Houston Rockets retire Yao Ming's jersey

　　The Houston Rockets retire former center Yao Ming's No. 11 jersey in Houston, on Feb. 3, 2017. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/Lv Xiaohong]

The No. 11 jersey belonging to former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming was retired on Friday.

Yao was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September of last year, on account of his remarkable achievements on the hard court and in helping bring the NBA to China.

35-year-old Yao started his career in Shanghai before joining the NBA in 2002. Yao played 486 regular season games, all for the Houston Rockets. He averaged 19.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots per game, in addition to being called to the NBA All-Star team eight times. Yao's career ended early because of his foot injuries, which forced him to retire from in 2011. But he helped build an international following for the NBA and further promoted interest of the game in China.

Related: Rockets retire Yao Ming's No.11 jersey

During the grand ceremony which is nationally televised, the Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander called Friday night "a great moment in Rocket history, to honor a man of such magnitude" and described Yao as "a really great basketball player."

"Yao was a really, really great player. I wanted him to be viewed as more than that, as an ambassador to the world and especially into China, and what a great person and humanitarian he is," said Alexander, who donated 100,000 U.S. dollars to the Yao Ming Foundation.