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Dedicated Thread on Yao Ming's Rehabilitation (2008)

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by pryuen, Feb 27, 2008.

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dreammvp Contributing Member

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thanks Pryuen....your hard work is greatly appreciated....
I can't belive I have to read one of these threads again....lets hope this is the last one.....
why coulnd't hvae he gottne hurt in Dec or January...then he would have been back for the playoffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#101 dreammvp, Feb 29, 2008

pryuen Contributing Member

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yaozhuxi said:

Pryuen, it seems wang meng from sina has another article of update on yao ming. Yao has already decided to take the surgery before flying to charlotte.
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YUP......I'm in the process of translating that. A very very long interview that might take me 3 to 4 hours. I've done 1/3 of it now.

So stay tuned.

#102 pryuen, Feb 29, 2008
DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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Thanks for this Pryuen.....

Get well soon YM....and hopefully all this silly finger pointing will cease soon.

DD

#103 DaDakota, Feb 29, 2008
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Big Yao is such a good sports and a man of honour !!

Right after he spent the day in Charlotte seeking second opinion from Dr. Robert Anderson, he flew back to Houston, he lived up to his promise and showed up on the bench to rave, cheer, and support his team mates in the game versus Memphis Grizzlies.

#104 pryuen, Feb 29, 2008
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Melo said:

why this kind of threads are posted only if yao is injuired ? im sure if tmac was sidelined nothing like this would come up. VIVA CHINA&*** !
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1, Because we have our beloved pryuen
2, Because Yao has a much bigger heart than Tmac.

#105 ccjj, Feb 29, 2008
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Does anybody know if there is even a possibility of Yao returning for the playoffs? Say we make it to the finals and are still playing in late May or early June. Is there a way he could make it back for the finals? If he is talking about playing in the Olympics 2 months later, then it sounds like he has a chance of being healed by then right?

#106 Rockets_Truth, Feb 29, 2008
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I think I remember a post somewhere about Yao going to Charlotte to get his foot looked at, but on Friday Yao was a few hours east visiting Shane's Alma Mater, Duke University. The accompanying article states that he was there visiting, but I can't help but wonder if he's making a trip to Duke Hospital to get his foot checked out as well.

Duke has had to deal with stress fractures on it's players before, and Carlos Boozer famously broke his foot before the 2001 NCAA Tournament, then managed to come back in time to help Duke win the championship that year. Duke Hospital is a world renowned medical center and might have some good expertise to help out Yao.

Here's the article, which has a picture of Yao with Coach K:

http://dukeblueplanet.com/blog.asp?bid=9

#107 vb5678, Mar 1, 2008

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I was about to translate this.....when I found yaomac11 had done it already....and a separate thread was created for it.

Thanks yaomac11.

yaomac11 said:

http://sports.sohu.com/20080301/n255459379.shtml

In a March 1 sohu.com interview, Yao Ming's agent Zhang Mingji gave the latest update on Yao's injury:

"Yao Ming's seeking of a second opinion is over. Three top doctors in the field gave the same advice after the examination. They said that Yao Ming needs to have a microfracture surgery and bone screws will be used to fix the tarsal navicular bone of his left foot to speed up healing of the stress fracture. Meanwhile, this surgery can prevent similar injuries from happening. The surgery will also involve removal of bone spurs in Yao's left foot in order to increase ankle range of motion and try to reduce risk of future bone fracture as much as possible."

"Yao Ming's foot stress facture has a lot to do with his high arched feet (a.k.a. cavus type feet) , and his previous fifth metatarsal fracture also has something to with it. So after the surgery this time future similar injuries can be prevented. Also after the surgery adjustments will be made to Yao Ming's shoes and shoe innersoles"

" I am 100% sure Yao Ming can play in Olympics. Right now it looks like Yao Ming will need 3-4 months' time to recover from the injury. The doctors are hoping he can wait until his left foot is 100% healed before he can get back on the court. There are news reports blaming Yi Jianlian for causing Yao's injury by stepping on his foot, those blamings are unfair to Yi since Yao's injury has nothing to do with Yi."
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#108 pryuen, Mar 1, 2008
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According to the following sina.com article dated March 2,

http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2008-03-02/06373506182.shtml

Yao Ming's microfracture surgery is now scheduled for March 3 (Monday) at the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, and the surgeon will be Tom Clanton, Houston Rockets' team physician. Tom Clanton is one of the top US orthopaedic specialists/surgeons who had done numerous such surgery for athletes, including Grant Hill.

