Tall order

Sun Ming Ming's hands are enormous. He catches a basketball with one hand, as a baseball player might with a mitt. They are hands with the touch of a shooting guard, able to sink one 20-foot jumper after another.

Sun is no guard -- at nearly 7-foot-9, he would be the tallest player in NBA history. But the pituitary tumor that led to his extraordinary size is threatening his life and keeping him away from a pro basketball career.

He recently underwent a second operation, though it could be years before Sun and his doctors find out if it was a success.

"When he first came here, he acted like a 60-year-old man," said Rocky Manning, who allowed Sun to stay with his family when he moved from China to North Carolina nearly two years ago. "He sat around and didn't say much. He had a hard time just raising his arm above his head."

The 23-year-old Sun has acromegaly, a condition caused by a tumor that leads his pituitary gland to overproduce growth hormone. It's why Sun is not only so tall, but weighs 387 pounds and has a 50-inch waist. The tumor also limits testosterone production -- which means he lacks strength, stamina and speed.

"In China, I would get tired running," Sun said. "I didn't know until I came here that I have a tumor."

Manning, who owns a packaging company, footed most of the $100,000 bill for Sun's first surgery last year, but doctors only were able to remove part of the tumor because it was wrapped around Sun's optic nerve.

A second, knifeless surgery called gamma knife radiosurgery beamed a targeted dose of radiation through the skull, and it's hoped that within one to three years the tumor will dissolve.

NBA executives have shied away from Sun because of his medical problems, but his size alone could raise interest if the second surgery is a success. Sun hopes to start auditioning for NBA teams early next year. His visa is scheduled to expire in July 2008.

"We're really in no hurry," Manning said. "He's only 23, so we don't want to throw him out there when he's not ready. He feels so much better now."