.

Yao Ming: It wasn’t meant to be

He protected the ring, had a surprisingly good touch for his gigantic stature and had a number of skills that people his size shouldn’t have. If his body hadn’t caused so many problems, which is probably impossible with such a figure, nobody would probably doubt his Hall of Fame suitability today.

One comparison you could use is Bill Walton: the centre legend never managed a full season, but won titles in his ‘fittest’ campaigns in 1977 and 1986. In Yao’s best years, co-star Tracy McGrady was the one who was injured, and it was the same the other way round. It wasn’t meant to be, but that didn’t make Yao or T-Mac bad players.

About Yao Ming: Shaq speaks Mandarin

And as I said: Yao still has one or two trump cards. Perhaps the most telling illustration of his influence occurred before the press conference introducing this year’s Hall-of-Fame class: Shaq greeted Yao with reasonably flawless Mandarin and called him a ‘brother.’

Yao and Shaq have come a long way since they first met. No ‘Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-so!’, just mutual respect. And there have perhaps never been two more different rivals in the league than Shaq and Yao.

For where Shaq never missed an opportunity to point out his own excellence, Yao always remained incredibly modest, despite having more global appeal than arguably anyone else in his day. ‘I am just one of 1.3 billion Chinese’, Yao once said. And he meant it.

NBA legend Yao Ming: career statistics