Except his stress fracture...Which was caught in its early stages when it was merely a nuisance to put up with. If he had waited longer and played more, he would like have never been able to return to the game.
Yao just said in an interview in China that his foot is 80 percent healed. He has been warned about putting too much stress on it and that the doctors said it may not be fully healed for one year. Meaning that the stress fracture itself may not be fully healed until Feb. 2009. Can anyone say, bring on Deke?
I think Yao would not be happy playing limited minutes. He's a competitor and wants to be out on the court. Injuries are something that can't be predicted, it can happen in the first 10 seconds of a game.
I don't think we are good enough to sit him out from games Early in the season. We don't want to fall behind like we've been doing the past couple years. 22 straight wins doesn't happen all the time. If Yao is healthy enough to play, let him play. So what happens when we limit Yaos games and minutes and he still gets hurt? Only let him play in the playoffs? C'mon, lets be realistic here.
Are you seriously suggesting holding a max paid player out of games???? Yao is a professional bball player......I do agree with limiting him to 25 - 30 minutes a game and slowly increase his minutes as the season progress....Do real question is can we afford to do this with out present personnel?
exactly, that's what people don't get. had the stress fracture been diagnosed late, his career would be in jeopardy right now. that's why we MUST watch and limit his minutes. yao may look and play fine right now, but it shows that his foot will be injured again if it's over-worked. that's reality. this will be a problem for the rest of his career. but as long as we monitor his minutes, yao shouldn't have any problems. he just can't log too many minutes over a long period of time.
Man.............. First limit his minutes http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=149507 Then limit his game.......... What next ??? Trade him.....
Sitting Yao out early in the season is insane. IMO, sitting him out of entire games as a precaution is completely crazy. Count me in with those who say practice time has nothing to do with his risk of injury. Regarding his training, I would limit his jogging and replace it with swimming or stationary cardio exercises to avoid the impact on his feet and knees. This sounds crazy, but because of the impact, I think jogging is the worst cardio exercise there is. (Sprints and short bursts are fine because they serve a different purpose). Cardio exercises that are done for 20, 30, 40 minutes at a time should not involve impact, especially for injury-prone athletes like Yao and Tiger Woods.
It wouldn't be the first time a center has had their games limited. Bill Walton had his games cut and it was a successful strategy for Portland.
