Yao Ming rumoured to get married this summer

midnight · Apr 5, 2006

Yetti said:

Why would they want the stigma of a b*stard child? Marriage is supposed to come first before having children!
Click to expand...

t-mac ?? got 2 b*stard child eh?

MR. MEOWGI · Apr 5, 2006

Xenochimera said:

with short hair she isnt pretty at all, with longer hair she not bad looking. and theres definately good looking 6-3 females, i think the captain our female volley ball team is 6-3.
Click to expand...

That's what I think. She is pretty. I just don't like the short hair.

lalala902102001 · Apr 5, 2006

I don't care what Yao does off the court. If he wants to get married, get married.

We only need him to come back strong next year. If he can play like what he did in the second half this year for an entire season next year, the Rockets will be going places.

xcomputerman · Apr 5, 2006

lalala902102001 said:

I don't care what Yao does off the court. If he wants to get married, get married.

We only need him to come back strong next year. If he can play like what he did in the second half this year for an entire season next year, the Rockets will be going places.
Click to expand...

And let me guess ... if he comes back next year and has problems, you'll be the first one calling for a KG trade again.

So typical of Houston fans.

RocketForever · Apr 5, 2006

Let's start the contract talk with the agent of mini-Ming who is due to arrive in this world in 2007. 8'1" and 380? If Yao happens to be able to play until 44 years old, we may be able to see a matchup of senior Yao against mini-Yao in 2025.

real_egal · Apr 5, 2006

RocketForever said:

Let's start the contract talk with the agent of mini-Ming who is due to arrive in this world in 2007. 8'1" and 380? If Yao happens to be able to play until 44 years old, we may be able to see a matchup of senior Yao against mini-Yao in 2025.
Click to expand...

I guess both Yao would be loyal, so the scenario would be senior Yao backups junior Yao, or better yet, Twin Towers!

Tree-Mac · Apr 5, 2006

i was about to say she could give him head standing until i saw the pictures. how tall is she?! i thought him having a gf was a rumor. and now he's getting married?! whoa.

pirc1 · Apr 5, 2006

Tree-Mac said:

i was about to say she could give him head standing until i saw the pictures. how tall is she?! i thought him having a gf was a rumor. and now he's getting married?! whoa.
Click to expand...

She is about 6-3. They have been dating for like 5 or 6 years

pryuen · Apr 5, 2006

pirc1 said:

She is about 6-3. They have been dating for like 5 or 6 years
Click to expand...

From what I read, they have started much longer than 5 or 6 years. They were players of Shanghai Sharks (male) and Shanghai Octopus (female); and Yao Ming started to have a crush on Ye since he was 17 years old, but had been refused a couple times, and not until after a particular Chinese New Year event in 2001 that Ye was finally impressed.

Let me try to find that article that I once translated and posted on YMM 3 years ago.

pryuen · Apr 5, 2006

OKAY.....GOT IT. This is what I posted 3 years ago on YMM. An interview of Ye Li when she revealed for the first time that she is the girl friend of Yao Ming.

http://sports.sohu.com/58/25/news209452558.shtml

In summary, the reporter went to Kunming (where the China Woman National Team were training) and invited Ye Li out for an interview, and Ye Li told the reporter about how her romance with Yao Ming had started:

Their romance seriously started when Yao Ming travelled to Beijing from Shanghai in the early morning of the second day of Chinese New Year in 2001 to see Ye Li who was in Beijing for China National Team training; Yao waited down at Ye Li's dormitory in the snow; phoned Ye up and Ye hesitated to go out with Yao; at advices of her team mates, she finally agreed to go out for dinner with Yao. After dinner, Yao Ming happily travelled back to Shanghai on the same night.

According to Ye, when Yao was still in Shanghai, they seldom had chances to date like ordinary boys and girls as they had to take part in competition and training. Yao often took Ye out for midnight movies at the theatres. Yao also bought lots of stuff toys for Ye which she treasured and slept with at night time.

Before Yao went to Houston, it was Ye's birthday. Yao was busy, but he gave 5000 RMB to his friend who bought a full cart of stuff toy for Ye. Amongst the stuff toys was a big monkey (as Yao was born in the Year of the Monkey !!). When Ye received the stuff toys, there were so many that she could not keep them all in her dormitory. So she custodied a lot of the stuff toys at her team mates' rooms.

After Yao Ming returned from Houston, he was very busy in his various activities (like the May 11 SARS telethon). After he went to Beijing on May 12th, he did not travel immediately to QinHuangDao to rejoin the China National Team, but chose to stay behind in Beijing and squeezed out time to surprise Ye Li and the China Woman National Team during their training. The China Woman National Team travelled to Kunming on May 15 for centralized training, and Ye Li stayed behind in Beijing for another 3 days. During that 3 days, Yao and Ye trained together, and Yao coached Ye on some of her basketball skills as a center. Ye then flied to Kunming on the 18th and Yao departed for QinHuangDao shortly afterwards.

