It’s not much of a surprise, but it was confirmed Yao will not be playing for the Chinese National Team again, including the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Bummer for Chinese hoops fans.

On a lighter note, Yao received many awards from various Chinese sports groups a couple of days ago at a ceremony in Beijing attended by about 200 people.

Many top sports officials were there as well as some of Yao’s former coaches from the Chinese National Team. Yao received the following awards:

– The State General Administration of Sports awarded him with a Sports Honorary Medal
– The Chinese Olympic Committee awarded him with a Chinese Olympic Gold Medal
– The Chinese Basketball Association awarded him the China Award for Outstanding Contribution to Basketball, and made him an Honorary National Team member for Life (which is stitched on to the jersey above)

Click here for more photos from the event and Raymond’s report in the forum.

Yao Ming was finally able to enjoy some leisure activities after his retirement announcement on Wednesday, followed by many interview requests the next couple of days afterwards.

So on Friday night, Yao took his family and good friend Andy Yao (who came over from Houston for the retirement announcement) to the “Artistry on Ice” show, an annual tour of some of the world’s best figure skaters.

Also attending the show was Sarah Jessica Parker, who is visiting Shanghai and is a fashion consultant for the ice show.

As seen by the photo below, Parker snaps photos of Yao just like any fan would, giggling like a schoolgirl. It’s really interesting to see even a big Hollywood celebrity going nuts when seeing or meeting Yao.

Like we mentioned earlier in the week, even though Yao is retired, we plan to continue running YaoMingMania and covering Yao because his influence extends far beyond basketball. Parker’s reaction here confirms that.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the event with his family, Yao, and SJP.

Many of you perhaps saw the photo on Wednesday we posted of Yao Ming’s old friend and translator Colin Pine at the retirement announcement press conference. If you weren’t aware, Yao asked Pine to translate his words into English for him (so that Yao wouldn’t have to repeat himself in English). You can see the entire press conference video on NBA.com by clicking here.

It was great to see the two sitting together again, just like old times when Pine translated for Yao during his first couple of seasons in the NBA. Pine has been living and working in Shanghai the past few years.

Pine later was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal’s China blog, which you can check out here. In this blog post, Pine responds to several questions, including how he was touched that Yao asked him to translate for him at the press conference, which he wasn’t expecting.

Since Yao confirmed his retirement on Wednesday, many pieces have been written about Yao Ming’s career. YaoMingMania has been directing you to some of these items, and came across a few more that stand out above the rest.

The first is this blog post from one of two Americans who probably has known Yao longer than any other American: “Team Yao” member Bill Sanders, Chief Marketing Officer for Bill Duffy & Associates (a.k.a. BDA Sports), which represents some of the NBA’s top players.

Sanders blogs about the current mood at BDA’s offices around Yao’s retirement, the time he first met Yao in China back in 2000, what it was like during the whirlwind days of Yao’s first couple of years in the NBA (which YaoMingMania covered in detail back then), and much more. Check it out here.

Sanders also tweeted about this insightful article from the LA Times about how Yao’s retirement will leave China with a gaping void in their international “charm campaign,” and this NY Times article about the state and future of Chinese basketball with Yao now retired.

All we can say is that China has alot of work to do to make up for the loss of Yao from the world basketball stage.

The Rockets did a great job of posting letters on their Web site that some Rockets execs and owner Leslie Alexander wrote to Yao thanking him for his time as a Rocket. I bet it would be hard for anyone to get through reading these letters without getting a little teary-eyed. I’m sure Yao would.

Check ’em out here, but make sure you have some Kleenex nearby. All of us would be lucky to receive letters from colleagues that are anything close to these when we retire.

On Wednesday, Yao posted on his Facebook page the following message to his American fans, especially those in Houston:

Special thanks to my friends overseas, especially to fans in Houston. I would like to thank you for giving me great nine years during my NBA career. Nine years ago I came to Houston as a young, tall, skinny player, and the entire city and the team changed me to a grown man, not only a basketball player. I will always be with you, thank you!

In Houston, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle filed an interesting article about some of the Rockets’ front office reactions to Yao officially retiring on Wednesday.

Owner Leslie Alexander:

“It’s sad. He had such great potential. He fulfilled it, really, but we would have been a great team with him. It’s sad for him because I know he wants to play very badly. It’s sad for the Rockets.”

Rockets’ CEO Tad Brown:

“I’m still kind of in shock, actually. I can’t imagine the Rockets without Yao Ming. I’m sad. I’m really disappointed for Mr. Alexander and the franchise, but I’m hoping Yao is at peace with his decision and certainly look forward to being in his life.

“I look forward to having him be a part of the Rockets family for years to come. He’s larger than life. He’s a global icon. He’s going to continue to be in his retirement. It’s going to be exciting to see what the future holds for such an intelligent, proud man.”

Yao Ming made it official today in Shanghai today that he is retiring. You can read the transcript below, and check out all the photos from the press conference by clicking here.

In a surprising twist given the strictness from the NBA regarding teams communicating with its players during the lockout, Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey attended the press conference. There was speculation that even in retirement, the Rockets could not speak with Yao, even after he officially retired. It’s good to see the NBA lightened up a bit for this important occasion, with even David Stern wishing Yao well through a statement.

Esteemed Director Li Yuyi, distinguished guests, friends in the media.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reporter Gene Wang of the Washington Post contacted YaoMingMania the other day about an article he was putting together regarding Yao’s influence on basketball and the NBA. The article went live a few hours ago, which you can check out here.

It’s interesting that Yao Ming has been making some public appearances while everyone is obviously curious if he’s going to officially announce his retirement during his July 20th press conference.

On Tuesday in Beijing, Yao made an appearance together with a group of famous actors, singers and athletes, including Jackie Chan, Jay Chou, Song Zuying, Han Hong, Li Yuchun, Lin Dan and Wang Nan in an evening variety show at the People’s Great Hall in a massive cross strait youth exchange program involving over 10,000 youngsters from Taiwan and China. Yao gave basketballs with his autograph to 8 youngsters that happened to have their birthday on July 12.

For more photos from the event, click here.

On Wednesday, Yao appeared at the People’s Great Hall in Beijing to show his support at a press conference of a charity event organized by famous Chinese Tibet-born singer-songwriter Han Hong together with some other prominent government officials, including Zhang Haidi, Chairwoman of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation. International actress Zhang Ziyi was also there.

Yao was obviously the focus of the media as reporters tried to press for the latest development about the “rumor” of his retirement. But he refused to make any comments, and just politely asked the reporters to focus on Han Hong’s charity event.

For more details and photos about the event, click here.

Raymond just reported in the forum that Yao will hold a press conference on July 20th to announce his future career plans.

Based on this information, it’s pretty safe to say that Yao will make formal his retirement announcement during this press conference. If he wasn’t going to retire, you would expect that he would clear it up right away. But we’ll see…

Here’s the announcement in Chinese and English:

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2011?7?9? ?????????20????????????????????????????????????

To all reporters and friends, Ni Hao !!!

July 9, 2011 in Beijing.

Yao Ming will hold a press conference in Shanghai July 20th when he will talk about his future career plans.