YAO MING is about to become the first and only player from China to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.

    Yao Ming wasn’t actually the first Chinese player in the NBA — his eternal rival Wang Zhizhi beat him by more than a year. But, with all due respect to Wang, it was Yao who brought China to the NBA and the NBA to China.

    The son of two basketball players, Yao was the first pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. He found his feet in shockingly quick order in Houston, despite language issues, and a massive leap in quality of competition from what he’d faced in China.

    Yao famously made eight All-Star teams as the Rockets leveraged the online voting power of Chinese fans. He often rubbed off on his Houston teammates, who got marketing bumps as the Rockets became China’s favorite team.

    For a sport that always had designs on going global, Yao was the best ambassador possible: gentle, smart, funny, amiable, and really damn good. He averaged better than 20 points per game three times in his NBA career, during an era when big men were slowly being de-emphasized due to the rise of the three-pointer and the onset of the golden era of point guards.

    It’s hard to separate Yao’s impact on China’s basketball love affair from the broader Chinese economic boom. Would Chinese shoe brands Li Ning, PEAK, or ANTA be sponsoring mid-tier NBA players if not for Yao?

    David Stern deserves heaps of credit for working tirelessly to globalize the game of basketball. But without Yao, the NBA might have never captured the hearts of the most populated country in the world. For every preseason game played in Shanghai, for every Chinese businessperson who buys a minority stake in an NBA team, for every Kobe Bryant tour of China, for every roleplayer hawking Li Nings, it is impossible not to think of Yao’s effect on the game.

    “You have to understand, before him, basketball wasn’t popular in China. I had made trips there before he came into the league,” Tracy McGrady, Yao’s former Rockets teammate, told U.S. media Tuesday.

    “Now, there’s over 300 million people in China playing because of Yao Ming. I saw it. I felt it. That is his legacy. He introduced the country to Tracy McGrady.

    “Yao is truly a great and humble person. You just can’t recognize his accomplishments on the court without seeing his kindness and humbleness off it. I am proud to call Yao my friend,” said McGrady.

    Jeff Van Gundy, former Rockets coach, was also full of praise while taking about Yao’s induction Wednesday.

    “In his relentless approach to work and preparation, Yao was unlike anyone I had ever coached.

    “It didn’t matter whether he had played great or poorly, whether we had won or lost: His preparation never changed. I can see him in the film room with my former assistant, Tom Thibodeau, in the early mornings on a practice day.

    “Among the hardest-working players I’ve ever been associated, Yao stands at the very top of the list,” Van Gundy said.

    “Welcome into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Yao. You earned it.”

    (SD-Agencies)