Yao Ming was born in China in 1980. Now the big name from China is playing for the Houston Rockets in the NBA. He is the son of two basketball players and he learned how to play basketball when he was young. Now, as one of the stars in the NBA, he is working hard to show the world that Chinese basketball players can do well in this game, too! Pele was a famous football player. He was born in Brazil in 1940. He started playing for Santos when he was only 16 and he didn't retire  until 1977. He played for Brazil 111 times and he scored 97 international goals. Pele came from a poor family. He started playing football in the streets. He played for Santos and quickly became an international star. Steffi Graf was born in Germany in 1969. She won the tennis semi-final  at Wimbledon in 1985 when she was only 16, but she lost the final to another great tennis player, Martina Navratilova. People were 'surprised at the strength and power of her game. She soon became a famous tennis player and won most of the main matches. Yao Ming began to learn to play basketball   _  .
when he was 15 when he was young when he was tall enough when he was strong enough