Yao set to become a father for the first time

BEIJING (AFP) -- The wife of NBA center Yao Ming is expecting their first child, sending netizens into a frenzy of hope for a new generation to lead China's basketball team in the future.

"The news that Ye Li is pregnant is true. Yao Ming and his wife would like to thank all those who are showing concern," Yao's China-based spokesman Zhang Chi said in a statement to leading portal Sina.com on Tuesday.

"Out of concern for Ye Li's state of mind and the need for a relaxed environment, it is not convenient to offer any further information concerning the baby," the spokesman said.

According to the Beijing News, the 29-year-old Houston Rocket -- out for the season as he recovers from a foot injury -- is expected to become a father in July. No decision has been made on where the baby will be born.

Both Yao and his wife -- once a centre on China's women's national basketball team -- are the offspring of professional athletes. They reportedly married at the request of sports officials in their hometown of Shanghai.

Ever since the 2.29-metre (seven-foot-six-inch) Yao married his 1.90-metre wife in 2007, speculation has run rampant as to when their first baby would be born, Sina.com noted.

As both Yao and his wife were born in the 1980s and are only children, the couple will be allowed to give birth to two children under China's recently relaxed "one-child" family planning policy, the report said.

"We hope that Yao Ming and Ye Li will go further and raise more pillars of the next generation of Chinese basketball," it said.

In a Sina.com online poll, 76 percent of more than 29,000 people voting said that Yao's child was likely to grow taller than 2.05 metres, while 33 percent said the baby would grow taller than 2.20 metres.

Yao and his wife returned to China late last year to do promotional work for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and to launch the season of the Shanghai Sharks, a professional Chinese basketball club that Yao recently purchased.