Yao Ming can now call himself a college graduate.
The former Houston Rockets center graduated from China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University on Sunday with an economics degree, according to Li Xiang of CGTN.com. Ming had the opportunity to address the graduating class, and admitted he considered dropping out multiple times after enrolling in the school's Antai College of Economics and Management in 2011.
"At a certain stage in the future, you should try to combine your future with the future of the society, because that's how you can find larger space for yourself to explore," Yao said.
"Let me quote a famous conversation that happened on a basketball court 11 years ago: 'This is going to be your league in a little while.' Trust me, when a man spends seven years in university to graduate at age 38, he knows what he's talking about."
Yao Ming, eight-time NBA All-Star and Chinese Basketball Association chairman, graduates from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with bachelor's degree pic.twitter.com/8x6AiYAgEo
— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) July 8, 2018
Ming retired from the NBA in July 2011 after eight seasons. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
