yao ming tattoo

Yao Ming has gotten a tattoo.

• Born: 12 September 1980
• Birthplace: Shanghai, China
• Best Known As: Extra-tall Chinese basketball star

Yao was drafted by the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2002, and later that year became only the third Chinese national ever to play in the NBA. Yao was already famous, and famously tall: at 7'5" (2.26 meters) he towered over even most professional players, and he had played for China's national team in the 2000 Olympic Games and the 2002 FIBA World Championships. He also played five seasons with the Shanghai Sharks of the China Basketball Association.

Yao wears uniform #11... Both of Yao's parents played for the national basketball teams of China; his mother, Fang Feng Di, is 6'3" tall and his father Yao Zhi Yuan is 6'7"... Previous Chinese players in the NBA were Wang ZhiZhi, who joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2001, and Mengke (or Menk) Bateer, who joined the Denver Nuggets in 2001... The tallest man in modern recorded history was 8'11"


now it seems that tattoos in the NBA have become the standard rather than the exception. Some teams, such as Cleveland Cavaliers or Denver Nuggets, are so heavily inked that sometimes the games can look more like pick-up skirmishes in the prison yard rather than megastars dueling it out on primetime TV. I’m all for public exposure and acceptance of tattoos, but the gangsta-inclined tattoo trend in the NBA has reached almost ludicrous proportions. It seems that the only demographic maintaining virgin skin are foreign-born ballers, most of whom are from Eastern European countries, as well as a few highly visible Chinese athletes.
Well, the needle-thin curtain has come down.