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A tall order but Sun still has his sights set on NBA

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-28 10:11

JINAN, Shandong province: Height is not always an asset on a basketball court.

Yao Ming dominates the NBA at 2.26 meters. However, another Chinese basketball player, Sun Mingming, stands an astonishing 2.36m but sometimes feels he is simply too tall for the game.

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Competing at the National Games for his home province team Heilongjiang, Sun was virtually a non-factor in the side's five preliminary round losses.

Spectators shouted "pass the ball to Mingming" but they were disappointed by a giant who came up small by trudging from end to end and making many turnovers.

"He's tall but slow," a spectator murmured.

"He has the body but no skills," another said during his team's match against hosts Shandong.

Few people knew Sun, who weighs 370 pounds, was playing with an injured right ankle. He picked up the injury during the qualifying rounds of the Games in May, just two days after he finished playing in the semifinals of the Japanese BJ League for Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix.

"I think I tried my best, it's all I could do," the 26-year-old told China Daily after averaging 7.6 points and 6.8 rebounds during the tournament.

"It's hard to regain your form after being away from basketball for three months," he said of the injury which forced him to miss the new season in Japan and only allowed him to start training for the Games a week before they started.

"I'm OK with any response from the crowd. They cheer when you play good; boo when you make mistakes. It's normal," he said. "I'm not playing my first match here and I did not become this tall overnight. I have gotten used to all this stuff."

Sun has experienced many ups and downs in his 11 years of basketball.

Born in Bayan, a small county in China's northeast Heilongjiang province, Sun did not play formal basketball until he was 15. The then 2m-tall teenager was recruited by the provincial team's coach immediately after being introduced.

"I had no idea about basketball at all at that time. I just thought it would be great to go to Harbin (the capital city of Heilongjiang province) to have better food and to have more friends," Sun said.

After seven years of playing for the local youth team, Sun went to the US in early 2005 to train for a possible career in the NBA. He was declared eligible in the 2005 NBA draft but was not selected, mainly due to his lack of speed and mobility.

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