Yao Ming is not the tallest professional basketball player of all time

The tallest players to ever lace up in overseas leagues

Shanghai, September 12 1980, two former professional basketball players in China gave birth to their son, Yao Ming. Yao Ming's parents were 193cm and 201cm tall, according to some resources they were convinced to have a child in order to produce a great basketball player. Basketball has been a national sport since the 1890s, but it never produced great players due to the regime it suffered. But more and more freedom allowed players to become pro in China and overseas, yet the Chinese national team never produced an all time great player.

At 13 years old, Yao Ming was a staggering 2 meters tall, and trained hours a day, sometimes even getting supplements (vitamins and other substances) at various intervals in his childhood. But it paid off for China, as a growing talent joined the Shanghai Sharks at the age of 17, measuring at 215 cm tall.

After leading the Chinese national team to a reasonable 10th place at the 2000 Olympics, Yao Ming got drafted to the Houston Rockets in 2002, where he averaged 19 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks per game in his NBA career. Unfortunately he never won a ring with the Rockets, but became a fan favorite in Houston and in China. When the pubic was allowed to vote for MVPs and All Stars, Yao appeared in 8 All Stars within his 8 year long NBA career.

Yao Ming was forced to retire after multiple injuries, mostly due to his height which put lots of pressure on his knees and ankles. After a tremendous career in America, Ming went on to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016, 6 years after his retirement. At the time he was the fastest player to reach the Hall of Fame after retiring, which was matched by shaq the year after. Yao Ming may have had a short career, but his greatness is not to be compared with any other players over 7 foot 2.

But at 7 ft 6, or 229 cm, Yao Ming is not the tallest professional basketball player to ever play. That honor would go to Suleiman Ali Nashnush, a Libyan basketball player who played for the Libyan national team in the 60's, he never played in clubs even at 245 cm tall. Now 245 cm tall is almost too tall to be playing. It's hard to hear of a tall player that was that good, simply because being that tall is a torment on your health and body, which often leads to multiple injuries and early deaths.

Comparing Suleiman and Yao Ming is absurd, since one didn't play professionally and died when Yao Ming was only 13. But other players like Sun Mingming, another Chinese national, measured at 236cm tall in 2011. Sun played for the Beijing Ducks in the 2011-2012 season, never leaving China or overseas to play professionally. Sun Mingming played from 2006 to 2014, having a similar time span as Yao Ming. They share a similar story in careers filled with injuries and never winning a championship. Sun Mingming made himself eligible for the NBA draft in 2005, but never saw any success as NBA teams didn't take the risk to sign him at that height. After years of playing in the CBA, Mingming put his shoes down and left a great playing career behind him.

If you ever watched the 2010 football (for some people soccer) world cup, you might have noticed the North Korean football team playing against greats like Ronaldo and Robinho. But North Korea also has a basketball team, which consists of Ri Myung-hun, a 235cm player who would play for the national team. His height was greatly advantageous, especially in a dictatorship, where playing poorly can lead to being sent to working camps with their families. Thankfully Myung-hun played the home of basketball somewhat successfully. Unfortunately, not a lot is known about the player, besides that he is 55 now and met former Bulls forward and 5 times champion, Dennis Rodman.

Yao Ming is clearly not the tallest basketball player to ever lace up, but he is the only one to have made it to the NBA due to his skills and height advantage. And if Yao Ming isn't the tallest basketball player ever, he is surely the tallest to make it to the NBA and the Hall of Fame. He is possibly the best tallest basketball player of all time.