http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2003-08-08/1903534516.shtml Yao will get back to Huston between Oct 5th. and Oct 7th. He'll be late for training camp which starts on Oct.3rd.
Yetti, http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/2037184 He'll have at most 2 days to review before his first preseason game. On the bright side, he won't miss any of the preseason.
So he'll miss a week. This could be much worse. A month or so ago, we were all in a huff about the possibility that he might miss a good chunk of the preason, arriving right before the season starts. In an ideal world he's here for training camp, but this isn't going to make or break things. As for learning JVG's system: it's really more important that the other players learn to incorporate Yao. Some of this learning can happen even during Yao's absence. Maybe Ewing can play a little make-believe.
We already knew this actually if you followed what was being said when we working on his contract and getting him from China. They (Chinese government) wanted him to commit to the national team during the summer. This will happen every year they have competition.
Not true. The only reason it happened this year was because their competition was postponed. If it had gone as originally scheduled, Yao would have been back in plenty of time for camp.
WE weren't in a huff. However, there were some people that, for some odd reason, wanted to tell people that Yao would miss training camp, and would not make a lot of the preseaosn, or would be back after preseason **EHM EHM...COUGH...edc....COUGH...EHMM*** Damn soar throat... This is great news. If he gets back on the 5th, and is erady to go on the 7th, it's great... How long is training camp, whe does it finish? Our first preseason game is OCTOBER 7th, which means he has a month with the Rockets between his reporting to training camp and the first game.
I disagree. If Yao is the focal point of the offense, as you imply, then he has the most to learn, and his absense will hurt more than that of any other player.
Omigosh a man with a brain. WinkFan you got it. It would be nice as most of these guys imply 1 minute that he'll be the main focus of the offense and defense this year and then say oh it'll be alright if he doesn't practice with the team for the first week or 2 of the preseason. If he isn't getting the game plan down now during the offseason don't you think it would be pretty important for him to be here at the beginning of training camp so he can be this miraculous focal point of the team. Yes that'll happen pretty quick everybody on the team will learn their roles with playing with the invisible Yao.
