Yoa Ming - The Basketball Player

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Yao Ming's TOTAL earnings in his 9-year NBA career must have exceeded US$ 270 Million. Yao Ming born on September 12, 1980, in Shanghai, China is a retired professional basketball player who spent his entire NBA career with the Houston Rockets. At 7-feet, 6-inches tall, he was the third-tallest player in NBA history, behind only Manute Bol and Gheorghe Muresan. Both of Yao Ming's parents were former professional basketball players in China, and he inherited their height and then some. By the time he was 13 years old, he was playing with the junior team of the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association. At the age of 17, he joined the senior team, and four years later, in the 2001-02 season, he led the team to their first-ever CBA title, averaging 32.4 points per game, 19.0 rebounds per game and 4.8 blocks per game during the regular season. Yao's initial exposure to the players of the NBA came during the 200 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Although China lost to the United States, 119-72, and Yao fouled out early in the second half, the "Great Wall" of Yao and fellow seven-footers Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer had certainly arrived on the radar of American scouts. Yao decided to enter the NBA Draft in 2002, and after negotiations with the CBA, it was agreed that they would allow Yao to play in the United States, so long as the Houston Rockets selected him with the No. 1 overall pick and that Yao agreed to continue to play for the Chinese National Team.