Kobe Bryant pays homage to Yao Ming – NBA News
Kobe Bryant is on a tour of China and he took this opportunity to pay tribute to the greatest basketball player to have emerged from Asia, Yao Ming. On Wednesday, Yao Ming, who holds legend status in his home country, officially
retired from NBA and Kobe was among the first to pay homage.
Bryant is the most famous American player in China. He has the most lucrative endorsement deals in the country and his merchandise by far outsells others. Kobe has worked on his image in the Far East and regularly visits China
to spread the popularity of the NBA, himself and Nike.
The player was asked to give his views on the retiring Yao Ming and in response, he hailed the impact, Yao has had in the sky rocketing popularity of basketball and NBA in China. He also toughed on the fact that Yao has been the
pioneer in terms of Asians coming to U.S.A in order to play in the NBA,
”In terms of opening up doors for Chinese basketball players to come to the NBA, or for the youth here in China to believe that it’s possible to achieve the dream of being an NBA player, all that started from Yao,” the Los Angeles
Lakers guard said.
Yao has indeed been a huge figure in Basketball as a game. Since he was drafted as the first overall pick back in 2002 by the Houston Rockets, Yao Ming has played a vital role in making basketball a truly global sport. A wildly
popular athlete, Yao Ming was voted onto the All Star team in his rookie season. His popularity and fame in China however is beyond anything witnessed before and Ming opened the gates to stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, who have since built huge fan
bases of their own in the country.
Bryant compared Ming to Vlade Divac, a former Los Angeles Lakers player and one of the first Europeans to play in the NBA. Divac played a role in bringing more and more European players to the NBA but Kobe thinks the impact, as
an individual, that Yao has had is beyond comparison,
“The movement that started in the NBA of the influx of European players coming to the NBA was started by Vlade Divac, Dino Radja and those guys.”
“Even that movement didn’t have the impact and magnitude that Yao Ming has had.”
Kobe Bryant pointed out that with the sun setting at the giant Chinese, we shouldn’t forget that in the end Yao was a terrific basketball player,
“And on top of that, he’s just a heck of a basketball player to boot,”
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