Yao Ming Retires After Years of Legacy Altering Injuries

Yao Ming has retired after eight years in the NBA, according to Yahoo Sports. However, Yao didn't have the average eight-year career, although he retired because many of those years were interrupted by injury. Yet while he was healthy, the Rockets center became a global icon, and helped spread the NBA's power into China. But given how his career ended, there will probably always be a sense that it could have been a lot better.

Even if Yao wasn't among the biggest stars in America, his global stardom was guaranteed. Not only did he make the NBA big in China and Asia, he did so while being a perennial All-Star, and being one of the more athletic 7-foot-6 centers in league history.

However, Yao's retirement may not be a huge deal for the Rockets, who have learned to live without their most popular player. In any case, Houston wasn't a powerhouse with him, as the team never came close to a championship and regularly missed the playoffs. Yet in a Western Conference dominated by the Lakers, Spurs and Mavericks in the last decade, this is hard to hold against him.

Despite nearly averaging a double-double in his career, with 19 points and nine rebounds, Yao may have a hard case for the Hall of Fame. Some sports stars have had a sure fire Hall of Fame career without having to play past 30, like Barry Sanders and Jim Brown. However, without playoff success or exceedingly overwhelming dominance over the year, it is harder to put Yao on that par.

He may make it for expanding the NBA's popularity around the globe, but that too is hard to completely judge. While China was watching during his time in the league, did he do enough to keep it and other new foreign audiences watching after he's gone?

That question certainly can't be answered now, with a long and costly lockout just under way. However, this could be the best thing for foreign fans, if stars like Deron Williams decide to play overseas during the lockout. China could even be a destination, with rumors that Kobe Bryant and other stars are exploring the possibility of a tour there.

But with Yao now retired, and still trying to recover from a stress fracture in his left foot, he cannot reap any benefits. Even if the lockout gave him more time to recover and come back, he might have lost too much time to get back on track. He played only five games last season, and if this season gets canceled, a return in 2012 would be his first action in about two years.

No one is the same after that kind of time off, and although Yao Ming was the exception to a lot of trends in his briefer-than-expected career, he likely wouldn't have defied that one.

Sources

Yahoo Sports- "Sources: Rockets' Yao set to retire"

Bleacher Report- "Yao Ming: What Is the Newly Retired Center's Legacy?"