On Sunday, Yao attended an NBA exhibition game in Shanghai between the Clippers and Heat. Yao greeted some of the players, like LeBron James…

…Shane Battier…

…and NBA legend Bill Russell…

At halftime, Yao was surprised with a gift from graffiti artist David Garibaldi, who painted an oil painting of Yao in the arena during the game. Garibaldi placed fourth in the “America’s Got Talent” show.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the game.

Finally, at the beginning of the 4th quarter when both teams started playing their backups, the full capacity crowd of 18,000 chanted in unison Yao Ming’s name, pleading for him to come on to the court and play. In Yao’s typical understated style, he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled to the fans.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 2:34 pm and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.