Welcoming Yao Ming to the Hall were NBA legend Bill Russell, Bill Walton and former Houston Rockets teammate Dikembe Mutombo. Ming began his speech with an awesome joke. Ming said I thought Allen Iverson should’ve been the first to speak. But, then Ming realized he needed “more practise”. The obvious pun meant to touch on Iverson’s infamous 2006 “practice rant”.
Younger NBA fans might be missing out on the origin of the joke. This YouTube video encapsulates Iverson’s famous practice rant, where he mentions the word practice in a mere 2:23:
It was the best joke delivered the entire evening causing the audience to roar with laughter and applause.