BREAKING: Yao has stress fracture in left ankle (related to previous injury)

A question for a true Rockets fan. Does Yao have a career with the rockets? Does he stay or like mcgrady is he shown the door??

 

I think it's much more complicated than the McGrady situation. Tmac wanted out. He made no secret about it. Yao on the other hand wants to be a part of this team, it's just his body that's not letting him. DD kinda opened the door to this subject matter in another thread, but I'll say here what I said there. If Morey does trade Yao's contract I will have nothing but respect for him. That's a hard move to make, and it does nothing but benefit the Rockets. At the same token, I think if he did something along those lines, I wouldn't like him at all. It is a cold act to kick someone when they're already down. In the end, unlike McGrady, this situation isn't so cut and dry.

 

I have no idea in the world where you're getting your statistics from and you need a lesson in business and investments to speak with knowledge:

"...started managing own money via Alexander Group 1980. Invested in for-profit student-loan provider First Marblehead 1991. Today owns 14.2 million shares worth $750 million; stock up 60% since January. Bought pro basketball's Houston Rockets in 1993."
Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Leslie-Alexander_7XL9.html | http://www.forbes.com/profile/leslie-alexander

tm

 

Noone said Yao is a bad guy but he is nowhere near as good as Olajuwon was. Not even close. Not even in the same zip code. You YOF's are so touchy that you get worked up over everything.

 

looks like yao's done.
In his rookie year he had such promises.
Didn't come to be.

 

....I suppose this should serve as a reminder for everyone who thought we overpaid on a backup Center in Brad Miller.

 

I'm chairman and CEO of the Houston Rockets and I make more than $100 million from having Yao on the team and selling his jersey's to over 1 billion Chinese.

So do the math, we will keep Yao if he can only play 12 minutes a game. Les has a championship and would like another, however, the $100 million trumps the prospect of Yao ever leaving.

Money, Money, Money,/.... Money... some people got to have it, some people really need it.

 

You are right. He is just as disgusting as your mommy. Read my signature.

 

Everyone knows Hakeem is better player than Yao.
But you made it sounded like Yao is a big bust and doesn't worth a pile of ****,
that definitely make you a hater!

 

You'r a angry YOF. get over it, you'r hero is done.

 

Really? Now man up and quote my posts. Be a man. Prove your own words. Don't run away like a little girl this time like what you have done times before, ok? I am waiting.

To help you out, I have been saying he is done since early November.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=5677461&postcount=107

You are almost 2 months late, dumb ass.

 

Only a pathetic coward like you would resort to labeling when you are back against the wall. Still, I am now giving you one more chance to prove words from your own smelly mouth. Come on. Do it now. What are you so scared of?

 

Its either your or you're, make up your mind man.

 

Once again, Spiegel chose to run away and hide in his hole. Once again, Spiegel failed to prove he is a man. *sigh"

 

I wanted to give myself a little time to digest what Yao's latest setback may mean to him and the Rockets.

Mostly because it is so surreal a moment in recent Rockets history.

And because Yao deserves better than this fate competitively.

It makes no sense to rehash what type of player Yao has been for the Rockets. By any measure, Yao has exceeded expectations, considering the enormous burdens he had placed on him on so many athletic and political fronts. The only reason why there was any ever championship considerations surrounding Yao was because of Yao himself. He achieved far more than anyone realistically expected from him. The fact that he has potentially fallen short of championship glory is, strangely, a qualifying fact in his case for greatness (or at least, his approach to greatness).

Very rarely do any of us get to witness, as closely as we were fortunate enough to do with Yao, a true ambassador of the sport the way that magic Johnson and Julius Erving and Michael Jordan were and are. In a very real and tangible way, to me, Yao transcends basketball. And the fact that he transcends the sport so much while being someone whom most of us would wish very much to emulate, says all that needs to be said about Yao's career.

Being larger than life is difficult to pull off decently, even for someone with Yao's size, I'd imagine. For far more reasons than I can number, Yao has done that superbly.

