more tests doesnt mean it's bad news. Keep in mind an xray pretty much only shows bone, so that's what they looked at first to make sure nothing was fractured or broken. He's probably just going to get an MRI or something to check out his ligaments/tendons like Jones mentioned. It's probably just some irritation or something, i doubt its anything serious like a torn ligament or else it would have bothered him a lot more.
Oh boy.......... I'm just going to blame Tmac for this...just because I should and it's likely he's had somthing to do with this.
The xray being negative is a big deal. That means that it isn't bone or a stress fracture if I'm not mistaken. If it's tendon or muscle, then even if there is damage, most likely they will be able to do something to manage the pain so that he can still play through the playoffs. So I doubt at this point we are losing Yao for the playoffs. Let's just pray it is something simple like his foot got bruised and will be fine with a couple of days off of it.
If the rockets want to sit out yao, that is great, but please come up with a better injury that's fan friendly. They already know how emotionally unstable we are. How about world of warcraft elbow or the old reliable, plantar fasciitis?
Don't you remember Yao had a X-rays negative stress fracture but MRI positive which ended his 2007-2008 season?
i think its precautionary but that is me being optomistic!!....man this better not be serious...I hope he is back monday!!.....i wish the rockets would have just said he has the flu or something so I wasnt' as worried
To me, it always appeared that Yao's various lower leg problems coincided with increased minutes per game. You can check his game logs -- whenever he missed a significant stretch of game each of the last 3 seasons, he was playing big minutes prior to that. This season, the Rockets made an effort to limit Yao's minutes, and lo and behold he's been more durable. But, trend-wise, Yao's minutes have been gradually increasing since the all-star break ... so perhaps its not much of a surprise that he'd be having these problems surface at this stage.
Continuing saga of the Yao conundrum. You want to play him as much as possible but the more you play him the more you risk injury. It's the inherited risk of building a team around a 7-6 player with a history of leg problems.
I agree. Whats the purpose of playing your star player for so many straight minutes. If Aldeman trying to get the most out of Yao, thats a stupid way of doing it. We all know that Yao's efficency goes down when he's tired. Hell even Kobe and Lebron don't play that many straight minutes without a rest.
Now I need to find that quote from the offseason and last year about how its not the in-game minutes that is killing him. Its the days in between games and the offseason playing in China that is taking more of a toll on him. It was Yao, the training staff, and perhaps even Adelman all saying the same thing. Now ask yourself this: What causes Yao to hurt more, 4 minutes in a basketball game that he already has adrenaline pumping to carry him through, or a 2 hour practice session the next day??
