Basketball Star Yao Ming Flag Carrier Of China

Yao Ming 7ft 6in (2.26 metre) NBA player and China's basketball superstar will carry the host nation's flag for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday. Yao is one of the best known Chinese athletes globally.

Yao Ming also carried his country's flag at the 2004 Athens Games opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, world tennis number one Roger Federer will celebrate his 27th birthday by carrying the Swiss flag at the Beijing ceremony.

"After serious consideration, we have decided that Yao Ming will be the flag bearer," announced Cui Dalin, the deputy chief of China's Olympic team.

Yao, a centre for the Houston Rockets, is the NBA's tallest player. He carried the Olympic torch through Tiananmen Square on Wednesday.

Federer, who is due to lose his world number one ranking to Spanish rival Rafael Nadal later this month, said representing his country is a dream come true.

He also carried the Swiss flag at the 2004 Olympics.

"To carry the flag is one of the achievements you only dream about. It was one of the great moments in my career," he said.

After a long winning streak, his career has slumped this year, with losses at the French Open and Wimbledon to Nadal.

Who Is Yao Ming
Yao Ming was born on September 12, 1980, Yao Ming is a Chinese professional basketball player who plays for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the tallest player in the NBA, at 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m).

Yao, who was born in Shanghai, China, started playing for the Shanghai Sharks as a teenager, and played on their senior team for five years in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), winning a championship in his final year. He entered the 2002 NBA Draft, and after negotiating with the CBA and the Sharks to secure his release, was selected by the Houston Rockets as the first overall pick of the draft. He has since been selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game in all six of his seasons, and has been named to the All-NBA Team four times. However, the Rockets have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since he joined the team, and he has missed significant time due to injury in each of the past three seasons.

Yao is married to Ye Li, a former player for the China women's national basketball team. He is one of China's best-known athletes, with sponsorships with several major companies, and he has been the richest celebrity in China for five straight years. His rookie year in the NBA was the subject of a documentary film and he co-wrote, along with NBA analyst Ric Bucher, an autobiography of his life, titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds.

Early Life And CBA Career
Yao was the only child of 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Yao Zhiyuan and 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) Fang Fengdi, both of whom were former professional basketball players. At 11 pounds (5.0 kg), Yao weighed more than twice as much as the average Chinese newborn, and he grew to be 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) by age ten. At that age, he was examined by sports doctors, who predicted that he would grow to 7 feet 3 inches (2.20 m). Yao started playing basketball at age nine, and he went to a junior sports school at the same age.

Yao first tried out for the Sharks junior team when he was 13, and he practiced for 10 hours a day to make the team. After playing with the junior team for four years, Yao joined the senior team of the Sharks at age 17, and averaged 10 points and 8 rebounds a game in his rookie season. However, his next season was cut short when he broke his foot for the second time in his career, which Yao said decreased his jumping ability by four to six inches (10 to 15 cm). The Sharks made the finals of the CBA in Yao’s third season and again the next year, but lost both times to the Bayi Rockets. When Wang Zhizhi left to become the first NBA player from China the following year, the Sharks finally won their first championship. During the playoffs in his final year with Shanghai, Yao averaged 38.9 points and 20.2 rebounds a game, while shooting 76.6% from the field, and made all 21 of his shots during one game in the finals.

FYI - 2008 Beijing Olympic Sports