World's Tallest Basketballer Signs Mexican Contract
 Mathaba - Xinhua
| | The world's tallest professional basketball player, China's Sun Mingming, on Wednesday signed a contract to play for Fuerza Regia for the 2007 to 2008 Mexican basketball season. |
Mexico City - Speaking to press in Monterrey, the northern Mexico city that is the team's home, the 2.36-meter-high player told media that he believes Fuerza Regia is the best place for him to pursue his dream of playing in the United States's top basketball league, the National Basketball Association (NBA).
"Playing here will be a great challenge. I have already head about this league and I want to take that challenge," Sun, 24, told 30 reporters.
In the last season he had played for the Nighthawks, a Premier Basketball League team based in the U.S. state of Maryland.
Sun, a center, will try to help Regia stand out in the next Mexican season, he said.
"I have not come to score goals, I have come to help the team win," said Sun, who was born in Heilonjiang, northeast China.
Sun is 8cm taller than Yao Ming, center for NBA team the Houston Rockets. He was diagnosed two years ago with macromegalia, a condition that triggers excessive growth in limbs.
Sun had to have an operation to have a tumor, the cause of the macromegalia, removed from his pituitary gland and because he did not have enough money for the operation, his United States agent opened an account and found the 70,000 U.S. dollars needed by appealing to the public.
Sun will wear shirt number 79, a reference to seven feet nine, his height measured in inches. A special 3.20-meter bed was build specially for his Mexican home.
Fuerza Regia will have their first game of the 24-team National Professional Basketball League on Sept. 9. |
Vallarta Weddings
News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2007 
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