And that's a very good thing, to me.

Whatever lies in Yao's future as a ballplayer at this point is obviously secondary. The Houston Rockets were exceedingly blessed to have the man's services at all for the past few seasons. There's a chance that that relationship may not be over, even though the dynamic may change. That's not necessarily a bad thing, all told. There are worse fates than being a good teammate. And anybody would be hard-pressed to find a better teammate than Yao.

What I've chosen to remember about Yao is that, in the face of overwhelming odds and scrutiny, he acquitted himself as admirably as anyone with such responsibility and expectation could hope for. We all have our limits physically. Yao proved to be no exception to that. It would be truly disheartening for any one of us to measure Yao with so fickle a carrot as that.

It's not what he couldn't or didn't do that I remember.

It's who Yao was and is as a person...a stranger in a strange land...a warrior and a poet...a good guy who suffered bad breaks...

...things that we all surprisingly have in common with him. Which would only be natural, I suppose.

We're all people, after all. Some of us are better than others, if you prefer to be judgmental about character or motivation or perception. But I believe that, more often than not, all of us are able to rise above the lesser natures of our individuality, or even the frailties of our physical forms, and show each other what is possible.

Yao showed us all, over and over again, what was possible. As a player and a person.

I pray he gets to show us more. I'm not quite ready for the story to end just yet.

I have no intention of eulogizing Yao Ming. Not yet, anyway. For me at least, only a fitting "death" would do....

Yao has earned that much, at least.....

 

Well said +1 rep.

DD

 

While I have a moment, DD...

...please indulge me one observation.

Has Yao been everything you, personally, expected from him when he was drafted?

You, of all people who frequent this forum, would perhaps have an objective perspective on Yao's tenure....

....a perspective that I would respect (no less than anyone else's)...and one I'd like to hear.....

 

As a person, Yao has been way more than anyone could have hoped for, one of the classiest, hardest working players, the Rockets have ever had.

As a player, unfortunately, no.

And that is not his fault, it is just his body and the wear and tear of 82 NBA games a year.

His tenure to me is a lot like Ralph Sampson's as far as on the floor, a uniquely talented player that never fulfilled his potential due to injuries.

When you draft a guy number 1, you hope to get a superstar player who can anchor your franchise for 10+ years, and Yao's body would just not let that happen.

Personally, I hope they sign him for the veteran minimum in the hopes that he can give it one more try, however, in a backup capacity.

One of my all time favorite Rockets, but just was not all he could have been due to injuries.

DD

 

I agree.

Except in the player department. Results are what will count ultimately. So I certainly don't begrudge anyone who has a bad taste in their mouths form what did or didn't happen with Yao as a franchise player.

I'm inclined to believe that people tend to take for granted just how difficult it is to win. Getting a chance to realistically compete for a championship in a league full of professionals in every position from the front office to the basketball court is rare in and of itself.

That we as Rockets fans, through no doing of our own, were able to watch lightning being caught in a bottle 15-some-odd years ago, seems to have jaded us on the difficulties involved with that enterprise.

We liken that to not settling for mediocrity....which, I suppose, is as good an assessment as any other....

...but to me, it's also depressingly a lot like not being able to see the forest for the trees.

If I had to choose between having a chance to win it all or just simply giving it all I've got....in this business....

.....well.....

....hope really does spring eternal, my friend.....

 

Listen..I understand what you're saying. Actually winning a ring is ridiculously difficult in the NBA. There is zilch for parity in that league in terms of rings. There are a few chosen franchises, and that's about it.

Having said that...the last time we went deep in the playoffs was 1997. Since then, we've won a grand total of ONE playoff series.

Only 6 other teams have been held to that over that timespan....24 have won multiple playoff series over that span.

So while we may have been spoiled by championships...take away those championships, and you'd still have a franchise that made a ton of noise for the 15 years from 1980-1995. Since there, there's been a lot to be desired.