Yao Ming, the superstar center for the Houston Rockets and the Chinese national team, has decided undergo surgery on his troublesome left foot. The surgery all but guarantees that he will miss the entire 2009-10 season.
Yao has fractured his left foot twice. A third fracture would likely end Yao’s basketball career. In an attempt to make sure his foot won’t fracture a third time, doctors are going to conduct a bone graft and they will also lower his arch to lower the amount of stress his foot takes on during basketball activities.
While this is obviously bad news for Yao, the …read more

If you are a fan of the Houston Rockets, Monday wasn’t a fun day for you. Reports surfaced that Yao Ming not only might miss the 2009-10 NBA season but that his career is in jeopardy. For a Rockets squad that looked to be on the brink of championship contention, this is obviously a big blow.
However, right now nothing has been finalized. The only thing that is certain is that Yao’s foot fracture isn’t healing as expected. He’ll have second, third and fourth opinions before the Rockets decide what to do.
Sources close to the Rockets believe that the prognosis is …read more

After Yao Ming was lost for the season following Game 3 of the series between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Rockets were able to pull off a shocking Game 4 victory. However, Game 5 was another story. In Los Angeles, the Lakers hammered the Rockets by a final score of 118-78. The Lakers now have a 3-2 advantage in the best of seven second round series.
Kobe Bryant led the way with 26 points in 31 minutes. Paul Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell and Lamar Odom also joined Bryant in double figures. …read more

Coming into the second round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs, the Houston Rockets were a big underdog to the Los Angeles Lakers. In Game 1, the Rockets had control for much of the game and coasted to a relatively easy victory.
The Rockets got a big game from their big center Yao Ming. In 40 minutes, the native of China had 28 points, ten rebounds and two blocked shots. Yao got help from Ron Artest (21 points and seven assists), Aaron Brooks (19 points in 36 minutes) and Luis Scola (10 points and eight rebounds).
For the Lakers, Kobe Bryant was held …read more

LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and the rest of the so-called USA “Redeem Team” prevailed over Yao Ming and Team China in their opening game of the Olympic men’s basketball competition to win with a score of 101-70. The two teams were close for the first half of the contest, but the US team pulled away during the second half of the third quarter. Dwayne Wade contributed 19 points for the US and LeBron had 18. Ming was the high-scorer for the China team with 13 points.
The game, one of the most anticipated of the Olympic Games, was said to draw …read more

By Guest Blogger Bo Durkop
Texas’ three NBA teams are well represented in the 2008 Olympics. The Dallas Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki, Houston Rockets Yao Ming, and the San Antonio Spurs Manu Ginobili, who each just a few months earlier competed in the NBA playoffs are now set to perform for an even larger world wide audience.

After propelling German men’s basketball team to its first Olympic appearance in sixteen years, Dirk Nowitzki was assigned the honor of carrying the country’s flag in the opening ceremony.
Now with that celebration over, the real work begins. In the preliminary round for group B, Germany’s …read more

The Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics will be held tomorrow night at the Olympic Stadium, and although many components are being kept secret (such as the final torch bearer), much is known about the festivities.
The date and the time are symbolic. Eight is a lucky number in China. Hence, August 8, 2008 at 8:08:08 pm is about as lucky as you can get. The ceremony is expected to last about 3 1/2 hours.
Entertainers will include Britain’s Sarah Brightman (of “Phantom of the Opera” fame), Canada’s Celine Dion, and Taiwan’s Jay Chou.
Among the 104 foreign dignitaries attending the event are …read more

The Olympic Torch arrived in Beijing late on Tuesday and began its two-day relay around the city leading up to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremonies on Friday. Among the 433 torchbearers were Olympic basketball star Yao Ming (pictured above). Many guessed that Ming might be the one to light the cauldron at the ceremony, but as each torchbearer by tradition can only touch the torch once, he is now eliminated. Could it be Liu Xiang, the Chinese hurdling star?
(photo courtesy of the BOCCG)

I’m sure that in three weeks I’ll be tired of these Olympic commercials, but right now I still find them fun…especially this one:

This is one of my favorites of the 2008 Olympic commercials. LeBron doesn’t get to say much, but it’s still fun. Take a look: