World's tallest hoopster signs Mexican contract

BEIJING: World's tallest professional basketball player, Sun Mingming from China, has signed a contract to play for Fuerza Regia in the Mexican basketball 2007-08 season.

Sun, towering at 7 feet 9 inches, taller than his more famous compatriot Yao Ming, said that Fuerza Regia was the best place for him to pursue his dream of playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) of the United States.

"Playing here will be a great challenge. I have already heard about this league and I want to take that challenge," Xinhua news agency quoted Sun, 24, as saying in Monterrey, in northern Mexico on Wednesday.

Sun will wear shirt number 79, a reference to his height. A 3.20-meter bed was built specially for his Mexican home.

Last season, Sun had played for the Nighthawks, a Premier Basketball League team based in Maryland, USA.

Sun, a centre, will try to help Regia stand out in the next Mexican season, he said.

"I have not come to score goals, I have come to help the team win," he said.

Sun is 8 cm taller than Yao Ming, centre for NBA team the Houston Rockets.

Sun was diagnosed two years ago with macromegalia, a condition that triggers excessive growth in limbs.

He had to have an operation to have a tumour, the cause of the macromegalia, removed from his pituitary gland and his medical bill was footed by donation worth USD 70,000 from the American fans.