Short answers, pulled from the story.
Yao Ming retired on the 20th of July 2011 because of recurring foot and ankle injuries, including a third fracture to his left foot sustained near the end of 2010. The injuries forced him to miss 250 games in his final six NBA seasons. He announced his retirement at a press conference in Shanghai.
Yao Ming was the first international player selected first overall in the NBA draft without prior U.S. college experience, chosen by the Houston Rockets in 2002. He was voted to start in the NBA All-Star Game eight times and was named to the All-NBA Team five times. He also broke Michael Jordan's record for most All-Star votes in a single season, receiving 2,558,278 votes for the 2005 game.
Yao Ming was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on the 9th of September 2016, alongside Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson. He became the first Chinese national ever inducted into the Hall. He was also inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2023.
A group called "Team Yao" , including agents Bill Duffy and Lu Hao, negotiator Erik Zhang, and University of Chicago economics professor John Huizinga , negotiated with the Chinese Basketball Association on his behalf. The CBA agreed to release Yao only on the condition that the Houston Rockets select him first overall. The CBA gave its permission on the morning of the 2002 draft, and Houston drafted him with the top pick.
After retiring in 2011, Yao enrolled at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and earned a degree in economics in July 2018, after seven years of study. He opened Yao Family Wines in Napa Valley, California in 2016, and was unanimously elected chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association in February 2017, serving until his resignation in 2024.
Yao Ming partnered with WildAid to produce commercials and documentaries opposing shark fin soup consumption, and between 2011 and 2018 consumption of shark fin soup dropped by 70% in China. He also filmed a documentary about the northern white rhinoceros in August 2012, appeared in the 2014 documentary The End of the Wild about elephant conservation, and served as an ambassador for elephant conservation through the African Wildlife Foundation and WildAid's "Say No" campaign.