Yao Ming's Journey Comes To An End
The NBA is full of “what could have been” stories. Everything from Elgin Baylor’s military obligations to the death of Len Bias has had tremendous reverberations throughout their eras and, perhaps, the entire history of the NBA. Today, another such chapter has closed as Yao Ming, the Chinese leviathan that was supposed to carry the torch of Shaq, Kareem and Wilt before him, retired due to a litany of foot and ankle injuries that essentially destroyed his basketball body and career.
While this turn of events wasn’t exactly a shocking development (he’d averaged just 48.4 games per season over the last five years, including only 5 games last year), one can not help but speculate on this day what might have been had Yao had the full use of his body beyond the two 82-game seasons that kicked off his career. After averaging 22.3 ppg and 10.2 rpg in 57 games in ’05-’06, many thought Yao had finally turned a corner in his career and had become the dominant big man everyone had expected he’d be when he was drafted first overall in 2002. Yao’s numbers had finally elevated him into the NBA elite and had many pegging him for MVP consideration the following season - one most assumed he’d be fully healthy for. ’05-’06 turned out to be the beginning of the end for Yao, though. While he’d been perfectly healthy in his first three NBA seasons, it turned out that his massive 7-foot-6, 310 lbs frame was simply too heavy a load to carry over consecutive NBA campaigns and summer obligations in China, and he never would up able to stay on the court long enough to live up to his promise or potential as a basketball superstar.
The NBA is full of “what could have been” stories. Everything from Elgin Baylor’s military obligations to the death of Len Bias has had tremendous reverberations throughout their eras and, perhaps, the entire history of the NBA. Today, another such chapter has closed as Yao Ming, the Chinese leviathan that was supposed to carry the torch of Shaq, Kareem and Wilt before him, retired due to a litany of foot and ankle injuries that essentially destroyed his basketball body and career.
While this turn of events wasn’t exactly a shocking development (he’d averaged just 48.4 games per season over the last five years, including only 5 games last year), one can not help but speculate on this day what might have been had Yao had the full use of his body beyond the two 82-game seasons that kicked off his career. After averaging 22.3 ppg and 10.2 rpg in 57 games in ’05-’06, many thought Yao had finally turned a corner in his career and had become the dominant big man everyone had expected he’d be when he was drafted first overall in 2002. Yao’s numbers had finally elevated him into the NBA elite and had many pegging him for MVP consideration the following season - one most assumed he’d be fully healthy for. ’05-’06 turned out to be the beginning of the end for Yao, though. While he’d been perfectly healthy in his first three NBA seasons, it turned out that his massive 7-foot-6, 310 lbs frame was simply too heavy a load to carry over consecutive NBA campaigns and summer obligations in China, and he never would up able to stay on the court long enough to live up to his promise or potential as a basketball superstar.
