Where were you when the Houston Rockets drafted Yao Ming?
It’s a vivid memory for me as a Houston Rockets fan. I distinctly remember a fan in a street interview declaring that Ming would be the “best center ever!” I can’t find easy confirmation of this memory online, but it’s burned into my mind.
If you missed it: Ming is not the best center ever. Depending on whether you value longevity or peak, he’s on the fringes of the top 20. Can you really put Ming ahead of Dikembe Mutombo? Bob Lanier?
Longevity.
What a thoroughly dirty word in relation to Ming’s career. The basketball gods were rough with the gentle giant:
What if they’d afforded him more grace?
Ming’s career should have gone differently
The man was 7’6″, 310 pounds, and – this is important – actually good at basketball.
He’s four years older than LeBron James if you needed your heart broken into a million pieces and scattered into the wind like the ashes of your childhood dreams. Ming should have been the Rockets’ Nene of the James Harden era. He should barely be a decade into his retirement. He should have retired when TikTok came out, and instead, he retired when “Tik Tok” by Kesha came out.
Look at his beastly 2006-07 stats. Ming averaged 25.0 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game with a 60.1 True Shooting % (TS%) and 5.0 Box Plus/Minus (BPM). He made the All-NBA Second Team. Ming was a certified franchise player.
Sure, he only played in 48 games, and sure, players this size have dealt with injury problems almost without fail, but none of that mattered because Ming was going to be the best center ever, and wrestling is real.
The decline didn’t even start there. Ming had a comparable 2007-08. The Rockets decreased his minutes through 2008-09, but on a per-minute basis, his production was comparable.
And then, just like that, it was effectively over. Which gets us back to the central question: What if it hadn’t been?
Let’s be honest. We all know the Houston Rockets win the 2007-08 championship if Ming and Tracy McGrady stay healthy. This group is a testament to roster construction.
Ming, the interior scoring hub, and McGrady, the prolific shot creator, flanked by a who’s-who of mid-00s role players. Shane Battier, perhaps the most archetypal three-and-D in NBA history. Louis Scola, a perfect third option for an era when the midrange counted towards floor spacing. Bobby Jackson, the quintessential sparkplug, and Dikembe Mutombo, the best backup big in the NBA backing up the best big man in the NBA –
Fine, besides Dwight Howard.
Although Ming was certainly more offensively gifted than Howard. For that brief, bright, beautiful moment, you could make the case that Ming was the best center in the NBA. Jokes aside, the Boston Celtics were the most super-y super team since the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers. They may have stifled even this fantasy Rockets championship run, but the NBA Finals’ Western Conference spot was the Rockets’ to lose.
And, through no fault of their own, they would lose it.
Yao Ming’s Rockets career was cut short
What’s the point of this article?
I almost regret writing it. The Rockets kick off the 2026-27 regular season one week from this moment. Why are we chasing the ghost of Yao Ming’s career?
Short answer? A photo of Ming alongside Alperen Sengun made the rounds and made me sad. Long answer?
Let’s see what we can cobble together.
It is worth remembering that so much of what we consider success in the NBA comes down to luck. Luck is everything. Ming was lucky enough to be born 7’6″, and he was unlucky enough to be born 7’6″. With his mass, that’s a time-tested formula for having a short-but-successful NBA career.
Luck could be on the Rockets’ side in 2026-27, or it could oppose them once again. Maybe the journey matters more than the destination. Ming’s body wouldn’t allow him to make good on his potential:
But I still remember how hopeful I felt before that happened.
