Yao Ming  & Ye Li. Basketball star Yao Ming married his longtime girlfriend Ye Li in their hometown of Shanghai in 2007. The couple met in 1999, when Yao was playing for the Shanghai Sharks. Their romance went public when the two were seen walking hand-in-hand at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. With Yao standing at 2.26 meters tall and Ye, 1.9 meters, their three-year-old daughter was reported to have reached a height of 1.3m. But Yao denied the report recently.