SHANGHAI – The NBA's version of the Ming Dynasty is done. After helping pro basketball gain a foothold in the world's most populous market, Chinese star Yao Ming has retired.

I watch basketball for different reasons than I did as a teenager, when Yao Ming was drafted in 2002. I watched individual games from a macro point of view.

Yao’s first exposure to the NBA was a broadcast of the 1994 Finals between the Rockets and New York Knicks. Eight seasons later, the Rockets made him the first pick of the 2002 draft.

The retirement of Yao Ming will be worse for the NBA in the long term than the current player strike. The NBA is betting heavily on China -- and Yao was a huge part of the gamble.

Mobley calls Ming the most selfless player Over his 11-year NBA career, "Cat" played alongside some of the all-time greats in Hakeem, Charles Barkley, and Scottie Pippen, but he found Yao uniquely ...

The Chinese Dragon turned into a lizard: drafting Yi Jianlian with the 6th Pick (2007) A year before drafting Joe Alexander, ...

BEIJING – Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is considering quitting basketball after next season if he doesn't fully recover from his lingering foot injury. In comments to Chinese state media ...

TOKYO (AP) — Yao Ming could be the man in the middle if the NBA and China are going to mend fences. Yao is a former Houston Rockets great and a basketball Hall of Famer.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Yao Ming looks like he could still tangle with Dwight Howard under the basket but the former National Basketball Association number one draft pick clearly has put his playing ...