Rumors

Howard is one of 19 players in NBA history with five consecutive first-team All-NBA nods. The only other centers on that list are Shaq and George Mikan. The only other 21st-century players are LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, O'Neal, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant -- who, with the exception of the young Doncic, are acknowledged as top-25 players in NBA history. Critics would contend that Howard so thoroughly dominated the All-NBA voting because of a lesser caliber of competition in that era. This idea has some merit: Though the center landscape wasn't quite as barren during Howard's reign as it would be half a decade later -- the All-NBA centers in 2015-16 were DeAndre Jordan, DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Drummond -- the second- and third-team All-NBA centers behind Howard were Amar'e Stoudemire (three times), Yao Ming (twice), Suns-era Shaq, Andrew Bogut, Al Horford, Andrew Bynum and Tyson Chandler. There are good players on that list, but few Hall of Famers.

ESPN

Kyle Kuzma: “What’s your favorite U.S. city?” Yao Ming: “My favorite? Philadelphia” Kyle Kuzma: “Why?” Yao Ming: “Uh... cheesesteak. And I like museums.” Kyle Kuzma: “Oh, you like museums?” Yao Ming: “Yeah. Chicago’s got good museums too, but Philly definitely has a great museum. Good museum.”

YouTube

Jack Sikma: The interesting situation with Yao was—he was deaf in one ear. Oh yeah, pretty much deaf in one ear. So when you're talking to him, you'd have to turn your way. There was one time during the flow of the game, I was trying to yell something to him. And Yao goes like this [gestures]. So I’m saying, ‘You heard me? Or did you not hear me? Because you're going like this…’ He didn’t hear. But yeah, he was unique." The interesting situation with Yao was—he was deaf in one ear. Oh yeah, pretty much deaf in one ear. So when you're talking to him, you'd have to turn your way. There was one time during the flow of the game, I was trying to yell something to him. And Yao goes like this [gestures]. So I’m saying, ‘You heard me? Or did you not hear me? Because you're going like this…’ He didn’t hear. But yeah, he was unique."

YouTube

Speaking on the latest episode of the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Mobley reflected on his time with Yao in Houston and expressed that the 7-foot-6 center was more than just a dominant post scorer. “What people don’t understand about Yao. He could pass the ball, like Joker, he could've done that,” Mobley said. “It’s just the offense didn’t. Say we would’ve had Rick Adelman, for a fact, you would’ve seen more of Yao Ming. Like that Chris Webber, that Vlade Divac, Brad Miller type of passing. He had all of it.”

Clutch Points

"T-Mac, I'm telling you dog, listen — T-Mac was another level," Pierce said on Paul George's podcast. As terrific as McGrady was, he couldn't do it alone. In Orlando, the best players he played with were an oft-injured Grant Hill and a young Mike Miller. In Houston, he had the pleasure of playing with Chinese phenom Yao Ming. However, the 7'6" behemoth also dealt with a litany of injuries and was already out of the NBA after just eight seasons. "He needed that one other superstar. If you had to put T-Mac with KG, if you had to put T-Mac with Shaq, you know, yeah," Paul stressed. "People be like, 'Oh he played with Yao.' Yao was kind of hurt. He was in and out. And like, you put T-Mac with LeBron, man come on."

Yahoo! Sports

Jorge Sierra: Russell Westbrook passed James Worthy in playoff scoring for No. 29 all-time. He also tied Yao Ming in blocks.

bsky.app

Former NBA star Derrick Rose said he would play for the Yao Foundation in a charity game in mainland China this August while on a trip to Hong Kong on Wednesday. Rose was in the city for a basketball clinic session with GOAT Lab – an elite basketball training centre for all age ranges – in Tsim Sha Tsui, after visiting Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Shanghai, where he met former Houston Rocket centre Yao Ming.

SCMP

StatMuse: Jalen Green vs Atlanta: 32 PTS 11 REB 2 STL Ties Yao Ming for the eighth-most 30 PT games in franchise history. pic.x.com/KanogMwnX7

Twitter

Kevin Garnett: So listen, though—we had a bounty out on Yao Ming. First cat to dunk on Yao? A million dollars. So everybody was trying—man, we all said, "First C, we all put our hand there." Listen, I think it was Dice, myself, and like six other people that had the bet. You know what I'm saying? Like, if we catch him—boom, a million. Cool. But man, Yao Ming wasn't playing that []. Boy, Yao Ming was laying people out! You hear me? Trying to lay your ass out. He knew what was up—he felt it, like, "Yeah, y'all trying to [] on me out here." Yeah, he piled his ass out.

YouTube

Jorge Sierra: Donovan Mitchell moved ahead of Derrick Rose in scoring last night. He's No. 252 all-time now. Also: Jerami Grant passed Yao Ming, Marcus Camby and DJ Augustin.

Twitter

The current Cavs coach first broke into the league in 2007 as a player development assistant on Adelman’s bench for the Houston Rockets, featuring an offense led by Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. Adelman, who coached the Chris Webber Sacramento Kings as well, designed his offense around a distribution hub at the five, a star three-level playmaker at the wing and various skilled players surrounding them. Now, some of Cleveland’s plays mirror what Adelman ran in Houston. “I just always believed in cutting from the time I was with Rick Adelman in Houston,” Atkinson said. “He always preached cutting and how cutting opened up space.”

New York Times

Speaking in Beijing during a panel discussion on sports in the context of US-China relations, Yao Ming was asked about politics in reference to a 2019 incident when then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for the anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Yao, a former Rockets centre, said “there’s no way we can hide” from politics. But “as people who were in this industry, we should understand better what is ‘in’ the game, and what is ‘out’ and we will do our best and try to avoid [politics]”, Yao said.

SCMP

Yao Ming has quit as president of the Chinese Basketball Association, local media reported on Wednesday. The news quickly went viral in mainland China, becoming the No 1 trending topic on social media platform Weibo, while #yaomingresigns had 16.35 million views within 30 minutes of it being made public.

SCMP

Yao, who was elected to a second term as president in December 2022, previously resigned as CBA chairman in May last year, and rumours had been circulating for some time that he would cut ties with the governing body entirely sooner rather than later.

SCMP