#109 pryuen, Mar 1, 2008
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ccjj said:

Because Yao has a much bigger heart than Tmac.
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uhh.... not really. unless you mean physically. then yes. dont discount what tmac is doing in the community.

#110 DreamRoxCoogFan, Mar 1, 2008
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I read this thread every day.

#111 liangqj, Mar 1, 2008
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Pryuen, thank you for your hard work. By the way, wish you good luck in getting a new job.

#112 Rocketsgo, Mar 1, 2008
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DreamRoxCoogFan said:

uhh.... not really. unless you mean physically. then yes. dont discount what tmac is doing in the community.
Click to expand...

Maybe he means in competition...but even then it's still false. False, I say!

#113 ParaSolid, Mar 2, 2008

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The news of Yao Ming's surgery scheduled March 3 further confirmed from Houston Chronicle.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5585058.html

March 1, 2008, 11:20PM
Yao opts to have surgery
Procedure set for Monday; return for Olympics likely

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Rockets center Yao Ming will have surgery on Monday to repair the stress fracture in his left foot, a decision he reached after several days of meeting with specialists to review his options.

The surgery at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center will be performed by Rockets team physician Dr. Tom Clanton and will repair the stress fracture in the tarsal navicular bone in Yao's left foot. Clanton will insert several screws into the bone to help heal and support the microscopic cracks that have developed.

Clanton had recommended the surgery after discovering the injury on Monday, but he also recommended that Yao consult with other specialists.

Yao met with specialists in Charlotte, N.C., before returning to Houston on Friday so that he and agent John Huizinga could meet again with Rockets officials and Clanton.

"We want to make sure whatever we're doing now as well as in the recovery period addresses both fixing this problem and avoiding anything, anything, happening in the future," Huizinga said before beginning the consultations.

Clanton estimated it will take three to four months for the injury to heal and for Yao to begin rehabilitation. That would allow Yao to return to competition in time for the start of the Summer Olympic Games on Aug. 8 in Beijing.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com
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#114 pryuen, Mar 2, 2008
pryuen Contributing Member

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Well, you can't tell or convince Yao Ming not to play for his country, can you?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/sports/basketball/01araton.html?ref=sports

Ever Loyal, Yao Risks His Career

By HARVEY ARATON
Published: March 1, 2008

Yao Ming never wanted to be trapped between the Rockets and a hard place, Western capitalists and his country. He chose to honor both, and the bargain that was struck when the Chinese ceded contractual rights, if not year-round control, of their most valuable sports export.

The physical demands would have been daunting for any finely tuned athlete, much less one standing 7 feet 6 inches, with 300-plus pounds stressing his lower extremities, and who had succeeded at becoming, as his former Houston coach, Jeff Van Gundy, said, “something no one that size has ever been, much more than a role player.”

An All-Star, in fact, prominent in the discussion of the sport’s best centers, this season averaging a workhorselike 37.2 minutes a game despite warnings that the N.B.A. grind, combined with Yao’s national team service, was well into the process of breaking him down.

After three healthy seasons, he has, in the last two and a half years, sustained a broken foot, a broken leg and a seriously infected big toe. This week came word of a stress fracture to his left foot, shelving Yao again and, with the Summer Olympics coming in Beijing, forecasting the perfect career-imperiling storm.

“The guy’s going to play in the Olympics, and that’s a foregone conclusion,” Van Gundy said.

He would know, having gone to see Anthony Falsone, the Rockets’ former strength and conditioning coach, now serving as Yao’s (and Van Gundy’s) personal trainer, on Tuesday afternoon. Van Gundy said he was sitting in his car when Yao, of all people, tapped on the window and said, “You heard the news?”

They went inside, spoke for more than an hour, Yao already guaranteeing his doctor’s estimation of a four-month recovery, just enough time to play his way back into shape for the ultimate home games.

For Yao, a trail blazer, an ambassador, the Olympics represent the fulfillment of a career-defining dream, the intensity of which may be incomprehensible to many of us and his N.B.A. peers. In New Orleans at the All-Star Game two weeks ago, when asked about Beijing, here is what Yao, in the midst of his best season and in the middle of a fierce Western Conference playoff chase, had to say:

“I wish the Games would be starting tomorrow, I really wish. I just can’t wait for it. I’ll be very proud.”

