AT 7-FOOT-8, CHINA'S SUN MING MING IS AN INTRIGUING NBA PROSPECT TALL TALE.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

He stands 7-foot-8, weighs 360 pounds, wears a size 6XL jersey and seems to be the reason camera phones were invented whenever he ventures out in public.

He arrived in the United States only three months ago and already is the star of a reality television project, tentatively titled ``The Great Tall of China.''

He has the story to be basketball's Sidd Finch, George Plimpton's mythical pitcher from the pages of Sports Illustrated, as well as the next Yao Ming, all at only 21 years of age.

The only question is whether Sun Ming Ming can be made into an NBA player ... and whether any team might take a gamble on him even if he can't.

``The general consensus is he's probably a year or a year-and-a-half away,'' said Ventura-based agent Charles Bonsignore, who first spotted Sun two years ago when his Chinese junior national team played in Los Angeles. ``But he's going to need to do it in the NBA. It's about finding the right team for him to develop because the upside could be enormous.''

If he sounds like the stuff of fiction, Sun is very much flesh and blood. With no first-division team in his home, Heilongjiang province, near the Russian border, Sun is the first player China has allowed to leave without a pro contract and train in the United States.

He spent five weeks working out in Greensboro, N.C., and is eligible for the June 28 NBA draft. Scouts from Utah, Washington, Indiana, Toronto, Milwaukee and Charlotte traveled to see him, and Sun auditioned April 29 for the Lakers on his way back to China.

``He's a big project,'' Lakers assistant general manager Ronnie Lester said. ``He has a ways to go.''

Utah scout Troy Weaver said he thought Sun probably was an NBA player, depending on what system he would play in and how much he improved in the next year. Sun has played organized basketball for only 7 1/2 years and has done virtually no strength training.

``He has a good shooting touch and a decent feel for the game,'' Weaver added. ``He doesn't have great lift off the floor. He really has to improve his footwork as far as moving side to side and getting up and down the court.''

If nothing else, Sun already has been good for one of the lines of the year in the NBA. One scout, who perhaps had seen too many small forwards, sized up Sun to Bonsignore by saying, ``He's not really a long 7-8.''

Keep in mind that Sun's hands make it look as if he's playing with a softball. He can dunk without leaving the ground and might be the tallest living person on the planet. (The Guinness Book of World Records says a 7-foot-8 Tunisian man currently holds that distinction.)

``If he puts his arms up,'' Bonsignore said of Sun, ``you can't see the basket.''

One other thing: Sun's growth plates still haven't closed.

How much more he could grow is in question but Sun already would qualify as the tallest player in NBA history, should he make it, eclipsing Manute Bol and Gheorghe Muresan, who combined to play 16 seasons.

``You could say he was 8 feet tall,'' said Rocky Manning, whose family hosted Sun in Greensboro, ``and people wouldn't second-guess you.''

Sun arrived in Greensboro on March 8 to train with Keith Gatlin, who played at Maryland and was Bonsignore's first client. Gatlin also played eight seasons in Germany, France and Greece, which made him well aware of the cultural barriers Sun was facing.

``He understands a whole lot more than he lets on,'' Gatlin said. ``I know I was the same way.''

Meanwhile, Sun was taken in by the Mannings, who have three boys, a hoop in the driveway and an SUV with a big enough backseat to accommodate a 7-footer. The family was hosting another local basketball player in addition to Sun.

From his first day with the Mannings, Sun tuned out the available Chinese language television station and set about trying to learn as much English as possible, even if that meant communicating by hand signals in the beginning.

Bonsignore said Sun quickly learned how to say, ``I'm sorry, not right now,'' to the autograph seekers and camera-phone paparazzi who are part of his daily life.

The family took Sun along wherever it went, from church to the zoo to the golf course. They even were able to get Wrangler to custom-make two pairs of size-50 jeans for Sun, who slept diagonally across a queen-size bed in their home.

Before he left last month, Sun was the guest of honor at a local school for an assembly on Chinese history and multiculturalism.

Gatlin, meanwhile, was in charge of Sun's basketball education, giving him the coaching that wasn't available in China. One theory as to why Sun shoots so well - he hit 28 consecutive free throws two weeks ago - is that all he did was stand in line waiting to shoot back home.

Through an interpreter, Sun said he saw his first NBA game when he was in primary school, lists Tim Duncan as his favorite current player and said he would be a coach if he wasn't a basketball player. But for all the comparisons between Yao and Sun, the two could not have more different backgrounds.

Both of Yao's parents played for the Chinese national team while Sun is the son of two shopkeepers from a small town in China's northernmost province, where the winters are nothing short of Siberian.

Yao was the No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft and an All-Star his rookie season. Sun is a second-round pick at best whose ideal situation might come if the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement allows him to be assigned to the developmental league.

If he is not drafted, Sun will continue working out and try to sign as a free agent next year.

``He's such a nice kid,'' Gatlin said of Sun. ``I think everything's happening so fast for him, with all the attention. Once you cross that line and go to the NBA, it's a different animal.''

The league office became aware of Sun through media reports out of Greensboro.

The prospect of a 7-foot-8 Chinese player left some shaking their heads, said Terry Lyons, the NBA's vice president of international public relations.

``It's just another page in the storybook,'' Lyons said. ``There are players coming from every single direction, every corner of the earth.''

And Sun already has gotten a taste of life as a star, American-style.

He has been the subject of a reality television project by the Encino-based LMNO Productions, whose producers have followed Sun since he arrived in the U.S.

``He kind of goes with the flow,'' said Eric Schotz, president of LMNO. ``It's not foreign for him to have cameras and people looking at him. I think he's used to it.''

The producers have taken Sun shopping for clothes at Topanga Promenade and bowling in Greensboro.

The thinking is the more ordinary the situation, the better for the viewer to comprehend Sun's massive size.

Schotz and executive vice president Bill Paolantonio have pitched the show to networks and said it could be on the air as early as this fall.

The final episode will center on the draft and whether Sun gets picked.

He is set to return June 10 from playing in China's national games and could take part in a workout for several NBA teams.

``It has all the elements of what makes a great story,'' Schotz said.

``It has a beginning, a middle, and we don't know yet what the end is going to be.''

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Chinese center Sun Ming Ming, who is 7-foot-8, has worked out for many teams, including the Lakers.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

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