ESPN: Yao has successful surgery

aznboi · Mar 3, 2008

Nice, recover well and come back strong for us Yao!

d.wang · Mar 7, 2008

I'm a rook, so I can't make new posts, so I decided to add to a Yao injury-related thread.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...g=forthesakeofhiscareeryao&prov=tsn&type=lgns

One of the 26 bones in the foot is the tarsal navicular. Located in the middle of the foot, a couple of inches from the big toe, the navicular absorbs untold pounding from running and jumping. Too much pounding can lead to microscopic cracks in the bone, and too many microscopic cracks will turn into a stress fracture.

When you’re 7-6, 300, your navicular is even more susceptible to injury. Yao Ming knows this pain—one tiny stress fracture in his left foot is having gigantic repercussions. Besides being the NBA’s top center, Yao is the most famous athlete in China and arguably the most famous basketball player on the planet. Now, because of his bad foot, Yao will miss the rest of the Rockets’ season, his status for the Beijing Summer Olympics is uncertain and even his long-term future as a basketball player has to be viewed differently.

“Yao has done everything he can, and to still have something like this happen to him, an alarm has to go off in his mind, in the minds of people he trusts,” says Jeff Van Gundy, who coached Yao in Houston for four seasons. “They have to ask themselves, ‘What do we have to do differently that can prevent this without sacrificing performance?’ I would be concerned. Everything has to be evaluated.”

Unfortunately, the most obvious solution—rest—is hardly a possibility. The biggest tournament of Yao’s life—the Olympics in his home country—is coming in five months, and he was scheduled to have surgery earlier this week to insert screws that will repair and strengthen the navicular. The injury will take four months to rehab, according to most doctors’ estimates. If there are no setbacks, Yao will have about a month to prepare for the Olympics. He will proudly carry the Chinese flag into the National Stadium on August 8 and be ready one day later for the start of the basketball competition.

But what if there is a setback? Even a small one would put him at less than 100 percent for the Games. Just look at the years lost in the careers of Bill Walton and Grant Hill to see what happens when someone plays on a foot that is not completely healthy.

Still, make no mistake: Yao will be expected to play in Beijing even if he’s not quite ready. “Fifty percent and they’ll push him to play,” someone close to Yao says.

If China pushes Yao to play, he will play. Before China allowed him to come to the NBA nearly six years ago, expectations were established for his continued participation with the Chinese national team. As a result, Yao has not missed a major competition in his five offseasons with the Rockets. “It is what it is,” Van Gundy says. “We knew that, and we accepted that.” Echoes Rockets G.M. Daryl Morey: “It’s who he is.”

Playing for the Chinese national team is not quite like playing for the U.S. team. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Yao’s NBA colleagues on Team USA stayed on a luxury liner. The Chinese team stayed in the Olympic village. Yao was roommates with coach Del Harris and five others in a three-bedroom flat. Harris had a bedroom, then-assistant (and now head) coach Jonas Kazlauskas had a bedroom, and Yao and the team’s starting point guard shared a bedroom. (Yao was afforded an extension on his single bed.) Three others slept on mattresses scattered about the living area.

“The Queen Mary, it wasn’t,” Harris says. “One of the showers broke, too, but they insisted that the coaches use the good one. The players continued to put up with the one that didn’t work.”

This year, Chinese pro teams have ended their season early so the national team can begin training later this month. China is expected to play a pre-Olympics schedule of about 30 games. The U.S. team, meanwhile, will spend about three weeks together this summer before the Olympics.

The year he was China’s coach, Harris had to buy his own video machines, do his own editing and find countries willing to lend him game tapes. Still, he coached the team to its greatest victory, an upset over then-world champion Serbia and Montenegro that put China in the medal round. Since that success, the Chinese have made numerous upgrades in their program at Harris’ recommendation, such as hiring a full-time coach and buying their own video equipment. With these improvements come greater expectations for this summer, most of which are expected to be shouldered by Yao. “There’s always considerable pressure on him,” Harris says.

