No More Comebacks
Yao Ming calls it quits, tells NBA officials he is retiring
- Yao Ming in a familiar pose of pain.
- Yao Ming
There will be no more comebacks for Yao Ming.
The chronically-injured Houston Rockets center has informed league officials that he plans to submit his retirement papers, as first reported by Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the most well-connected NBA reporter in the country. So ends one of the greatest — and most frustrating — careers in Rockets' franchise history.
When healthy, the 7-foot-6 Yao played at an All-Star level, displaying shooting skills that men his size are not supposed to have. But chronic foot problems kept him on the sidelines for the last few years. His last comeback at the start of the 2010-11 season lasted only five games before another injury.
Yao talked this March of possibly making another return, but as I wrote in a column at the time, he mostly seemed to be kidding himself. He couldn't even walk yet, but he thought he could play basketball? CultureMap wrote that there was a good chance we would never see Yao Ming play again on Nov. 19, 2010 after that most recent botched comeback.
Knowing it was coming doesn't make the day any less sad though.