Little giant adds color to Chinese basketball

"Little Giant" was no longer the trademark nickname for NBA Houston Rocket star Yao Ming.

Now it belongs to Sun Zhe, a 19-year-old boy from Tianjin.

Yao, a towering man at 2.26 meters, became the face of Chinese basketball and earned the international fame after joining the NBA in 2002.

Now people are looking for the successors to the 29-year-old Yao and they found Sun.

"They called me 'little Yao Ming'. I think to become someone like him is still something way in the future," said Sun, at 2.20mand 110kg.

Sun may not like the comparison but he can't avoid being part of it since the first day he stepped on the CBA court.

Sun played his first Chinese top professional league game on January 2, 2008 when the Guangdong club player had two points, five rebounds and five fouls in his 17 minutes on court.

"That was a mediocre opening," he recalled. He was probably aware that people started to relate him to Yao at that time.

Then he was sent to train in the Big Man Camp in the United States and hand-picked by a Maine high school coach to play in the high school league for nine months.

"I improved a lot during that period of time. They played a fiercer, more competitive game, so when I was back, I became stronger and faster," he said.

Sun was drafted into the national team for the first time for the East Asian Games and had 13 points and nine rebounds in his 20minutes playing time so far.

It was not an impressive result and Sun knows it well.

"I still needs much work to do, to improve my pace and strength," said the lanky boy.

Source:Xinhua