What kind of competition is it that has allowed Yao Ming to persist for 18 years

Yao Ming delivered a speech at the charity competition, thanking the cultural and sports stars and audiences for their help in charity.

In the past 18 years, Yao Ming has changed too many titles. From a CBA championship player to an NBA All-Star, from a CBA team boss to a CBA company chairman, from a Chinese Basketball Association chairman to a National People's Congress representative... different identities have made him focus on different affairs at different stages, but there is one identity that has never changed in 18 years, that is, a practitioner of public welfare.

On the evening of August 17, Yao Ming and thousands of spectators witnessed the 2025 13th Yao Fund Charity Competition in Hangzhou "Little Lotus". NBA champion Jaylen Brown, Bucks star Kyle Kuzma, and CBA star players who came from the United States performed a fun and highlighted charity performance. Since Yao Ming and Nash first brought the charity basketball game to China in 2007, 7 million rural children have benefited from it in 13 games in 18 years.

"This charity competition has been an idea in 2007, and it has been exactly 18 years. We are a young man." Yao Ming regards this event as his own child, and now it has entered the "adult stage". "I hope that in the future, this competition can grow into a responsible man, convey love, and go to the future together."

Yao Fund charity competition has become a "young man" in Yao Ming's view.

A different charity competition "coming-come gift"

This year's Yao Fund Charity Competition is the 13th in 18 years. This time, the event has arrived in Hangzhou.

As early as when Yao Fund held the launch ceremony of the 2025 charity plan in April this year, Yao Ming chose the venue in Hangzhou and planned to host this somewhat different charity competition by Hangzhou.

The "different" is because in Yao Ming's view, after 18 years of cultivation and growth, the Yao Fund Charity Competition has come to its "coming-come ceremony". As Yao Ming said in his speech at the charity competition, "We (charity competition) are already a young man. This young man has impulsiveness and dreams, and the courage to break through barriers, but more importantly, he is learning what responsibility is here." The responsibility mentioned by Yao Ming is the position he has always given this charity competition. Yao Ming once talked to a reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) about the functions carried by the charity competition. "Every year, this charity competition is mainly to raise funds for the Hope Primary School basketball season throughout the year, hoping to provide a steady stream of economic support. Then I hope that more people will pay attention to the children through the competition, agree with the way we do things, change their attitude towards life through sports, and stand up spiritually."

Because of this, putting this "coming-comer gift" in Hangzhou is the most suitable. In addition to Hangzhou's already abundant cultural, sports, entertainment and Internet resources, the addition of Zhejiang Radio and Television Group and Zhejiang Satellite TV has made this "coming-come gift" really a "big show" that is somewhat different from the previous 12 charity competitions. A song "Celebration Wine" by rapper Fox Hu Tianyu directly ignited the atmosphere on the scene. Before the start of the main competition, the lights of the basketball court of the "Little Lotus" of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center suddenly went out, and the colorful laser beams created the atmosphere of the concert. Accompanied by the shocking drumbeat of the Chinese style, a song "Celebration Wine" by rapper Fox Hu Tianyu ignited the atmosphere on the scene; then, Yao Chen brought "Superman", which is now popular on social platforms, and on the big screen of the stadium, a group of anime character videos that transformed the charity contest into "soul painter" style, which instantly made fans feel the intimacy of "inseparation of culture and style".

"This is the first time that the charity competition has settled in Hangzhou, a digital city full of vitality and innovation. Hangzhou's unique charm has also injected new vitality into the event." Yao Fund Secretary-General Ye Dawei talked about the freshness of this new "combination of competitions and performances" model to the charity competition. "This year we hope to break through the traditional model and use a diversified and integrated stage to bring a new immersive experience to the audience."

So, at this year's charity competition, fans saw Actor Deng Chao celebrated freely after scoring the goal, and then the iconic music of "Gogo Goes Started" sounded in the field; Wu Yanni played a guest cheerleader in the midfield and fought with Liu Genghong; she also saw the Chinese buttoned Chen Dengxing dressed up as "Brother Mopping" to surprise the fans on the scene... These interesting scenes that were linked to the charity competition also quickly became popular on social networks, and even made a hot search, allowing more people to pay attention to this charity competition and the public welfare projects of Yao Fund.

Wu Yanni completed her dressing on the spot and joined the cheerleaders to perform her dance.

The most loving "Dream Chasing Third Section"

When more people pay attention to this game, the children in the mountains who were brought to the court by charity games naturally have more opportunities to be paid attention to by the outside world, and their stories with basketball also have more channels for dissemination.

The hard performances of cultural and sports traffic stars have brought more entertainment elements to the charity competition. Even so, the event still retains the warmest and most loving link - allowing children in the mountains and children in the host city to become the protagonists of the third quarter of the competition.

Since 2013, this charity game has developed this tradition, and the third quarter will be handed over to outstanding young players selected by the "Yao Fund Basketball Season" every year. This year in Hangzhou, this session has a brand new name, called "Dream Chasing Third Section" - 19 rural young players from Yao Fund Hope Primary School basketball season compete with local basketball boys in Hangzhou. They formed the "Hope Team" and the "Dream Team", and came on the stage confidently under the gaze of thousands of spectators..

