NBA ‘very well welcome in China’, Yao Ming says – and basketball legend gives Peng Shuai update
- Despite past turbulence in China for the NBA, the American league ‘is in the first class’, Yao says
- A long-time friend of Peng, he says he recently had dinner with the former tennis star, whose withdrawal from public view had sparked the WTA’s boycott of China
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and China may have encountered turbulence in their relations over the years but retired great Yao Ming said the league is still “first class” in his home country.
Yao, the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, soared to stardom in the United States as the eight-time All-Star for the Houston Rockets, an affable, 7ft 6in NBA big man who dominated the league before retiring in 2011.
Yao propelled the league’s popularity in his home country but relations between China and the NBA have not always been smooth.
Chinese broadcasters stopped airing Rockets games in 2019 after general manager Daryl Morey posted a message in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong and, earlier this year, former NBA player Dwight Howard appeared in a promotional video in which he referred to Taiwan as a country, prompting a backlash.
“I have to say, the NBA is in the first class … [because] you know the players being exposed in China for so long,” Yao said, when asked about the past issues between China and the NBA.
