The Sport Count

Let’s hope your tear ducts are ready to work, Rocket fans:

The Houston Rockets center marked his return from injury Thursday with 11 points in just over 12 minutes of play for the Chinese national team in an Olympics warmup against a Serbian squad.

Entering six minutes into the first quarter to huge applause from the crowd in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, Yao appeared a little rusty, but made a solid contribution to China’s kickoff 96-72 victory in the four-team Stankovic Cup tournament.

Yes, your starting centre — who has, I don’t need to remind you, missed 86 games in the past three years — will definitely be suiting up for his homeland Olympics. You can’t blame the big man for wanting to represent the country that so adores him; it’s got to feel better playing in front of your Chinese comrades than a bunch of drunk Texans.

Similarly, you can’t blame those Texans for worrying that the rough and tumble of world basketball won’t do Yao’s busted foot any favours.

Yao returned to light training late last month after X-rays and an MRI scan taken in Houston showed his recovery [from a stress fracture in his left foot] was on schedule, at about 80 percent healed. Such injuries usually take a year to fully heal.

Just a wrap-up, Houstoners: your #1 pick, and the centrepiece of your franchise, will be stepping on to the hardwood with a semi-fractured foot. And he’s 7′6″, so he’s already naturally prone to the worst sport injuries your lower extremities could come up with. And he’ll be playing for national pride in his home country, so any pain or discomfort is likely to be ignored. A little worrying, yeah?

There is, of course, some good news: you can probably get some very nice odds on Yao playing 82 games next year. Try running 1001-1 by your bookie.

(Just quietly, how sure are the Rockets that the Yao-McGrady tag team is worth trying again?

It’s been written, said, or sung so many times that the two-piece may not be as ring-worthy as Houston would like to believe… and yet, it still looks like Rick Adelman will bring a largely unchanged roster to the Toyota Center.

The Stephen A. Smith-inspired talk of McGrady winging his way to Detroit has died down recently, but you have to assume the Rockets aren’t done making moves just yet).

Posted By: Anton