In bed with Yao....a MING SIZED bed!!

SLEEPING GIANT:
Hoops star Yao Ming, who's 7-5, will be treated to a twin bed added to a king-sized bed (above) at the Dumont Plaza.

MING-SIZED BED

February 25, 2003 -- 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.