Twenty years ago, Yao Ming began his rookie season for the Rockets — the first international player selected No. 1 who had never played college basketball in the U.S. InstantRHIplay looks at Yao's journey to the NBA and how he created a lasting legacy:
On the opposite end of the skepticism were those who thought Yao could eventually help Houston regain the prominence it had in the 1990s when another big man, Hakeem Olajuwon, helped navigate the franchise to consecutive NBA championships.
“ a guy that we felt is a once-in-a-lifetime type player,” Tomjanovich said. “With that size, with that amount of skill, and then the other thing to learn how intelligent he was with his approach to the game.” “He was so unselfish. My philosophy was to let emotion come into play with players. When somebody makes a good play, I would call a play and say, ‘Let’s do it again. Give him the ball again.’ And if a guy keeps making good plays, I just keep going to him. I mean, that’s how I did things, and that was sort of my built-in motivator. says, ‘Oh, coach, I couldn’t do that. I would be embarrassed.
In an ironic twist of fate, after all the criticism and jokes at Yao’s expense to start his career — which O’Neal, for one, has said he since regrets — the two found themselves in the same 2016 Hall of Fame class.