This will probably be Greg Oden's fate in the future also.
Rockets could lose Yao for season, if not longer
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 56 minutes ago
More From Adrian Wojnarowski
As the NBA draft approached, the grim truth about Yao Ming’s(notes) broken left foot hung like an anvil over the Houston Rockets. The fear isn’t that he’s just lost for next season, but longer.
The Rockets and Yao’s reps are frightened over his future, and the concern is the most base of all: Does Yao Ming ever play again?
“The realization has hit them that this is grave,” one NBA general manager said.
For now, the Rockets have privately told league peers it could be a full season before Yao might be able to return to basketball. Multiple league executives, officials close to Yao and two doctors with knowledge of the diagnoses are describing a troubling re-fracture of his navicular bone. Three pins were inserted a year ago, but the foot cracked in the playoffs and isn’t healing.
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“It sounds like he’s missing most of next season, if not the entire 82 games,” one league executive who has had recent discussions with the Houston front office told Yahoo! Sports. “That’s all that [the Rockets] will concede quietly, but they know it’s probably much worse.”
Houston general manager Daryl Morey refused comment on Monday and a team spokesman said the Rockets will not have further comment until Yao undergoes additional medical tests.
There’s no reason for the Rockets to disclose the severity of the injury, nor the uncertainty over Yao’s future. Before the Rockets go public with a dire diagnosis, they plan to send him to three more specialists this week, a source said. For now, the Rockets have season tickets and sponsorships to sell. For now, the Rockets will publicly decry these doomsday revelations as premature, but this is the reality that they’re working under within the organization.
Rockets could lose Yao for season, if not longer
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 56 minutes ago
- <FORM id=buzz-toolbar class=buzz method=post action=http://buzz.yahoo.com/vote/><INPUT value=y_sports type=hidden name=publisherurn> <INPUT value=urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,yhoo:20050301:nba,article,aw-yaorockets062909:1 type=hidden name=guid> <INPUT value=/article/y_sports/urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,yhoo:20050301:nba,article,aw-yaorockets062909:1 type=hidden name=.done> <INPUT value=article type=hidden name=assettype> <INPUT value=1 type=hidden name=votetype> <INPUT value=orion type=hidden name=from> <INPUT value=c90ee type=hidden name=key> <INPUT value=S9rQMXekCXl type=hidden name=.crumb><BUTTON type=submit>Buzz up!</BUTTON>0 votes </FORM><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>YAHOO.util.Event.addListener( window, "load", function() { setTimeout(function(){ new YAHOO.Media.Buzz("buzz-toolbar",{"sync":["buzz-tools"],"showCount":true,"countPosition":"after","fetchCount":false,"loggedIn":true}); }, 15); });</SCRIPT>
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As the NBA draft approached, the grim truth about Yao Ming’s(notes) broken left foot hung like an anvil over the Houston Rockets. The fear isn’t that he’s just lost for next season, but longer.
The Rockets and Yao’s reps are frightened over his future, and the concern is the most base of all: Does Yao Ming ever play again?
“The realization has hit them that this is grave,” one NBA general manager said.
For now, the Rockets have privately told league peers it could be a full season before Yao might be able to return to basketball. Multiple league executives, officials close to Yao and two doctors with knowledge of the diagnoses are describing a troubling re-fracture of his navicular bone. Three pins were inserted a year ago, but the foot cracked in the playoffs and isn’t healing.
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Houston general manager Daryl Morey refused comment on Monday and a team spokesman said the Rockets will not have further comment until Yao undergoes additional medical tests.
There’s no reason for the Rockets to disclose the severity of the injury, nor the uncertainty over Yao’s future. Before the Rockets go public with a dire diagnosis, they plan to send him to three more specialists this week, a source said. For now, the Rockets have season tickets and sponsorships to sell. For now, the Rockets will publicly decry these doomsday revelations as premature, but this is the reality that they’re working under within the organization.
