Who is Yao Ming?

Yao Ming was a dominant center who played for the Houston Rockets in the 2000s.

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In 2002, a giant from China was drafted into the NBA.

He was selected with the very first pick by the Houston Rockets.

This player was Yao Ming.

I was a high school student during his rookie season and didn’t pay much attention to him. It was cool that he was Asian and all, but he was inconsistent.

In some games he recorded big double-doubles and then the next he would fail to hit double digits in any stat category.

I just didn’t think he was that great.

In addition, he was pitted as a rival to Shaquille O’Neal, who was on my then-favourite team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

However, that’s not to say that Yao didn’t have a good rookie campaign.