How do you gauge impact of a giant?

At 2.26 meters, or as we old folk like to say - 7 foot, 5 inches, Yao Ming must have some trouble getting through most doors; but he sure as heck opened up a lot for the National Basketball Association (NBA).

As I once previously wrote, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson revived a moribund league in the '80s, Michael Jordan made it soar to new heights in the '90s, but it was the tall (OK, extremely tall) center from Shanghai, Yao Ming, who led the NBA into the massive Chinese, and by extension Asian, market.

His numbers during his injury-plagued career with the Houston Rockets were good, perhaps very good - 19 points per game and 9.2 rebounds - in what should, for now, be regarded as a borderline Hall of Fame career.