NBA legend Yao Ming had to overcome a lot to carve out his place in basketball history. But one interesting thing he overcame early in his career – for better or worse – was letting his teammates call him the wrong name.
In a 2016 piece of the Players Tribune, Ming explained that as a rookie for the Houston Rockets in 2002 his teammates would refer to him by his surname Yao rather than his given name Ming – much to his discomfort. But he said that he was too shy early in his career to correct them.
“That was 14 years ago. Everything went so fast my rookie year, but I remember the first few weeks very clearly. You always remember first impressions. On that day, my coaches were showing me my new locker. I was so excited to see my name on my new Rockets jersey. That was a big thing for me because I had never had my name on a jersey before. There were a lot of big things that were different when I came to the NBA, but I remember the little things like that the most. For example, everyone called me “Yao” — they thought it was my first name. In China, our surnames come first and our given names last. To my Chinese friends, I was Ming. Now I was just Yao. Once everyone started saying it that way, I never corrected them. I was too shy,” Yao wrote.
Congratulations to the Rockets on an excellent season. This is a great team with a bright future. Houston should be proud. ????
— Yao Ming (@YaoMing) May 29, 2018
To this day there are likely a good portion of NBA fans who think that Ming is his last name rather than his first name.
If it’s any consolation to the Hall of Fame basketball star, he’s hardly the only athlete who people in the United States consistently confuse first names and last names – even to this day.
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