This season Coach A will have to turn over a new leaf! He will have to manage Yao Ming very carefully. No long stretches of playing time, several rest periods each game. Yao must become an offensive player more so than having the responsibility to be the pivitol game playmaker who also made up for the many deficiencies of others on the team.
man the olympics already have yao in check...i bet you he had to give much of his salary to China... i think we're going to see him play for the national team like we've never seen before..
I think this clears it up. Two months is great rest. Not to mention I don't think he'll play for China again (just a hunch) until the next Olympics. I'm actually glad he's doing it. Lots of rehab, some competitive games, then 2 months of rest before training camp? If anything, the tournament will help his conditioning which would help prevent injury.
That's a very good question. I hope it won't, but who knows. We know what happend in the past so after that expierence Rockets' fans can worry about Yao, but I still hope he can stay healthly.
the dynamics are different if you are Yao-sized. 2 months rest means exactly that... no intense training until camp starts, a slow start to the season and fatigue by season's end with higher possibility of a freak injury
Yao trains year round, last year he had his least amount of training ever because he got married, but he still got an injury. I think you just roll the dice....and play it smarter in practice and in training. DD
training and playing are two different animals. Can he stave off midseason fatigue and not get injured? ... but i hope you are right
I have followed every single bit of news about Yao Ming all these time, and I have not read any. Can you link me to some of these "a-lot-of-places" news? I think people over worries too much. When was the last time Yao Ming came back injured or not in his top/best competitive shape and form after coming back from the Olympics or World Championship? I remembered in both cases (back in 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 World Championship in Japan), Yao Ming came back to Houston healthy and fit for the training camp, and started strong in the regular season. As he had said it time and again in his various interviews, those injuries to his toes, legs, ankles, knees in the past 3 seasons, they were just freaking accidents, and not recurring or lagging injury on the same location. So personally, I don't think we need to worry........but just hope Lady Luck is on his side in the Olympics and the regualr season that he stays healthy and fit.
The Olympics will be inconsequential to his health compared to the grind of an 82-game NBA season. If you're really worried that he'll wear out or get injured before the playoffs next season, the Rockets should just sit him out until January, or play him constrained minutes throughout the regular season (or both). The team is good enough to win regular season games without him. You sacrifice some playoff seeding, but it is far more important to enter the playoffs with Yao healthy than with a high seed.
And then he will rehab just in time to come back at full strength for the playoffs. isn't that what most of us here are hoping for? What are you complaining?
I saw it in an article. Also, in the other boards people said that Olympics could affect him. And my friends also said that.
Yao Ming reminds me of the wondrous idol described in Daniel: Daniel 31-33 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Our beast of a center does indeed have "feet of clay." They are his fatal weakness and continuous play IMO will shorten his career considerably. Pity.
Could be good I think personally, sort of getting injured. Sort of like a good rehab to knock off the rust while getting ready before next season. However, if he gets injured again, many will point towards the Olympics as the reason he got hurt, too much play time, yadda, yadda, yadda. Regardless of whatever happens, we have to manage Yao's minutes better next season, we can't have him carrying this huge minutes load for a man his size and with his injury situation. Give Mutombo 5 mins or so per game to keep him ready for the playoffs and give Scola/Landry the rest of his 15 minutes worth of backup time.
Hopefully Yao realizes China doesnt have a chance in the Olympics and doesnt try to be a superhero on the court. It will affect him coming into the new season just like every year after he plays for China. His health problems will get worse and worse every year I believe, too much diteriation.
...which was preceded by an offseason where Yao didn't do much at all. I doubt the Olympics affect Yao's health during the NBA season as much as people around here like to think, I'm guessing his 7'6" frame and history of injuries to the lower body has a lot more to do with the fact that he's yet to play anywhere near a full season since he's become an all-star quality player.
you just worry about him rushing back and reinjuring the foot. the need for surgery was predicated on his timetable for the olympics, so you have to wonder if Yao would be willing to play even at less than 100% to represent his country...judging from history I have no doubt in my mind he would. I realize that every bit of media has indicated he is ahead of schedule, but it just seems like more often than not the media jumps the gun on injuries so fans can have their warm and fuzzies... the only real indication we'll have is come august in the opener against the US when we can judge him with our own eyes.
