Biography

A still shot picture of him laughing, captured from a post-game press conference in May 2009, resulted in a famous Internet meme.

His father, Yao Zhiyuan, is 6' 7"; his mother, Fengdi Fang, is 6' 3" and was captain of the Chinese national women's basketball team.

In Chinese culture, the surname is the first name and the given name is the second. Therefore, Yao has his last name on his jersey, like every other player in the NBA. However, he is addressed as Yao or Yao Ming, never just Ming.

According to the Houston Rockets strength and conditioning coach, Anthony Falsone, he is still growing. Falsone says Yao was 7' 5" tall without shoes on (7' 6 1/2" with shoes) in October of 2002, but that by September of 2004, he had grown to 7' 5 3/4" in height barefoot, and to 7' 7 1/4" in height with shoes on.

According to a May 2003 draft of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed written by James Gunn, Scooby-Doo was originally going to transform into Yao Ming before Gunn rewrote it to have Scooby-Doo turn into the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes.

Putting our ecosystem in great peril is certainly not a part of Chinese culture that I know.

When I was young, we were taught not to dunk. We were taught not to stand out from the rest of the team. It's different now.

Endangered species are our friends.

Fortune cookies are a good idea. If the message is positive, it can make your day a little better.

A good leader must be fair.