Yao Ming: On the Ball

Video: exclusive interview with Yao

China's most spectacular sportsman is learning the rules of engagement in some very different ball games - charity work, family and budding entrepreneurship. Yu Yilei reports in an exclusive interview

A locker room meeting started it all. It was March 2007, and Phoenix All-star guard Steve Nash had stepped up to Yao Ming after a regular NBA season's game. Nash asked Yao Ming if he would like to co-host a charity basketball game in China in aid of children living in poverty-stricken areas. Yao Ming hesitated. He had no previous experience running such an event and he was unsure. But Nash persevered and started piling him with information. "I was shocked and ashamed that a foreigner knew so much more about China than I did," Yao recalled during an exclusive interview with China Daily recently.