EXCLUSIVE
It’s a bed fit for a Ming – Yao Ming, that is.
A Manhattan hotel is doing its best to accommodate the Houston Rockets’ 7-foot, 5-inch, 296-pound basketball sensation, building the perfect mattress to fit his humongous frame.
“We’ve added a twin bed to the end of a king-sized bed,” said Tom Chamberlain, the general manager of the all-suite Dumont Plaza on the East Side, where the Rockets landed last night prior to tonight’s game against the Knicks.
“It’s a nice change of pace for him to sleep with his feet on a bed,” Chamberlain said of the 9-foot, 8-inch-long mattress, three feet longer than a standard king-size model.
Indeed, before the 22-year-old center was selected No. 1 in the NBA draft last June, he lived with the Chinese national team in a dismal dormitory with beds built for the average-sized Chinese citizen.
That “average-sized” Chinese male is two feet shorter than Yao.
But since the draft, Yao has been super-sizing everything. Last October, when Rockets officials picked up Yao at the Houston airport, the skyscraping center was able to stretch his 54-inch legs in an 80-foot-long limo.
Chamberlain said the Dumont Plaza wanted to “anticipate all of his needs.” To that end, the hotel also installed a waterproof chair in the shower – and a hand-held shower head – so Yao can sit while he bathes.
The big man is a giant marketing machine, making an estimated $20 million annually in endorsements – plus his four-year, $18 million salary.
He’s currently plugging products as diverse as Chinese beer, ESPN, Visa and PowerBook laptops.