A hectic schedule for ‘retired’ Yao Ming

(Ecns.cn)--He's gone back to school, launched a high-end wine label, visited Africa to protect wildlife, flown to London to be an Olympic commentator and even entered politics.

For former NBA star Yao Ming, retirement looks even busier than being employed, says China Newsweek.

After being elected to a political advisory committee in his hometown of Shanghai earlier this year, the 31-year-old said his new title "shows trust coming from the people of the city."

Yet his spokesman Zhang Chi denied during an interview with China Daily that Yao harbored any political aspirations.

"The responsibilities of a CPPCC member include offering political consultation, and supervision. What Yao wants is to use his influence to do good deeds for society, not seek a political position," Zhang told the newspaper.

Yao will have to juggle the new political job along with a fulltime gig at Shanghai's Jiaotong University, as well as his commitments as owner of a basketball team, the Shanghai Sharks. Yao had signed an agreement to buy the Sharks long before his injury took him off the court.

An All-Star center at the time, he said he wanted to "pay back his home team" where he started his career and "help Shanghai return to glory."

Yao, who entered his sophomore year in autumn, said he will focus on sports education, an area he is more familiar with. "Raising proposals is very serious business, and I do not want to be hasty," he said.

During the London Olympics, Yao was invited to be a television commentator, where he did his best to console the Chinese basketball team, which lost all five of their games.

Concerned for the future of China's athletes and children in general, Yao has launched his own charity organization—The Yao Ming Foundation—in a bid to improve the lives of children in both China and the U.S.

"With a well-functioning Yao Foundation, I'll try to promote charity work not only in my circle of friends, but also for the whole society," he once said.

Even when he was still an NBA player, Yao supported many charity initiatives such as the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program. In 2007, he organized a charity gala and basketball game with Steve Nash to raise money for charities in Beijing.

In August this year, the Yao Foundation Hope Primary School Basketball Season concluded in Leshan, Sichuan Province. Launched in April, the program reached almost 27,000 students from 47 primary schools in 17 cities nationwide, providing them with sports facilities and professional basketball guidance during the two-month course.

"The development of school sports activities in China remains small. Sports still lag far behind studies in terms of importance in students' school lives," Yao told China Daily.

He is also known for raising awareness of shark conservation. In 2011 Yao was honored by WildAid for speaking out against the horrors of the shark fin soup industry, which leaves 70 million sharks de-finned and left to die every year.

A WildAid goodwill ambassador, Yao also went to Africa in August to document the poaching crisis facing rhinos and elephants as a result of Asian demand for horns and ivory.