http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6520548.html Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. The unstoppable big man and the immensely talented wing man. The combination was supposed to deliver a championship to Houston. It hasn’t. It won’t. The Rockets asked for and received a disabled player exception — the NBA’s version of short-term disability from the salary cap — allowing the team to sign Trevor Ariza, which it did on Wednesday, because Yao is not expected to be able to play next season due to a broken bone in his left foot. McGrady, recovering from microfracture surgery on his left knee, has one year left on his contract. The Rockets are listening to trade offers and quite likely will move McGrady by next season’s trade deadline, which is probably about the time he will be ready to return to action. Oh, Yao could have surgery on his ailing foot and recover in time to join the team late in the season. And the Rockets might fail to find a suitable trade partner for McGrady. And next spring the two could be high-fiving in the playoffs. More likely, the next time Yao and McGrady team up will be at an old-timers’ game. Fans have come to grips with losing McGrady. Heck, a host of them are willing to go to his crib and help him move. Fans should now face the more sobering thought that Yao may never again play for the Rockets. The career-threatening injury isn’t the only issue. The seven-year veteran has just one year left on his contract, with a second option year he’ll likely exercise thanks to the injury. One of those two years he will probably sit and watch. As for the other …? After rearranging their style of play without Yao this coming season, will the Rockets want to go back to the “gotta get it to Yao” offense they so often struggled to run in two seasons under Rick Adelman? Too fragile for future The Rockets have some tough choices to make. Is it worth having the oft-injured big man — returning from a year off, mind you — around for a lame-duck season (2010-11) if there are no plans to re-sign him after that? It would make little sense to sign Yao long term when he returns, considering that he missed a season’s worth of games in the three-year stretch from 2005-08, had this past season end with the cracked bone in the playoffs and is facing sitting out all of next season. Basically, the Rockets can no longer consider Yao to be the cornerstone of their championship dreams. He is too fragile. The Rockets are about to reach a point where they aren’t getting enough out of Yao when healthy to make up for what they aren’t getting from him when he is injured. A year from now, what will be the trade value for the league’s most talented center, coming off a serious injury? Will the franchise’s dealings with Yao be more about business than basketball? Yao has brought worldwide attention to the Rockets, not to mention several lucrative sponsorships with Chinese companies. But can he bring a championship to Houston? NBA championships are won by star players. Rarely does a title winner not have a major star lead the way. The Rockets figured they had two in Yao and McGrady. The odds of winning a championship were in their favor. It didn’t work. Just about the time the Rockets got enough complementary talent around them to do damage, they broke down. Already planning how to get it done without McGrady, the Rockets must now go about building a champion without Yao. It’s not easy to put together a championship-caliber roster. It’s almost impossible to put one together that can contend with Yao and without, which is what the Rockets will be left with if they commit to Yao. Title to come elsewhere? There is a recognized rule when it comes to superstar NBA players, especially those with a special locker-room presence: If you have one, you keep him, because at some point in his career he is going to win a championship. Yao is that type of player. But his body keeps letting him down. Still, history says the odds are he will one day win a championship. Unfortunately for Rockets fans, when Yao broke his foot in May against the Lakers and the injury got worse instead of better, he moved closer to winning that title somewhere other than Houston.
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Since the Rockets would be insane to re-sign Yao, he's pretty much been reduced to a trade chip at the 2011 deadline. Sad, but true. he's a class guy, but a brittle player and you don't give maximum contract extensions to brittle players.
As a long time Rockets fan, this article pretty much just sums up the truth, something that is difficult to stomach as i am am a impatient man. Damn.
what a *******... That's the biggest load of crap I've seen in a long time...who would pay him 8 figures to miss half of his games
If only Tmac could return to this after he's done rehabbing <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/O9yezegWdQ0&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/O9yezegWdQ0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> he looks so skinny too
It's sad but true that the combo of T-Mac and Yao, once considered as the 4th best combo around the league, has already passed their golden era without anything glorious only except the 22 winning streak. The championship has never been even close to Houston through the 5 years of their marriage, although they are still contracted to the same team, actually T-Mac is actually no longer a Rocket. To make things even worse, they both suffered terrible injuries that may possibly end their careers. Not only hadn't they won a championship for Houston, also they would probably not earn a ring for themselves before retiring from the league. It was even worse than an incest to engage Yao to T-Mac, when the operators realized this failure, T-Mac had already sign a outrageous contract with Rockets which was too big and trashy to get rid of.
At the end of the day its hard to feel sorry for owners. Guy is banking. Even when his stars go down he basically gets a huge check from the insurance companies. I feel sorry for guys like Deke, Battier, Yao and Adelman. Good guys, who did everything right but could never quite get it done.
I think Yao comes back and we win it all with him. Hypothetical... We get our young guys playing good team ball in the Adleman style. We've added a post presence via trade (Amare or bosh or ???) and the team is clicking. Why wouldn't a healthy and loyal guy like Yao reup his contract with us at decent bit not Max $$$$? I could see him playing in a Vlade Divac style popping freethrow line jumpers and passing out of the high post to lessen the pounding if we had another post presence and a team use to cutting and moving. I still have faith in you Yao. Get healthy and get back soon.
Even though it's true,he is just stating the obvious.These beat writers have got to put it on paper,I guess.
Im glad its over, because we need to move on and look to the future and snag a True Caliber Super Star status like Lebron/Kobe/D-Wade to take over for 2010-2011.
I'm trying to remember what is more exciting: getting to the second round of the playoffs.......or getting the number one pick in the lottery.
