Yao Ming stress fracture, goodbye Rockets
NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.
Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.
The Houston Rockets go a 12 game win streak, start playing great ball, have everything working, get themselves back into the playoff picture and “Pow” they are out of it.
Yao Ming has a stress fracture and will not be able to play for the rest of the season.
The Rockets are done for.
No Yao, no playoffs.
They may win for a while on pure emotion and T-Mac going off for a lot of points, but sooner or later they will miss long tall Yao.
“It is not an injury we feel he can play with,” Rockets team doctor Tom Clanton said. “I’ve made the recommendation that it be treated surgically and we are working with him to get other opinions just to be certain that that is indeed what should be done.”
If Yao chooses surgery, Clanton said, it would involve placing screws across the bone to hold it together. The second option would be to treat it with a cast and crutches. Both options involve a healing time of about four months.
Clanton would not say when Yao could play again, but said he doesn’t expect the center to miss the Beijing Olympics in August.
source
This is truly sad news.
The Houston Rockets were on a roll and Yao was having a great season. Many, including your intrepid author, believed that the Rockets would continue to move up the playoff ladder to become a team that no one would want to face in the playoffs.
Now it will be tough to just get a playoff spot.
China rules Yao
Even worse are the rumors that China runs Yao’s career and they are the ones resting Yao to be ready for the Olympics.
Teams usually take a few days after the discovery of an injury like a stress fracture to weigh the merits of waiting or surgery. Not the Rockets, apparently–boom, right to surgery for Yao, out for the season.
Add in the Rockets’ blistering 12-game current winning streak and theoretical dreams of competing for the title this season (VERY theoretical, but 12 in a row is 12 in a row) and I can’t remember a good team shutting down their star center this fast.
Does it have to do with getting Yao ready for the Olympics? I mean, there’s no doubt that China runs Yao’s career and negotiates a lot of his Western deals. source
T-Mac
It just gets worse with the Rockets most likely giving up on building around Tracy McGrady with his bad back and now faced with Yao Ming with a stress fracture. Will this become a Bill Walton type repetitive foot problem? Do you want to build around that?
Now don’t get me wrong, the Houston Rockets were not going to take out Kobe and the Lakers or Tim Duncan and the Spurs for the NBA Title, but still they were on a mighty roll and would be a tough out in the playoffs.
How things can change in one day.
Goodbye Yao.
Goodbye, Rockets.
NBA Basketball Fan Question Can Houston make the playoffs?
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POSTED IN: Houston Rockets, NBA Basketball, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming
3 opinions for Yao Ming stress fracture, goodbye Rockets
bb community
Feb 26, 2008 at 9:21 pm
james, this is such a shocking news to me! I couldn’t believe what i’ve read in yahoo!sport news this morning. What can we do now? Only pray for Yao and his team : “all the best for the rest of the season~” Houston is going into playoff this year, but will again drop out from the 1st round, T-Mac will be crying after that.
Now james, i’ll wish your pistons make it to the final ;p
Yao Done, Hollinger is Crazy
Feb 27, 2008 at 1:30 am
[…] I fill in for Al with a post about Yao Ming getting dunked on and now I have to break the news that Yao is out for the season. My bad, […]
james
Feb 27, 2008 at 7:34 pm
BB,
you better pray that T-Mac can even get you into the playoffs.
Yao is awesome.
Hard to lose such a great player and keep any momentum.
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