Retired NBA star Yao Ming has added another line to his post-basketball resume — politician — becoming a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature.

Since the 31-year-old Yao announced last July that injuries had ended his career with the Houston Rockets, he has become a university student and set up a wine business to go with owning a professional basketball team in China.

Photos in official media on Monday showed Yao at the weekend closing ceremony for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee.

“There are about 142 members in the group, and Yao is the youngest,” Kong Rong, who works in the service office of committee, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.

The advisory committee does not have any real power, but the newspaper said Yao is supposed to attend regular meetings, and can make suggestions for the advisory body and government departments.

Yao was quoted as saying “raising proposals is very serious business, and I do not want to be hasty.”

It is common for sports figures to move into politics in China. Olympic gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang is a member of both the Shanghai and national political advisory bodies.

Yao, one of the most popular celebrities in China from his eight seasons in the NBA, is a student at Jiaotong University, one of the top universities in his hometown Shanghai.

In November, he released the first-ever bottles of his new Yao Ming-branded wine, a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon currently available only in mainland China, where the market for imported wines has boomed over the past decade.

Source: The Daily Caller.

The Los Angeles Angels swooped in to win the Albert Pujols sweepstakes with a quarter-billion dollar offer the superstar slugger just could not refuse.

With his old team the St. Louis Cardinals and the Florida Marlins engaged in a bidding war for the first baseman’s services, the Angels appear to have blown everyone out of the water with a 10-year offer that may be as much as $260 million.

Pujols led his team to a World Series title this past season, but his longtime manager, Tony LaRussa, announced his retirement and Pujols previous contract expired. At the beginning of the season, the Cardinals exercised a $16 million option, which allowed them to keep their star at a below-market rate for the season. But Pujols rejected a multiyear extension and broke off talks during the season.

The Angels’ rookie general manager Jerry Dipoto pulled off the deal, but with Pujols set to turn 32 in January, the deal may last longer than his days as a productive player. He’s actually coming off the worst season in his illustrious 11-year career, having failed to bat .300 or drive in 100 runs for the first time.

A sure Hall of Famer, Pujols has a lifetime batting average of .328 with 445 home runs and 1,329 runs batted in. He’s been the National League’s Most Valuable Player three times.

CONTINUED at NBC Los Angeles.

We come not to buryDonovan McNabb, but to praise him. Sort of.

The veteran quarterback –waived unceremoniously yesterday by Minnesota — has had one heck of a career.

He’s a six-time Pro Bowl player with 37,227 passing yards (17th all-time), 234 touchdown passes (No. 22) and 3,170 completions (No. 14). And let’s not forget that he also was a rambling-scrambling man, running for 3,459 yards.

Will that be enough to get him to the Hall of Fame? He hasn’t won a Super Bowl, but he did get to that game once.

But he isn’t exactly going out in a blaze of glory. He was a non-factor with the Redskins and was only 1-5 as a starter for the Vikings before getting benched. What do you say. Does McNabb make it to Canton?

Source: USA Today. Poll at link.

*Taken from SLC Dunk.

Yao Ming, of the Houston Rockets, has retired from the NBA, according to a number of sources. Obviously, not directly Jazz related news, but we see the continuing death of true, back to the basket big men in the passing of Yao Ming from being an “active” player to retiring from the NBA. He will be missed. Love him or hate him, he was a very nice man who advanced basketball in his nation (China), his continent (Asia), and across the globe. Yes, he got a lot of All-Star votes every year – but you can’t hate a guy for being popular. (The under-reported issue is that the majority of Yao Ming votes came from the US, not China…) He finishes his NBA years with career averages of 19.0 ppg (52.4 fg%, 83.3 ft%), 9.2 rpg, and 1.9 bpg. Hall of Famer? He’ll get in for sure. Even if he only got out of the 1st round once in his career.

He will be missed.