Ye and Yao belonged to the same team in Shanghai; they grew up and trained together and had known each other since they were kids. She did not revealed when their romance really started, or whether it started on that Chinese New Year day when Yao travelled to Beijing just to see her. But the definitive turning point could be when Yao went to NBA last October; due to her injury on her right knee, Yao arranged everything for Ye to travel to USA for treatment. Ye stayed for over a month there. Right after her stay, they both began to wear a red string on their wrists.

In her eyes, Yao Ming is almost perfect and unqiue. She did not watch NBA just because of Yao Ming; but she won't miss Yao Ming's matches if she got the chances; she would even tape some of them for later review at her spare time.

Ye Li is a Shanghainese, 22 years old. 1.9m; 83 Kg. She likes fashion and music; She plays forward for the Shanghai Dong Feng (Oriental); She was with the Asian Youth championship team of the China Woman Youth Team in 1998; she made the China National Team in 1999; she is fast and mobile, and played over 10 international games with the China Woman National Team. She missed the Woman World Championship and the Asian Games last year due to her injury. She has now recovered from her injury, and wish she could represent China again soon. She looks forwards to playing for WNBA in USA in future.

Click to expand...

pryuen · Apr 5, 2006

Of course.......one of those rare articles in the media in the past about their relationship.

http://houstonpress.com/issues/2003-04-24/news2.html

The Love of Giants
Yao Ming and Ye Li won't be seeing each other May 6 after all

BY JOHN GUO

SARS shot down the reunion in Houston.

BEIJING (SNG) -- Houston Rockets star Yao Ming comes across as clean-cut as a preppie from a New England boarding school. No earrings. Nice haircut. No tattoos, which is something of a novelty in the NBA.

But make no mistake. Yao is making plenty of statements with his appearance. After wearing No. 15 in Shanghai and 13 on the Chinese national team, Yao's jersey for the Rockets sports the No. 11 on his back, which happens to be same number as Ye Li's on the Chinese national women's team.

It's no coincidence.

Then there's the red string bracelet he wears. It's one of a pair, with the other half being worn by, well, you guessed it. The bracelet apparently was handmade by Ye.

As with any other celebrity, ever since "Little Giant," as he is affectionately called by the Chinese media, took the NBA by storm and became an instant star, fans and the media have started expressing an interest in the private side of Yao. But so far, he has managed to keep it out of the spotlight. Both Yao and Ye have remained tight-lipped about their relationship. "It's a personal question, and I have the right to not answer," Ye told a reporter. Yao has a similar answer whenever asked about his life off the court. Ye's friends and coaches also don't reveal much about her private life.

What once was courting between two local youngsters in Shanghai has now turned into a extra-long-distance relationship that spreads over half the globe (it's 7,222 miles between Shanghai and Houston as the crow flies), involves a media frenzy previously unknown to the two and sudden wealth that was beyond their imagination only a few years ago.

But for now, they say, love is secondary.

"Basketball is the most important thing in my life now," Ye says.

Hoops is what brought them together in the first place, and it was what almost reunited them in Houston, at least for a short while.

The Chinese national team was scheduled to play the Comets in a preseason matchup on May 6. Then came SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, the pneumonialike illness that has killed more than 100 people and infected thousands worldwide, leading to a global health scare (the disease spread from China, and the government there is accused of underreporting the new epidemic). The Chinese team canceled the trip to Texas because of SARS and the war in Iraq, and with it went the long-awaited reunion.

The Rugby Sevens tournament as well as the women's ice hockey world championship in Beijing in April also fell victim to SARS, but that's certainly no consolation for Ye and Yao, who stay in touch by phone and e-mail.

That Yao had an interest in someone on the national team became apparent when Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich traveled to China for a workout with Yao prior to his signing with the team.

"I saw him work out one day, and I was talking to Yao about things we'd want to do, and I realized after a minute or two that he wasn't looking at me," Tomjanovich told reporters. "His mind was somewhere else, and I thought, 'Whoa, maybe I've got a problem.' Then I turned around and looked where he was looking, and I saw the Chinese women's team had come in to start their practice at the other end of the floor. He was looking at the girls. I guess some things are the same all over."

While Ye is in many ways your typical girl from next door, she stands out wherever she goes. Her six-foot-three frame pretty much takes care of that. The 21-year-old was born in Shanghai and plays center for the Shanghai Octopus. The team is owned by the Orient Club, which also owns the Shanghai Sharks, Yao's former team. The Octopus and Sharks share the same gym, and it was just a matter of time until the two, towering over their teammates -- and everyone else, for that matter -- would make eye contact.

