Sun Mingming

Sun Mingming
	Sun in 2006
Personal information
Born	August 23, 1983 (age 41); Bayan County, China
Listed height	2.36 m (7 ft 9 in)
Listed weight	168 kg (370 lb)
Career information
College	Ventura College (2005–2006)
NBA draft	2005: undrafted
Playing career	2006–2012
Position	Center
Career history
2006	Dodge City Legend
2007	Maryland Nighthawks
2007	Grand Rapids Flight
2007	Fuerza Regia
2008	Grand Rapids Flight
2008–2009	Hamamatsu Phoenix
2009–2012	Beijing Ducks

Sun Mingming (Chinese: 孙明明; pinyin: Sūn Míngmíng, born August 23, 1983) is a Chinese former professional basketball player. He was the tallest professional basketball player in the world and was measured by the Guinness World Records as 2.36 m (7 ft 9 in) tall and weighing 168 kg (370 lb).^[1]

Early life

He was born in a small town near Bayan County, Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, China. He has two siblings: a brother and a sister.^[2] He did not begin playing basketball until he was 15 years old.^[3]

College career

Sun attended and played basketball at 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.^[4]

Basketball career

United States

Sun played with several American minor league teams, including the USBL team Dodge City Legend,^[5] the ABA team Maryland Nighthawks,^[6] and the IBL team Grand Rapids Flight. He was also drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters 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 with Fuerza Regia^[7] and in Japan's bj league with Hamamatsu Phoenix.

Return to China

In 2009, he returned to China to play for the Beijing Ducks in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

Personal life

In the summer of 2005, Sun discovered that he had a benign tumor attached to his pituitary gland.^[8] Because he had neither health insurance nor enough money to pay for the more than $100,000 in medical bills, his sports agent, Charles Bonsignore of Passing Lane Sports, started a fundraiser to raise the necessary money.^[9] The tumor was successfully removed on September 26, 2005.^{[citation needed]}

On 4 August 2013, he married Xu Yan, who is 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall. They are recognized by Guinness World Records as the tallest living married couple with their combined height of 13 feet 10.72 inches (423.47 cm).^[10]