Retired NBA star, Yao Ming has revealed that he might have worked as an archaeologist, if his parents hadn’t pushed him into basketball.
Yao made this revelation on a reality show called “My World My Voice,” aired on Jiangsu Satellite TV on Sunday evening. During the show, the global superstar talked about his childhood dreams.
“Because of heart and lung problems, I was physically weak when I was
little,” Yao said. “Although I was quite tall, I didn’t like to play
basketball. What I liked was archaeology, history and astronomy, not
basketball.”
“The reason I chose to play basketball was because I wanted to be a good son and I listened to my parents,” he added.
From the time that he was 9 years old, Yao underwent a regimen of
monotonous training, which gradually helped him to become stronger and
more confident, completely changing his life. Still, he has some
regrets…
“If I didn’t choose basketball, I could have devoted my time to
digging in a cave and remained anonymous,” Yao said, apparently unaware
of how famous he could have become as the “world’s tallest
archaeologist” — though it does seem like his height might have been a
hindrance in his dream profession.
Yao is done with basketball now, though he is the owner of the local CBA team, the Shanghai Sharks —
and he doesn’t seem to be spending much time digging in caves. Instead,
he says that after retirement he has spent one-third of his time doing
charitable work. In particular, he launched
the Yao Foundation Hope Primary School Basketball Season in 2012, which
is a project aimed at providing more teenagers from poorer areas the
opportunity to play basketball, so that they can learn about the joys of
sports, gain confidence and become part of a team.