Yao Ming was voted for Basketball Hall of Fame on Monday. And according to a report, Yao is much more than his stats in basketball.
"He has a lot of fans back in China," said Ray Xia, who moved to the United States from China 10 years ago. "He's a successful business man, and a lot of people in China and here regard him as an emperor," said by Xia.
Yao has spent a total of nine seasons in Houston after being the Rocket's No. 1 overall pick in the year 2001 NBA draft. Yao was said to be the one who created a bridge between China and NBA. In fact, Rockets are China's most popular NBA team and when Yao plays, attendance of Chinese audience increases in his first season.
"I don't think people cared about the Rockets before he came here. After he became an NBA player we started covering the games and more people went. The Asian community embraced the Rockets and supported Yao," said by Wea Lee, a publisher of Southern Chinese Daily News.
"Yao made Houston famous around the world. I think it gradually happened, people remember him for basketball but he was so much more," Lee said.
"His outreach to Asian people was so impactful.He had endorsements nationally, locally and internationally. He was a very humble person and people related to that. They liked that. It didn't matter what was going on, Yao Ming was respectful and people gravitated to that," said Nine-Min Cheng, a former director of a community outreach program that worked with the Rockets.
"I'm not a basketball fan," Xia said. "But I know who Yao Ming is and what he meant to so many people."