Yet Yao doesn’t mind. Representing his country is his No. 1 basketball priority, as he noted when he said at the news conference last week that missing the Olympics would be “the biggest loss in my career.” In 2004, Harris never heard a complaint from Yao or any of the other Chinese players. “They would never enter a building first,” Harris says. “They always waited until I went in. They showed such great respect.”

Van Gundy, now an ESPN analyst, was working out in a Houston gym last week when he heard a tap on the window. Yao wanted a word. “I’m out for the year,” Yao told his former coach. The injury stunned the basketball world, but Van Gundy admits he was not shocked. He watched Yao miss 59 games over their last two seasons together, mostly because of foot and leg injuries.

Van Gundy knows how much time Yao spends on the court and how much stress he puts on his size 18s. Yao usually was the first Rockets player on the floor for practice. “The best worker and the best teammate for a star player I’ve ever been around,” Van Gundy says. “It’s not even close.”

Yao puts in the practice time because he is not as naturally gifted as most NBA players, Van Gundy says. He does all the right things off the court, too. For example, Yao weighs less now than he did as a rookie. After he finishes the marathon NBA season, he usually devotes a month to working with a personal trainer, which is in addition to his time with the Chinese national team.

Of the four leg injuries Yao has suffered in the past two years, only one—a broken right tibia last season that was the result of a freak fall—could not be attributed at least partly to overuse. He has a history of foot issues, too, that goes back to his days as a teenager with the Shanghai Sharks.

Lightening the load on Yao, 27, has long been a consideration for the Rockets. Van Gundy says team doctors have been “on high alert” for years in regard to Yao’s feet. Under Van Gundy, the Rockets had more days off than most teams because of injury concerns with Yao as well as Tracy McGrady. Van Gundy’s successor, Rick Adelman, is not known for Pat Riley-like practices, either. Another option would be for the Rockets to play Yao less than a full NBA season, a possibility that Morey does not dismiss. “If our doctors recommend changes, we’ll listen to them,” he says.

The Rockets, however, do not plan to change their long-range plans because their two best players can’t stay on the floor. Their championship hopes this season were crushed because of Yao’s injury, but Morey intends to have Yao and McGrady front and center next season. “You need elite players to win in the playoffs, and they are elite players,” Morey says.

Of course, Yao can’t be elite if he’s unable to play. “The thing is, it’s in everyone’s best interest for him to be healthy,” Van Gundy says. But more than the Rockets, more than the NBA, more than even his homeland, Yao should be the one to determine his future.

“By nature, he’s a yes guy,” Van Gundy says. “It’s not easy for him to say no.”

Hopefully he’ll learn before it’s too late.
Click to expand...

timeschinatours · Mar 7, 2008

Waiting for u,Yao

OddsOn · Mar 7, 2008

A funny thing happened to me on the way to Tulsa...

I was in the Bush IAH airport on Wednesday waiting for my flight and happened to be sitting next to Dean Cooper VP of Player Development for the Rockets. At first I didn't recognize him but overheard him talking on his cell phone about some games and stats and stuff. I thought he was talking to someone about fantasy leagues or something.

Then out of the blue he busts out "hey I need to call you back, Yao Ming is calling me on the other line..." At first I was like, did I hear him correctly? Then he started talking to Yao and asking how he felt, if he needed anything, who was there with him, etc.

After he finished his call I struck a conversation up with him. I asked him who he worked for and he told me and confirmed it was Yao on the line. He told me that Yao had three screws put in his ankle and the doctors said after he recovered his foot / ankle would be stronger then before. He said Yao would begin pool work after the wound healed up. I asked him why Yao seemed to have problems only with his left foot and he said its because it is the one he uses most for pivoting, pushing off when he jumps, etc.

We chatted a few more minutes on how we both were going to miss the game on Wednesday due to being out of town and joked about having to keep up with the scores via internet. He seemed really down to earth a to be a really good guy. He was headed to scout a game in Nashville and I had to get on my plane to Tulsa. I told him that I wished the team good luck and hoped the streak would continue. We shook hands and went to our respective gates for departure.

Crazy story I know, I still cannot believe it myself....

ClearSky · Mar 7, 2008

hope YAO wont get hurt in Beijing Olympics

he need to have rest!!

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ESPN: Yao has successful surgery

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