[Yahoo] Rockets could lose Yao for season—or longer

This is like finally catching your wife cheating after months of her having to "stay late at work" or taking a "girl's weekend". You knew it was coming but you didn't want to beleive.

I guess now Morey will have his chance to build a team in his image w/superstars of his choosing (as opposed to the two he inherited). Its hard to imagine Tracy being dealt now considering the balance of cap flexibility and talent we need to maintain compared to the value the contract will bring in. If Yao can recover and still play after this injury, I'd love to see him stay at a greatly reduced salary, for selfish reasons, but realistically, I see that contract gaining value too, especially if he retires and insurance covers part of the balance.

What do we do with Battier and Scola? Scola is talented but he's already 30. By the time we get back into contention, how much of a contributor will he be. Battier brings a veteran presence to the lockerroom but do we need his intangibles if we don't plan on competing?

 

Color me not surprised one bit.

 

This "news" is shocking, but did any of you seriously think Yao would ever come back full-strength after so many injuries (or at least contribute for a full season). You got to call a spade a spade at some point.

 

Wonjnarski though has been pretty good reporting on this team, always wrote like he was a fan of Yao. I sometimes thought he liked us a bit too much. He just doesn't have that kind of notoriety like others have. I hope he's wrong though.

 

No kidding...what is happening to Clutchfans where I have to hear about this from my "My Yahoo" page.

 

If it is true though, Yao's contract will screw the team's cap for the next 2 years.

Because no way he opts out when injured.

DD

 

Smoke screen to put a little fear into the hearts of Chinese Basketball officials? Keep using Yao and he'll be injured forever? Hopefully there's going to be a miracle cure or maybe this was what Morey's press conference was last week before the draft.

 

You know, this could be a leak with an intended purpose.

Last week, some GMs commented that they thought that the sudden announcement about Yao's foot was just a sneaky way for him to get out of his summer commitments in China, probably causing them to grow bold in demanding he play this summer.

Perhaps this is leak is in response to that, swinging suspicion the other way ... seriously, only a doctor would know how serious this is, not a journalist speculating. I only heard speculation here ... no facts.

... but if it is true, I would be so sad for Yao. I've come to love the big guy ...

 

I'm devastated.

sigh.. it can't get worse than this for us..


T-Mac said in one of the his interviews during the playoffs that he is more worried about Yao's injury than his.. I guess he was right.. probably he had some genuine info earlier..

 

probably.. but this Woj guy from Yahoo Sports has a lot of cred.. he is probably the MVP of the draft period this year.. he has a lot of contacts apparently..

 

this is horribe...

why didnt we go after a big man in the draft then?!
josh heytvelt needs an invite to rockets summer league. big man with some range..surprised he didnt get drafted

 

What seemed like a stress fracture that could heal sounds a lot more serious.
If this is true,it's the end of the NBA career of our gentle giant. Yao Ming.
We have to be prepared for the worst. It will be a very sad day if this happens.
Rebuilding seems to be the only option left for us unfortunately.

 

Insurance maybe?

 

Retool, rebuild, I don't know... FML.

 

OMFGGGGGGGGGG

im bout to cry

 

I think we take for granted how great of a superstar, just on a personal level, Yao is.

 

I hope you are right

 

If it is the end of his career, we get a cap wipe, and tracy comes off the books next year as well. Not a bad rebuilding place to be in.

 

It's one of those things... You knew it was coming, but you wanted to believe otherwise. While it's not exactly shocking, my chest feels so vacant right now!

This is not what I expected to wake up to today. I've been checking the GARM rabidly for some big move (and at times, relieved that no such move had taken place for some of the proposals I've seen), but this?

We don't even have a strong back-up center for Yao, much less a starting center... It just feels like for all the progress we have made, it's one step forward, two steps back.

Don't get me wrong--I still believe in this team and Morey, but why oh why? This is just heartbreaking news. Who knew a heart could be broken so many times!

And the U.S. vs. Brazil game did not help yesterday!!!

I guess we really do need to make a big move. Sure, it's easy to cast this article off as "speculative" and "suspicious," but one would suffer a huge blow to his/her credibility for writing something like this if it weren't, for the most part, true.