In a telephone interview from Houston, where he coached Yao for four years through last season, Van Gundy said: “This is not some fake national pride, some marketing thing. And some people are going to say it’ll be to his detriment, but how can you be bothered by that kind of commitment to his country?”

But where does fidelity become foolishness? When does commitment invite calamity? How much does Yao owe the Rockets, who have underwritten his wealth and have almost $50 million pledged to him beyond this season?

These were always companion questions underlying the conditional coming of Yao, as far back as November 2002, when he was a fouling, fumbling rookie and one look at him told you his body had a reservoir of only so many basketball minutes.

In Denver, before his second N.B.A. game, I asked him how he would survive the N.B.A. and the regimented Chinese national team training, which is not known to grant stars — or him, specifically — first-class accommodations, much less time off to be rich and famous.

“I think the Rockets have a plan,” Yao said diplomatically. To which Rudy Tomjanovich, then his coach, said, “It’s a good question.”

According to Van Gundy, the Chinese have made some recent concessions with regard to preparation for the never-ending international competitions. But with their big show looming, with the popularity of basketball booming, and with the hope, however realistic, of contending for a bronze medal, will undue pressure be put on Yao at a time when caution should rule?

“Let’s say he starts to play in some of the exhibition games leading into the Olympics and there’s some residual pain,” Van Gundy said. “Is there someone with his best interests at heart? They’ve got to be smart and he has to be, too. I told Yao three years ago, learning to say no is an important part of being a great player because you can’t be everything to everyone.”

Against the medical odds, Yao has nonetheless tried, Van Gundy said, “working hard to minimize the risk, the hardest worker I’ve ever been associated with — and I’ve been associated with some great workers.”

At 28, smack in his prime, the most prudent Olympic approach for Yao would seem to be a closely monitored level of limited participation, if that’s even possible. Then the Chinese should let Yao retire from the national team and become the symbolic face of their basketball federation.

Why try to make him risk the rest of his career and his long-term health? Or force him out of character one day soon to unilaterally declare himself done when his mission — to help China announce itself in the early 21st century — has already been achieved?

“I can tell you he’s never asked to be treated special, to be singled out,” Van Gundy said. Now is the time.

E-mail: hjaraton@nytimes.com
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#115 pryuen, Mar 2, 2008
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^
JVG has a good heart and truly adores yao and Tmac. I want JVG to be his personal assistant!

#116 conquistador#11, Mar 2, 2008
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An interview of Yao Ming by Basketball Pioneers on March 1.

http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2008-03-03/10023508443.shtml

Running has never been Yao Ming’s strong suit. But this time, he must run non-stop to compete against time and against his injury, and the finish line is set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics which commences August 8, 2008.

It should be pointed out that Yao Ming had already been “running” very quickly now. On February 26, his conditions (the season-ending stress fracture on his left ankle) was revealed and announced to the public. On February 28, he had already flown to Charlotte to solicit second opinion from other doctors. On February 29, details of his surgery were already defined, and by March 3, the surgery will be conducted. Everything just happened in such a short span of less than a week.

Yao Ming might have made the best use of his time in these pre-surgery diagnosis, re-examination and 2nd opinion seeking, but right after his surgery, his recuperation and rehabilitation will be something not totally within his control. Perhaps from this day onward, there will be a lengthy period he cannot come to Toyota Centre again to watch (and support) his team in competitions; perhaps we could not see him again well-dressed in his suits by the courtside; yet (we all know that) he will never slow down his steps in trying to make it in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

So on this day before the Houston Rockets will play with the Denver Nuggets, Yao Ming, who now got psychologically prepared for his inevitable surgery on his fractured ankle, received the following interview from the Basketball Pioneers.

Basketball Pioneers: We were told that you will persist on your training during this period (up to your surgery).

Yao Ming: Training? Do you think I can still carry on with my training at my current plight/state? Well, it is merely some exercises such that I will not stay idle and doing nothing.

Basketball Pioneers: So has the surgery been determined and scheduled already?

Yao Ming: Yup, it is now scheduled next Monday (March 3, which is Tuesday, March 4, Beijing standard local time) at the Memorial Hermann ~ Texas Medical Centre.

Basketball Pioneers: Who is the chief operating surgeon?

Yao Ming: Tom Clanton, the same surgeon who operated previously on my injured knee.

