Photo: Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What impresses me most about Yao Ming isn't the 229 centimeters — it's what he did with the platform that height gave him. He carried the expectations of an entire country into the NBA and handled nine seasons in Houston with humor, grace, and a work ethic that silenced skeptics. Then, instead of coasting, he went back to school for economics and management and took on the unglamorous work of running basketball institutions. Most superstars retire into nostalgia; Yao retired into responsibility. To me he remains the gold standard for how an athlete converts fame into lasting influence, bridging two basketball cultures that badly needed a translator.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Yao Ming
- Name (Japanese)
- 姚明
- Born
- September 12, 1980 (age 45)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Monkey
- Origin
- Shanghai, People's Republic of China
- Height
- 229 cm
- Occupation
- basketball player / autobiographer / entrepreneur
2. Background
- High school
- Shanghai No. 2 High School
- University
- Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Awards & achievements
- honorary doctor of the University of Hong Kong
- 2018 Pioneer of Reform
- FIBA Hall of Fame
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/yao/
- Xhttps://x.com/yaoming
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A7%9A%E6%98%8E
Frequently asked questions
When was Yao Ming born?
Born September 12, 1980 (age 45).
Where is Yao Ming from?
Yao Ming is from Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
What does Yao Ming do?
Yao Ming works as basketball player, autobiographer, entrepreneur.
How tall is Yao Ming?
Yao Ming is 229 cm.
Basketball player — see all → · Autobiographer — see all → · More people from People's Republic of China →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.