Currently: Yao

My mom bought me Yao Ming's biography about 5-6 years ago and I haven't picked it up since she handed it to me as a present.  I figured now would be a great time to read it so I have something to blog about.  I read the first 171 pages for this weeks reading log and I hope to continue reading and finishing the book.

Yao Ming grew up in China as most people know with his basketball parents.  His dad played for the China national team for awhile and his mom played ball in college.  This is where Yao Ming not only gets his skills, but his ridiculous height.  He was ALWAYS taller than the kids around him.  In fifth grade, he was already six feet tall!!! I'm six foot one now but back in fifth grade I was only about five foot two maybe.  Yao started playing basketball when he was around the age of five when his parents took him to a recreation league fo youngsters.  At first, since he was growing so fast, he didn't have much balance and was slower than the shorter players.  He ended up loving the game and wanted to improve so his parents worked with him.  He became a dominating figure by the time he arrived in high school and started playing for China's national team when he was seventeen!!! When Yao got drafted into the NBA, he was an instant superstar.  Everyone around the league wanted to see how good this 7'6'' Chinese was and what he could do for his new team the Houston Rockets.  Yao qutoes in the biography that we was extremely nervous about coming into the United States and learning the culture let alone the up-tempo, more physical game play of the NBA.  Yao ended up being an All-Star every year he played in the league and almost won a NBA Finals with the Rockets.  Yet, Yao was prone to injuries; he suffered many knee, feet, and other lower body injuries that kept him out for seasons at a time.  This is not in the book, but Yao eventually had to retire because he had too many injuries and didn't want to risk a more serious injury.  Yao left his own great legacy in the NBA and is a future Hall-of-Famer.  Basketball fans and the NBA will never forget the kind, gentle, dominanting Yao Ming.