Former NBA star Yao Ming (L) is awarded a retiring jersey of the Chinese men's national team as its lifetime member during an official ceremony to mark his retirement in Beijing, July 25, 2011. [Photo/titan24.com]

Basketball star Yao Ming's playing days may be over, but on the Internet the name continues to shine.

Domain names related to the world-famous player, who announced his retirement earlier this year, are attracting a lot of attention and prices for anything related to the former Houston Rockets center seem to be, well, rocketing.

The price for domain names such as "yaoming.cn" and "yaoming.com.cn" are reaching up to 1 million yuan (US$156,654). There are a number of other sites featuring the name also for sale.

Thousands of potential buyers have been logging on to the sites for their sale information recently. However, few have been willing to pay the prices asked so far.

"Yao and his team won't give up such an important and valuable business brand," Wu Bowei, the owner of "yaoming.cn," said. He was hoping Yao or his representatives would be interested in acquiring the domain name which he estimated to be worth at least 1 million yuan.

Official records show that the domain name "yaoming.cn" was registered in 2006.

On another website, "yaoming.com.cn," a message reads: "This domain name is for sale."

"The domain name is only reserved for those enterprises or persons who have strong economic power and strategic vision," said the owner, Han Long. Han put the value of his domain name at around 100,000 yuan.

"Although Yao has retired he's still got much influence," said Han. "The value of the domain names will rise."

Lu Hao, an official with Team Yao, told Shanghai Daily yesterday the team hadn't been aware of the current interest in domain names related to the star.

There was a similar Internet domain name rush between 2006 and 2007 when sites featuring the former player's name came up for sale.

However, a lawyer warned that domain name buyers could get themselves in trouble if Yao or his team took them to court.

"Though the owners may register the domain names in legitimate ways at first hand, celebrities like Yao have the rights to their name," said Shanghai lawyer Liu Chunquan, a specialist in intellectual property rights.

Liu said Yao would win cases if he went on court.

"It largely depends on Yao and his team's attitude toward the issue," Liu said.