Yao Ming he most famous stars in basketball Yao Ming is one oday. The center' r the Houston Rockets in the USA. is the tallest player in the country with a height of 2.29 meters. Yao was bom in Shanghai, China, in 1980. His mother was a star of the Chinese national women's basketball eam, and his father played for a team in Shanghai. By he age of nine, Yao was already 1.7 meters tall, but he wasn't interested in sports. He was a shy child who E to loved reading, especially about Chinese history when he was 12, coaches discovered him and enrolled him in a sports academy. In the 199os basketball became extremely popular in China, and Yao began training for his future career. In 1997, he joined the Shanghai Sharks, the Chinese Basketball Association team in his hometown. Before he joined, team was very unsuccessful the t Yao led them to the national championship. In the championship game, he made 21 shots and every one of therm was successful. This was a new world record. A foreign sports shoe company noticed Yao's talent, and sent him to their summer basketball camp in Paris. He met young players from ao around the world there, and was invited to a youth basketball program in e U.S. When Yao played with the Chinese national team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he got a lot of attention from international coaches. as The National Basketball Association (NBA) in the US. chose him to play professional basketball in 2002. He joined the Houston Rockets. In his first games, he scored only a few points, and his coaches thought he couldn't adjust to basketball in the U.S. But his playing improved very fast, and he soon scored 30 points in one game, In 2006, he received the most votes for the All-Star Team 30 Yao is a friendly man with a great sense of humor. This has made him popular with basketball fans around the world. He has made many television commercials for soft drinks, computers, and sports equipment, so everyone in America knows Yao Ming's name and his big smile. He was even the subject of a documentary film called "The Year of the about his first year in the U S Yao," 3s Today Yao Ming lives in Houston, Texas, with his parents during the basketball season. When he's not playing or practicing, he enjoys reading American newspapers to improve his English, or eating home-cooked Chinese meals prepared by his mother