Basketball Pioneers: So will there be any other medical treatments from now to the surgery?

Yao Ming: None. Just have to wait for the surgery.

Basketball Pioneers: What is currently the estimated time for total recuperation?

Yao Ming: According to the doctors, it will probably take more than 4 months.

Basketball Pioneers: So what does this “4 months” mean? You can walk again or you can play basketball again?

Yao Ming: I will be allowed to play basketball again (after 4 months). But it is difficult now to be definitely certain about this recuperation/rehabilitation period. From my own experience, the speed of recuperation/rehabilitation differs from person to person. The body condition of each player is dissimilar. Some players with great body physiques recuperate faster; others with poorer body physiques restore slower. Therefore nothing is definite about this date (of 4 months). If in case by that time, I have yet to be fully recuperated, I dare not risk playing again.

Basketball Pioneers: So will these forthcoming 4 months be completely convalescence time or will there be some training?

Yao Ming: Yes (there will be training); but it will not be very intensive ones. After my wound completely heals, maybe I will start doing some biking or some other strength and conditioning training.

Basketball Pioneers: So exactly how long it will take from the surgery to the complete healing of the wound?

Yao Ming: Mmmmmm, probably 6 to 8 weeks. But then as we’ve just discussed, it really depends on individual’s body recuperation.

Basketball Pioneers: Well a lot of fans are currently speculating; if the Houston Rockets can continue winning in the Western Conference, and manage to sneak into the Western Conference final or even the Final, will you consider returning to court and play (in the Final)? Of course, I mean if conditions permit.

Yao Ming: That is something already too remote and distant; I have not thought about this. Now all that matters is to take the surgery and then start my convalescence. I don’t even have any idea now whether the surgery will be a success or not; so how on earth am I to discuss about returning to court and playing again (in the Final)?

Basketball Pioneers: Fans on Internet forums and on-line chat-rooms all pointed out that it should not be a problem that you will return and play in the Olympics. What do you think?

Yao Ming: I have said it before already; if I cannot participate and play in the Beijing Olympics, it will be the biggest regret of my professional career. According to what we currently plan about the progress of my recuperation and rehabilitation, it should not affect me playing in the Olympics. But then again, nobody knows for sure right now about how long it will take for my recuperation and rehabilitation. This will have to be waited until my surgery is done and we can then reassess the situation afterwards.

Basketball Pioneers: Uncle Mutombo played great in the last 2 games (in your absence). So what is your appraisal of his performance?

Yao Ming: Yup, he played extremely well; but I’m not going to comment on his game. My duty now is to wait patiently for my surgery. There are a lot of comments and appraisals of his performance already. So I don’t think you will miss my comments/appraisals.

Basketball Pioneers: Do you know about the news that Wang Zhizhi had also arrived USA for medical treatment of his injury?

Yao Ming (Gawked a while): What? Big Zhi is also injured?

Basketball Pioneers: There were talks that Big Zhi will also go for a surgery and will need a recuperation period of 2 to 3 months. It is said the surgery is to remove bone spurs from his feet. (According to latest update, Wang Zhizhi had decided not to take the surgery, and will return to China in time to join the national team in their closed door training).

Yao Ming: Oh, then he and I are the same. I will also remove the bone spurs simultaneously in the same surgery this time. (like me), Big Zhi has also played basketball for several years now, and bone spurs are pretty common and normal for players like us; it is just a kind of wear and tear due to long term stress and overwork.

Basketball Pioneers: The national team has included Xu Yong into the training roster, and he is from your Shanghai team. So can you tell us about your impression of him?

Yao Ming: Well, in my impression, he is a player of strong self-confidence. He has excellent body and he is the dunking champion in CBA. But since we have not played any game together, therefore I cannot really comment concretely my impression of his game.
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#117 pryuen, Mar 3, 2008
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any update on YAO's surgery? he should be done by now

#118 EGYPT, Mar 3, 2008

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man i sure hope the surgery went well. I'm interested to see the final analysis of the injury after opening the are up.

#119 sittingDuck, Mar 3, 2008
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It's done, everything looks good. Even arfter the procedure, Yao was saying he will be back in 2 months, this guy still wants to make some noise in playoff.... but Dr. Clanton said 4 months are expected.

EGYPT said:

any update on YAO's surgery? he should be done by now
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#120 kalmanfilter, Mar 3, 2008

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