Born for basketball — literally

Yao Ming was born September 12, 1980 in Shanghai, China. His parents were both former basketball players for the Chinese national team — his father Yao Zhiyuan (6’7″) and mother Fang Fengdi (6’2″). They had been encouraged by the Chinese government to marry partly because their height genetics were valuable for the national basketball program. Yao was 6’5″ by age 13 and 7’5″ by age 17.

He played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association from 1997 to 2002. The Houston Rockets selected him #1 overall in the 2002 NBA Draft. He was the first international player ever selected #1 without first attending an American college program. His arrival opened the Chinese basketball market to the NBA in unprecedented ways — Rockets games drew 200+ million Chinese viewers per night during Yao’s career.

8 All-Star selections in 9 seasons

Yao played 9 NBA seasons (2002-2011) — all with the Houston Rockets. He averaged 19.0 points and 9.2 rebounds per game across his career. He was named to 8 consecutive All-Star Games (2003-2010), starting all 8 of those games. He was the first international All-Star starter and the only Chinese-born player ever to be named to the All-Star Game first or second teams.

His most-prolific season was 2006-07, when he averaged 25.0 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game. The Rockets reached the 2007 playoffs and lost in the first round. Chronic foot and ankle injuries limited his career; he missed the entire 2009-10 season and played only 5 games in 2010-11 before retiring at age 30 in July 2011.

Yao vs the structurally-taller players

Mureșan (7’7″) played 6 NBA seasons but was never an All-Star — he won Most Improved Player but topped out at 14.5 PPG in his career-best year. Manute Bol (7’7″) played 10 NBA seasons but was a defensive specialist who never averaged double-digit scoring. Slavko Vraneš (7’6″) played 1 NBA game in 2003-04. Shawn Bradley (7’6″) played 12 seasons but had only 1 All-Defensive selection.

Yao’s distinctive combination was 7’6″ PLUS guard-level skill — he hit 35.0% on three-pointers in his career, shot 83.3% from the foul line, and had elite low-post footwork. The structural reason no taller player has matched him is that Yao’s body type (lean, mobile, with proportional limbs) was unusual for a 7’6″ frame. Most players that tall have body types that limit their basketball ceiling — Yao did not.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Yao Ming and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records.