Exactly when that happened is anyone's guess. They met in their teenage years and soon learned that their height, as well as Yao quickly emerging as the country's best basketball player, didn't make it any easier to date. So they sneaked out to midnight movies to avoid the crowds.

In many ways, the two have faced a dilemma all too familiar to young couples. One of them got a job offer that was too good to pass up and had to move.

Whether Ye will follow one day remains unknown.

She's into fashion and music and talking to her friends. One point on which the two agree to disagree is their basketball idols. She calls Michael Jordan the god of basketball, while he seems to favor Hakeem Olajuwon, maybe not surprisingly so, considering the similarities (Olajuwon was the first foreign-born player to be picked as the No. 1 draft; whether Yao can also help the Rockets win back-to-back titles remains to be seen, of course).

"There are so many people who love Michael Jordan and I decided to make a unusual selection, so I have to choose Hakeem Olajuwon as my idol," Yao said.

Ye made the Chinese national youth team for the first time in 1998. A year later, she was named rookie of the year on China's national team. Many consider her to be a potential star, if she can keep injuries at bay.

She has been out for the better part of the last 15 months, nursing a bad right knee. Many advised her to hang up her shoes and call it quits, but the strong-willed Ye refused to listen. She was relegated to the bench this past season, while recovering. When Ye finally hit the court again last month, she was quickly added to the national team roster by coach Gong Luming.

"This is Ye Li's spirit," Gong said, referring to her determination to come back to basketball at all costs. "Her spirit means hard work, persistence and eyeing to be the No. 1 at all times."

Last year, after the Chinese men's team lost to Germany, the United States, Angola, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey and Argentina in the world championships, Yao was inconsolable.

He felt he had let down his team as the only superstar on the roster. In fact, he was so ticked off that he turned down a birthday gift from Ye that was meant to cheer him up.

"He is unhappy," Ye said last year. "He is angry with the team's performance in the tournament."

But as seriously as they take basketball, Yao and Ye can shake it off, too. Soon enough, Yao bought two plush toys for Ye. One is a rabbit, the other a huge elephant, which she uses as a pillow.
Click to expand...

Nice Rollin · Apr 5, 2006

okayy

mleahy999 · Apr 5, 2006

Pryuen, I sincerely hope that you're either a woman or Ted Casablanca.

If people thought Yao Ming's dating options were limited, what is the dating pool for a 6'3" woman?

thetennisyao · Apr 5, 2006

Another reason for yao to skip the chinese national team practice. Those practices are such bs imo. Let those young players get some training.

wnes · Apr 5, 2006

mleahy999 said:

If people thought Yao Ming's dating options were limited, what is the dating pool for a 6'3" woman?
Click to expand...

Not a problem, plenty of George Mings out there.

Simpa · Apr 5, 2006

KingCheetah said:

Yao is a playa -- he'll never get married.
Click to expand...

i don't see this

what's the logic behind?

pirc1 · Apr 5, 2006

Simpa said:

i don't see this

what's the logic behind?
Click to expand...

Somone needs a new joke meter.

pryuen · Apr 6, 2006

Sort of a titbit about the deep love and crush of Yao Ming in Ye Li.

The reason why he chose his Rockets jersey number to be 11 was because Ye Li's jersey number is 11 in the national team.

When he ordered his BMW 745, he specially requested BMW to carve onto the back of the car a sign "YY-11" which signify Yao Ming-Ye Li 11: 11 being their jersey numbers at the Rockets and the Chinese woman national team !!! The carpets in the BMW also has YY-11 engraved on them.

http://sports.sina.com.cn/s/2004-03-13/0807191274s.shtml

azjw · Apr 7, 2006

During yesterday's Hou vs Por game broadcast, Shanghai TV clearly clarified that the 'marriage' thing is NOT true.

The announcer nick named 'Xiao Hei' (little black boy) disclosed that Shanghai TV NBA reporter saw Yao Ming got furious and totally disgusted by the rumor. And Yao seriously denied it. It happened in the evening before the Por game when Yao had dinner with Shanghai TV crew.

Shanghai TV is usually a trustworth source for any info related to Yao's life.
So Yao won't get married this summer. Mark it.

Forums

Yao Ming rumoured to get married this summer

midnight Member

MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

lalala902102001 Member

xcomputerman Contributing Member

RocketForever Member

real_egal Member

Tree-Mac Member

pirc1 Member

pryuen Member

pryuen Member

pryuen Member

Nice Rollin Member

mleahy999 Member

thetennisyao Member

wnes Contributing Member

Simpa Member

pirc1 Member

pryuen Member

azjw Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!