BEIJING (AFP) -- The wife of NBA center Yao Ming is expecting their first child, sending netizens into a frenzy of hope for a new generation to lead China's basketball team in the future. "The news that Ye Li is pregnant is true. Yao Ming and his wife would like to thank all those who are showing concern," Yao's China-based spokesman Zhang Chi said in a statement to leading portal Sina.com on Tuesday. "Out of concern for Ye Li's state of mind and the need for a relaxed environment, it is not convenient to offer any further information concerning the baby," the spokesman said. According to the Beijing News, the 29-year-old Houston Rocket -- out for the season as he recovers from a foot injury -- is expected to become a father in July. No decision has been made on where the baby will be born. Both Yao and his wife -- once a centre on China's women's national basketball team -- are the offspring of professional athletes. They reportedly married at the request of sports officials in their hometown of Shanghai. Ever since the 2.29-metre (seven-foot-six-inch) Yao married his 1.90-metre wife in 2007, speculation has run rampant as to when their first baby would be born, Sina.com noted. As both Yao and his wife were born in the 1980s and are only children, the couple will be allowed to give birth to two children under China's recently relaxed "one-child" family planning policy, the report said. "We hope that Yao Ming and Ye Li will go further and raise more pillars of the next generation of Chinese basketball," it said. In a Sina.com online poll, 76 percent of more than 29,000 people voting said that Yao's child was likely to grow taller than 2.05 metres, while 33 percent said the baby would grow taller than 2.20 metres. Yao and his wife returned to China late last year to do promotional work for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and to launch the season of the Shanghai Sharks, a professional Chinese basketball club that Yao recently purchased. Hopefully if the baby is a boy he'll be a Rocket :grin: Link: http://www.nba.com/2010/news/01/04/yao.father.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2
Rockets call dibs? I think it's messed up that China is already pigeon-holing an unborn baby to play basketball for them. What if he/she wants to be a writer or something? It's like they're breeding athletes like they do horses.
this is definitely BS... Yao went through a lot chasing after Ye; so no way this is an arranged thing. People just get uber crazy and imaginative when China is in the story line.
There is no way China isn't going to demand that those kids be born in China. China will not have put in all that work for their product, errr I mean, Yaos kids to be playing on the US team against them in the Olympics.
China isn't a corny evil communist country like the ones depicted in movies. That would be North Korea.
We could trade the birth rights of Yao's first born child +Tmac + Brian Cook for maybe CP3 or something.
LMAO ... Congratulations to Yao Ming and Ye Li, an opportune time to start their family, while Yao is still recovering from his foot reconstruction. I've never seen such hype about a pregnancy since Prince Charles and Princess Diana, maybe. C'mon, Chinese fans, don't put too much pressure on them.
in Australian Rules Football (AFL) there is a 'father-son' rule whereby the team has rights to the son if the father played at least 50 games for the club. We need this rule before young Ming is eligible for the NBA draft....all 8 feet of him. :grin:
You may not believe me who is just another guy on the internet but their story is that Yao and Ye Li met when they were playing junior basketball in Shanghai. Yao chased Ye Li for a few years until he was finally successful and they been dating ever since. That writing made it up. Believe what you want but this is the story their relationship story that i have always read and heard about.
