Sun Mingming (, born August 23, 1983) is a Chinese former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He is the tallest professional basketball player in the world and was measured by the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as 2.36m tall and weighing 168kg.

Early life

He was born in a small town near

Bayan County Bayan County () is a county of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang. It borders Mulan County to the east, Bin County to the south, Hulan Distr ...

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

Heilongjiang Province Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

, China. He has two siblings: a brother and a sister. He did not begin playing basketball until he was 15 years old.

College career

Sun attended and played basketball at

Ventura College Ventura College is a public community college in Ventura, California. Established in 1925, the college has a campus with an enrollment of 13,763 students. It is part of the Ventura County Community College District. History Ventura College ...

, a community college in Ventura, CA. He played basketball there for only the 2005–2006 season, before moving on to play professional basketball.

Basketball career

United States

Sun played with several American minor league teams, including the

USBL The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...

team

Dodge City Legend The Dodge City Legend was a professional basketball franchise located in Dodge City, Kansas in the United States Basketball League, a minor league that played in the spring. The Legend won three USBL titles, in 2000, its first season, 2003 and in ...

, the ABA team

Maryland Nighthawks The Washington GreenHawks were a team of the Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League (ACPBL) based in Washington, D.C. As the Maryland Nighthawks they were formerly part of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and a founding member o ...

, and the IBL team

Grand Rapids Flight The Grand Rapids Flight were a team in the International Basketball League based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Flight underwent a office change in 2007 when David Fox took over the roles of General manager and Head Coach from founder Tyler Whit ...

. He was also drafted by the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...

in 2007, being the tallest player in their history to be drafted by them, although he would never play for them.

Mexico and Japan

Later, Sun played in the

Mexican league The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country. The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five te ...

with

Fuerza Regia The Fuerza Regia de Monterrey (''Monterrey Royal Force'' in English) is a Mexican professional basketball team based in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico playing in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP). They currently play their home gam ...

and in Japan's

bj league The was a professional basketball league in Japan that began in November 2005 as a six-team league. The league was operated as a competitor to the established Japan Super League which was run by the Japan Basketball Association, the official go ...

with Hamamatsu Phoenix.

Return to China

In 2009, he returned to China to play for the

Beijing Ducks The Beijing Shougang Ducks (''simplified Chinese'': 北京首钢鸭俱乐部篮球队), also known as Beijing Shougang or Beijing Ducks, are a professional basketball team based in Beijing, China, which plays in the North Division of the Chi ...

in the

Chinese Basketball Association The Chinese Basketball Association (), often abbreviated as the CBA, is the first-tier professional men's basketball league in China. The league is commonly known by fans as the CBA, and this acronym is even used in Chinese on a regular basis ...

(CBA). Sun and the Ducks advanced to the 2012 CBA Finals but the Ducks lost in the finals that year. He was a part of the Ducks' 2014 CBA Finals and 2015 CBA Finals championship winning teams.

Personal life

In the summer of 2005, Sun discovered that he had a benign

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

attached to his

pituitary gland In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The ...

. Because he had neither health insurance nor enough money to pay for the more than $100,000 in medical bills, his sports agent, Avery Loi, started a fundraiser to raise the necessary money. The tumor was successfully removed on September 26, 2005. On 4 August 2013, he married Xu Yan, who is tall. They are recognized by

as the tallest living married couple with their combined height of .

Filmography

Film

TV series

References

External links

*
An article about him
in

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sun, Mingming 1983 births 21st-century Chinese male actors Basketball players from Harbin Beijing Ducks players Centers (basketball) Chinese expatriate basketball people in the United States Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Japan Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Chinese male film actors Chinese male television actors Chinese men's basketball players Expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Fuerza Regia de Monterrey players Living people Male actors from Harbin Male actors from Heilongjiang People with acromegaly People with gigantism San-en NeoPhoenix players