Yao Ming officially retired from basketball on Wednesday, holding a press conference in his hometown of Shanghai. Yao has anchored the Houston Rockets for (most of) the last nine seasons, but he's been even more important to the Chinese national team over a greater span. Yao led China to a solid performance in his nation's moment of sporting fame -- the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- and likely hastened the end of his career in the process.
Yao Ming Retirement Leaves Chinese Basketball Back Where It Was A Decade Ago: Without A Star
But China has failed to see immediate dividends from Yao's epic rise and sustained excellence. While Yi Jianlian did follow Yao to the NBA to great fanfare, the smaller forward hasn't been nearly as productive or awe-inspiring as his predecessor, and it's unlikely he'll sign any sort of massive contract as a free agent this offseason. Further rising stars are few and far between.
Dan Levin wrote about the gaping hole in Chinese basketball Yao leaves for Tuesday’s New York Times.
[H]is retirement is forcing many Chinese to acknowledge that their country has relied on Yao alone for victory and national pride, ignoring shortcomings in the state sports system that leave China facing a future bereft of N.B.A. and Olympic basketball glory.
“We can either choose to blame the gods and whine about our misfortune or we can step up to the plate and train the next generation of basketball talent,” Zhang Weiping, a basketball commentator and former national team member, wrote in an editorial last week.
Yao’s next offering to China may be years down the line, when children Yao inspired during his reign come of age and make the trek to the NBA. Unfortunately, that leaves enough space to kill any momentum Yao’s reign itself created.
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