Listening to the talk this week, you might wonder if Shaquille O’Neal received a pacifier for his 37th birthday. Perhaps Yao Ming re-gifted one of his. Yep, the two big ol’ 7-foot-plus stars gathered ...

TORONTO -- Shaquille O'Neal was just 9 years old when his stepfather began teaching him basketball with a plan to dominate like Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Young Shaquille ...

Yao did not try to play down the significance of an event that has spawned many subtitles: Shaq Fu vs. Ming the Merciless, Shaq Daddy vs. Chairman Yao, The Big Aristotle vs. The Little Giant.

We kind of knew Yao Ming was big in China. And he has seemed quite the sensation in the United States. But Thursday's sudden development was as unexpected as it was unprecedented. Yao passed Shaquille ...