He never really had one. That Yao restaurant at Westhermier actually had a story. The owner/cook was originated from a Chinese restaurant at 59/Gessner, they had excellent Peking Duck and Yao loved there very much. So they struck a deal to open the new Yao restaurant, Yao's contribution was only his name but obviously at that time, it was very important. But the relationship ended long ago.
Well let's keep this NBA-China war cold rather than hot... https://www.si.com/nba/2019/10/08/adam-silver-nba-china-hong-kong-relationship SI:
Nationalism is so stupid. I can’t stand the pride people take in something as abstract as imaginary borders. No disrespect to any human being but seriously fuq China. Absolutely laughable how this has turned into such a fiasco...
Not sure why anyone here assumed Yao would automatically side with the Rockets. Pretty naive. Many people here take sports more seriously than real life but that doesn't mean everyone does.
This makes me wonder - why stop at NBA ban. Morey barely represents NBA more than he represents, I don't know, MIT, Texas, USA - time to ban everyone and start a new cold war. Fascinating.
Sorry DMo and Nunnally bring your behinds back stateside before you get thrown in prison for “supposedly “ supporting the activists
Where does Yao live right now? That answers the question for me. He came here, made a ton of money, and now he's living the life he wants to. He doesn't owe us anything, nor do I expect anything from him. It doesn't mean I don't disagree with him, it doesn't mean I don't think the actions taken were niave at best, and it doesn't mean I don't like him either.
It's not about sports though. Did you mean to post "Many people take human rights and freedom seriously, but that doesn't mean everyone does (China)"
Everybody wanted Yao to reject the Chinese Gov't when he played. Didn't do it then, not sure why he would now. No reason to believe that he doesn't believe the same as many other mainland Chinese. Yao is just a dude who happens to be really tall. Not sure why people think that insulates him from the same forces acting on every other resident of China. Height doesn't vaccinate you against stupid ideas. The people who condemned Galileo as a heretic for believing the earth orbited the sun were probably all genuinely very mad at him, too.
Too bad Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer didn't question the validity of Chinese territorial claims in the Spratlys in 2006.
Some (like me) were wondering if he'd been changed at all by the effect of having traveled extensively and being exposed to many other cultures and political systems.