The entire quarter of the game, star players including Jaylen Brown, Cartino Mobley, Joseph Yang and Chinese players Lu Wenbo, Zhao Yanhao and Chen Guohao also joined the two teams. They not only completed the "routine operation" of holding young players to dunk, but sometimes they also steal and block the young players' offenses quite seriously, telling these children with their actions that if they want to "chasing their dreams", they must devote themselves to it.

Mermettuxunjiang Elken fought against "Old Cat" Mobri in the game.

In this year's "Dream Chasing Third Quarter", a special young player won the most applause and cheers in the audience. He is Maimettitusunjiang Elken, an elementary school in Upal Town, Shufu County, Xinjiang, who wears prosthetics and still insists on his dream of basketball.

Before actually standing on the stadium of the Yao Fund Charity Tournament, when the thin Maimetti Tuxunjiang was asked about his basketball dream, he said without hesitation: "My dream is to let Yao Ming watch me play." Now, his dream in "Little Lotus" has come true.

Since he stood on the court, Maimetti Tuxunjiang ran hard. As long as he got the opportunity, he would make a layup without hesitation. When his teammates had free space, he would pass the ball to his teammates as soon as possible. Whenever he scores or assists his teammates, he will celebrate freely and immediately enter the game after a brief excitement. Every minute on the court, Maimetti Tuxunjiang devoted himself to it.

In the huge stadium, Maimettitusunjiang's small body released a huge enthusiasm and infected the audience. By the end of the third quarter, everyone was cheering and shouting for him, hoping that he would score one more goal. At the end of the third quarter, Yao Ming personally presented a signature basketball full of blessings from all the players participating in the competition to this brave boy, and sent his most sincere blessings, "I hope the basketball will continue to run with you." At that moment, the court heard applause again. Maimetti Tuxunjiang jumped high with all his strength and slapped Yao Ming to celebrate. The scene was frozen by the live cameraman, and the innocent smile of the child became the warmest footnote on the charity night. The scene of Maimetti Tuxunjiang and Yao Ming clapping the high five became one of the warmest moments of the night.

18 years of persistence, not only basketball, batches of children from the mountains have walked onto the courts of big cities because of charity games, but then with their love for basketball, more people pay attention to the "Hope Primary School Basketball Season" throughout the year. Yao Ming's persistence and efforts in the past 18 years have paid off.

Just 2 months ago in the 2025 Yao Fund NBA Care Action "Hope Basketour Plan" Rural Sports Teachers Basketball Professional Skills and Professional Qualification Improvement Project, Yao Ming quietly listened to rural sports teachers from all over the country telling their stories. Many teachers shed tears several times during the sharing process. After erasing the tears, they would say similar words - "I hope to use sports to change the lives of these children" or "I hope to really contribute to rural physical education."

At that time, Yao Ming also shared his thoughts, "In the words of the Internet, rural teachers cannot always 'use love to generate electricity'. I am very happy to see everyone's enthusiasm, but we also need more people to care about and pay attention to youth sports."

18 years have passed, and hundreds of stars have come to the stage of charity competitions, including many finals MVPs like Jaylen Brown.

Yao Ming had really experienced the difficulties and challenges of rural teaching. He taught in a rural primary school in Guang'an, Sichuan for 14 days. He also admitted that "the difficulties I have experienced are no comparable to those of the rural teachers present."

So, Yao Ming used the charity competition to raise funds and used public occasions to attend to expand the exposure of the "Hope Primary School Basketball Season". Because of this persistence, the China Youth Development Foundation formed a relationship with Yao Ming in 2008 and jointly established a Charity Charity Fund; since then, the NBA Care Action has also joined in, and they even specially sent the NBA International Youth Basketball Development Head to China to teach rural physical education teachers.

During this year's Yao Fund Charity Competition, Ye Dawei gave a set of amazing data: As of the end of 2024, Yao Fund has sent a total of 8,292 teaching volunteers to invest 4776,200 hours of sports teaching services in 6,388 rural schools, and feel the joy of basketball with nearly 7 million teenagers. Ye Dawei said proudly: "From the initial assistance and education to the deep empowerment of rural youth sports education through various forms such as sports teaching support, hardware support, league activities, etc., Yao Fund has grown into an important force in promoting the comprehensive and healthy development of Chinese youth." After 18 years of persistence, Yao Ming is using the charity competition and the "Hope Primary School Basketball Season" to lift more rural students to pursue their dreams with sports.

Many people don’t know that Yao Fund is “spending money” to do charity. Data shows that in 2024, Yao Fund's annual income is about 38 million yuan, and its annual expenditure exceeds 49 million yuan. In other words, Yao Fund has "updated" more than 10 million yuan in charity in the past year, while Yao Ming mentioned Yao Fund's charity projects in various events attended, hoping that rural teachers can have better resources to help children in the mountains.

"Everyone has his own family pressure, and everyone has his own family's real difficulties. We hope more people can care about and pay attention to sports. We also hope to find ways to get more people involved by calling for them." Yao Ming hopes that 18 years of charity competition can influence more people. He has said more than once that charity "is not just basketball". "When sports become an indispensable part of every public and lifestyle in daily life, then the goal of sports charity can naturally be achieved."