Through our source Raymond in China, we have learned that Erik Zhang Mingji of “Team Yao” said today that Yao Ming has not yet decided to retire.

In addition, Lin Dalong, a Houston Rockets marketing manager who works in China, stated in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency said that the Houston Rockets had not received formal notice from Yao Ming or Team Yao about his retirement.

So there is a possibility that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, who broke the story earlier today, could be wrong. If so, this could be one of the most embarrassingly incorrect sports stories we have seen in a long time since all of the news networks and social media have been buzzing today about Yao’s alleged retirement today.

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Just got the news this afternoon that Yao Ming reportedly will be retiring. More info here at the Houston Chronicle.

Part of this isn’t a surprise, but part of it is. That’s because I thought he would at least wait until he could start training again, and with the lockout and NBA work stoppage looming for next season, he probably could have bought himself another 14-15 months before REALLY having to decide.

Perhaps after a year off and training, maybe there’s a chance he could make a comeback.

Oddly, because of the lockout, NBA.com nor any of the NBA team sites have photos of current players on their sites. So Rockets.com probably won’t have photos of Yao to commemorate his time with the team, until at least his retirement papers are officially filed with the NBA league office.

And because Yao is in China, there will probably be no press conference. It’s fitting that Yao, who never wanted to bring attention to himself, will have his career fade off into the sunset without any fanfare.

Shaquille O’Neal, who retired himself a few weeks ago, made the following statement:

“Yao will definitely be missed. He is in my mind one of the best centers ever to play. He is the one of the greatest athletes ever to come out of China, and I will miss him.”

On this page is a short video that Shaq posted telling Yao, among a few other things, “Let’s go on vacation, bro’, me and you.”

Here is a good tribute from Yahoo Sports’ Kelly Dwyer, and another one from Truehoop’s Henry Abbott.

As far as the future of YaoMingMania.com is concerned, we plan to continue running this site as always because of Yao’s influence that transcends sports. If you want to keep tabs on Yao news in the future without having to revisit this site, make sure to follow us on Twitter.com/yaomingmania and on Facebook.com/yaomania.