Yao Ming is headed to the Hall of Fame.
Maybe that finally gave him enough confidence to address an issue that has plagued him since his rookie year with the Rockets.
everyone called me “Yao” — they thought it was my first name. In China, our surnames come first and our given names last. To my Chinese friends, I was Ming. Now I was just Yao. Once everyone started saying it that way, I never corrected them. I was too shy.
This is like Amar’e Stoudemire not correcting anyone spelling his first name as Amare or Amaré for the first seven years of his career. At least Stoudemire piped up before retirement.
Also, it’s worth checking out Yao’s full article, especially the parts about his friendship with Steve Francis.
