Learn the Inspiring Story of the Houston Rockets' Legendary Center Yao Ming! Read on your PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet or Kindle device! In Yao Ming: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Most Dominant Centers, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's greatest ambassadors, Yao Ming. Yao Ming was the face of the Houston Rockets franchise alongside Tracy McGrady. Throughout the 2000s, the duo led the Rockets in a tough Western Conference. While Yao ultimately was forced to retire early due to injuries, the impact he left on the game at an international level was profound. Yao served in many ways as the bridge for the NBA to gain a viewership in China. Millions would tune into Rockets games to watch the dominant center overpower his peers. In this short unauthorized biography, you'll learn Yao's inspirational story into the league. Here is a preview of what is inside this book: Childhood and Early Years Chinese Basketball Association Career and Yao's Road to the NBA NBA Career Entering the Draft, Rookie Season, The Rise of Yao Ming Teaming Up with T-Mac, The Injury-Plagued Seasons, the Falling Great Wall The Return from Injury, Breaking Past the First Round Missing an Entire Season Short-lived Return, Final NBA Season Yao Ming's International Career Yao Ming's Personal Life Yao Ming's Impact on Basketball Yao Ming's Legacy An excerpt from the book: The east and the west have always been worlds apart in every aspect. Culturally, Eastern countries have always been a lot different from their western. People eat different food, wear different clothes, speak different languages, and have various views about life in general. In the world of sports, the gap only grows larger. Eastern countries enjoy soccer and cricket among other sports, compared to the Americans who prefer basketball and football. However, one man dared to cut the gap between the east and the west, particularly in basketball as his larger-than-life frame acted as the bridge between the two different worlds. Yao Ming is the sole reason that basketball became the language which united the sporting worlds of the east and the west. Historically in China, the Great Wall was constructed to protect the nation's capital from foreign invasion. As long as the Great Wall stood, the country remained secure and harmonious, safe from any outside interference or influence that could have disrupted the people's daily lives. However, the great wall called Yao, as tall and as long as he is, did not shield the country of China away from the foreign influence of basketball. Instead, the wall opened its gates up and allowed a bridge to be created between China and the United States as far as basketball was concerned. The sport has never been as popular in China as it is today thanks to the influences of Yao Ming. While Yao has long acted as a basketball ambassador of Asia to other Western countries, he was a dominated figure in the game itself, just as the Great Wall of China stood as a symbol of strength and dominance for the great eastern powerhouse. From the moment he first stepped foot on an NBA court, and to the final second he played in the league, Yao was always a towering and fearsome figure in the game of basketball. Tags: Yao Ming Bio, Yao Ming basketball, Houston Rockets basketball, tracy mcgrady, shaq, yi jianlian, jeremy lin, allen iverson, michael jordan, kobe bryant, shawn bradley, dikembe mutombo

A behind-the-scenes profile of the Chinese NBA star and the factors that drove his career reveals how his basketball player parents were brought together by Chinese officials intent on creating Olympic athletes, his role as a corporate pitchman, and the struggle between China and America over his NBA draft, in an account that simultaneously traces the life of fellow athlete Wang Zhizhi. 50,000 first printing.

In 2002, Yao Ming became the NBA's first foreign #1 draft pick and a media sensation. Sports writer Ric Bucher was the only American reporter with unrestricted access to Yao's first year in the NBA. Now available in paperback, Yao: A Life in Two Worlds captures Yao's private story and traces his remarkable journey from Chinese success story to international icon. Whether winning over skeptical teammates, or treading lightly with ever-watchful Chinese officials, Yao reveals the many challenges he has faced with delicacy and humor. Spanning sports, politics, business, and popular culture, Yao's fascinating memoir reveals the humble, profoundly likeable young man behind the myth.

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"Through candor and comprehensiveness, Jackson writes a convincing revisionist take, in which he emerges as an excellent coach . . . highly readable . . . reflects Jackson’s polymathy." —The New York Times Book Review "Part sports memoir, part New Age spirit quest, part pseudo-management tract . . . But the primary thing with Jackson—as with all the old bards, who were also known for repeating themselves—is the voice." —Sam Anderson, The New York Times Magazine A New York Times Bestseller The inside story of one of basketball's most legendary and game-changing figures During his storied career as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson won more championships than any coach in the history of professional sports. Even more important, he succeeded in never wavering from coaching his way, from a place of deep values. Jackson was tagged as the “Zen master” half in jest by sportswriters, but the nickname speaks to an important truth: this is a coach who inspired, not goaded; who led by awakening and challenging the better angels of his players’ nature, not their egos, fear, or greed. This is the story of a preacher’s kid from North Dakota who grew up to be one of the most innovative leaders of our time. In his quest to reinvent himself, Jackson explored everything from humanistic psychology and Native American philosophy to Zen meditation. In the process, he developed a new approach to leadership based on freedom, authenticity, and selfless teamwork that turned the hypercompetitive world of professional sports on its head. In Eleven Rings, Jackson candidly describes how he: • Learned the secrets of mindfulness and team chemistry while playing for the champion New York Knicks in the 1970s • Managed Michael Jordan, the greatest player in the world, and got him to embrace selflessness, even if it meant losing a scoring title • Forged successful teams out of players of varying abilities by getting them to trust one another and perform in sync • Inspired Dennis Rodman and other “uncoachable” personalities to devote themselves to something larger than themselves • Transformed Kobe Bryant from a rebellious teenager into a mature leader of a championship team. Eleven times, Jackson led his teams to the ultimate goal: the NBA championship—six times with the Chicago Bulls and five times with the Los Angeles Lakers. We all know the legendary stars on those teams, or think we do. What Eleven Rings shows us, however, is that when it comes to the most important lessons, we don’t know very much at all. This book is full of revelations: about fascinating personalities and their drive to win; about the wellsprings of motivation and competition at the highest levels; and about what it takes to bring out the best in ourselves and others.

"Traces the life of one of the most legendary basketball players in the history of the sport, drawing upon interviews with Jordan's friends, family, and teammates, and following his career from college to the NBA."--Provide by publisher.

Who gets to speak for China? During the interwar years, when American condescension toward “barbarous” China yielded to a fascination with all things Chinese, a circle of writers sparked an unprecedented public conversation about American-Chinese relations. Hua Hsu tells the story of how they became ensnared in bitter rivalries over which one could claim the title of America’s leading China expert. The rapturous reception that greeted The Good Earth—Pearl Buck’s novel about a Chinese peasant family—spawned a literary market for sympathetic writings about China. Stories of enterprising Americans making their way in a land with “four hundred million customers,” as Carl Crow said, found an eager audience as well. But on the margins—in Chinatowns, on Ellis Island, and inside FBI surveillance memos—a different conversation about the possibilities of a shared future was taking place. A Floating Chinaman takes its title from a lost manuscript by H. T. Tsiang, an eccentric Chinese immigrant writer who self-published a series of visionary novels during this time. Tsiang discovered the American literary market to be far less accommodating to his more skeptical view of U.S.-China relations. His “floating Chinaman,” unmoored and in-between, imagines a critical vantage point from which to understand the new ideas of China circulating between the world wars—and today, as well.