THE backdrop to Yao Ming’s retirement media conference had given the game away before the former Houston Rockets’ center had even entered the grandiose banqueting room at a plush Pudong hotel yesterday.

    Yao, considered one of the best centers in the game who was not able to fulfill his potential as injuries hampered him at the tail-end of his NBA career, confirmed the worst-kept secret in sport that he was retiring from basketball immediately.

    The 30-year-old had already indicated he would not be returning to the Rockets and the world’s media had to wait until yesterday before he confirmed it himself.

    The backdrop yesterday, however, offered a hint of what was to come with the Chinese characters “ming xie” prominently displayed across it — the phrase is a pun on Yao’s first name which when combined is a formal way of expressing “thank you.”

    One of Asia’s best-known athletes, his retirement conference was attended by more than 200 media personnel, his wife Ye Li and their daughter Amy, NBA China officials and the Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey. China’s state broadcaster CCTV carried it live.

    Security was tight with five guards, almost as tall but considerably wider than the NBA player, menacingly standing post at an escalator peering at accreditation passes before people had to pass through airport style screening.

    After the statement, the affable Yao posed for photographs with his family, friends, coaches and NBA officials, many of whom he thanked personally before opening up to a fiercely competitive Q&A session with local journalists leaping to their feet to be given the microphone.

    One question from a Dutch journalist, however, drew more than its fair share of laughs, when the bold European asked him if he would consider coaching the Dutch national team.

    “Coaching is not an easy job to do, its not about one’s own success, it’s about the team success. I already own the Shanghai Sharks team and that is keeping me very busy.

    “But good luck to your team,” he added with a grin.

    What’s next for Chinese basketball?

    THE head coach of China’s national basketball team was exasperated, and for good reason. “What’s amazing is that in a country of 1.3 billion,” he recently told the New York Times, “I can’t find a point guard.”

    This is one of the tougher realizations in a fascinating New York Times piece by Dan Levin. In it, Levin references the inefficient Chinese system that plucks taller-than-average youths from their regular schools at a young age, demanding that the chosen children work at a “sports school” that is heavy on basketball drills but short on promises. Just because you’re tall, it doesn’t mean you’re any good; and yet that doesn’t stop the plucking.

    And for a national team that is constantly done in by the failings of its backcourt, the recognition process still has a long way to go. Because someone who will eventually end up the same height as a typical point guard, from any country, won’t be (literally) head and shoulders above his classmates at an early age. As Levin points out, there’s no way of determining the Chinese version of Allen Iverson or Derrick Rose simply by looking at their height at age 10.

    On top of that, the same rigid structure that helped Yao Ming become the fundamental monster that he became could have also hastened his demise.

    With Yao’s retirement, and Yi Jianlian’s washout as an NBA player, the cupboard is looking pretty bare. Bad news for a basketball-crazy country that, as Bob Donewald Jr. (the country’s American-born national coach) noted, is severely lacking in both star-power, or even on-court competence.(SD-Agencies)

    (SD-Agencies)

    Yao Ming factbox

    * Born Sept. 12, 1980 in Shanghai, China.

    * An only child of two former professional basketball players, Yao started playing at age nine.

    * Married Ye Li, a former basketball player with the Chinese national team, in 2007.

    * The couple celebrated the birth of their first child, a daughter named Amy, in May 2010.

    * He routinely tops Forbes’ list of China’s most valuable celebrities.

    * Co-wrote an autobiography titled: “Yao: A Life in Two Worlds” in 2004 revealing a life lived between two cultures.

    * He has been credited with the NBA’s popularity boost in China and throughout Asia, spiking merchandise sales and TV ratings.

    * He was selected with the first overall pick by the Houston Rockets in the 2002 NBA Draft.

    * Made his NBA debut Oct. 30, 2002, recording two rebounds, two turnovers and no points in 11 minutes of playing time.

    * Scored his first NBA point during his second game, ending with two points in 13 minutes against the Denver Nuggets.

    * He finished second in NBA Rookie of the Year voting after averaging 13.5 points and 8.2 rebounds in 82 games during the 2002-03 season.

    * He set career-highs for points (41) and assists (seven) during a February 2004 game versus Atlanta Hawks.

    * He was the NBA’s tallest player at time of his retirement and responsible for soaring Chinese interest in the game.

    * Yao played 57 of a possible 82 games in the 2005-06 season because of an infection in his left big toe and a broken left foot suffered late that same season.

    * Limited to 48 games and 55 games over the following two seasons, Yao played 77 games in 2008-09 but suffered a hairline fracture in his foot during the Western Conference semi-finals that required surgery.

    * His final appearance for the Rockets came Nov. 10 when he injured his ankle in Houston’s loss to the Washington Wizards, his fifth game of the 2010-11 NBA season.

    * Yao, eight times an NBA All-Star selection, averaged 19.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.6 assists in 486 career NBA games.

    * He carried the Chinese flag during the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympics.

    * Won three gold medals and three Most Valuable Player awards with China at the FIBA Asian Championship (2001, 2003 and 2005).

    (SD-Agencies)