Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, an icon of Chinese basketball, Yao Ming met his 38th birthday on Wednesday, and he has received wishes from all over the Internet.

At 3:18 a.m. (Beijing time), the Houston Rockets on their official account on Weibo reposted a video of Yao Ming's public affair campaign and added "Have a look at Yao Ming's career to learn how he has grown from the young giant Chinese boy into the mature Chairman Yao of wisdom, Happy Birthday to Yao Ming of the Rockets!"

At 10:00 a.m. (Beijing time), the NBA wished Yao happy birthday with their account on Weibo before posting the following praise: "As the overall first pick from another country, Yao has earned respect with his performance which turned himself from a rookie that no one believed in to an All-Star center that no one could question. He has made basketball more than popular in China and contributed so much to the sport."

Famous Chinese basketball broadcaster Yu Jia from CCTV Sports posted a picture of Yao Ming celebrating victory with Chinese basketball teams at the 2018 Asian Games and said: "Yao Ming is getting another year older. The best present for him is probably for the scene in this picture to happen more often. Happy birthday and best wishes for Chinese basketball."

Selected by the Houston Rockets with the first pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, Yao Ming has played NBA All-Star eight times and made it into All-NBA Team for five times. In his eight years of career in the league, Yao has scored 19 points and taken 9.2 rebounds per game. In July 2011, Yao announced his retirement and later was inducted into the Hall of Fame with Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson in 2016. On February 3, 2017, his No.11 jersey was retired by the Rockets.

After his retirement, Yao became the owner of CBA's Shanghai Sharks and later in 2017 was appointed the president of the Chinese Basketball Association.  This was the start of Yao's contributions to the country's basketball development in a different way. His efforts paid off as Team China bagged all four gold medals in basketball at the 2018 Asian Games.  After finals of both men's and women's basketball tournaments, Chinese fans around the court kept saying his name to show their gratefulness to Yao Ming.

(Top picture: Yao Ming at the 2018 Asian Games /VCG Photo)