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thank you for the awesome regular seasons you have had

thank you for getting the rockets out of the first round

thank you for playing basketball. you are a true warrior (tru warier) and deserve to be in the hall of fame for what you have done on and off the court and for the world of basketball

however, it would be so sad to see this great giant barely able to walk as he ages into his 50's and 60's.

for the well-being of himself and his family, i hope he retires. he can't keep on like this.

when i first read that i said to myself "this is a stupid thread" but after i thought about it for a second, Yao really should consider his health for the rest of his life. Lets not be stupid anymore, yao cant handle this. his body is to weak to stay healthy, and like chris tucker said in rush hour 3 "that boy is to damn big!" his feet support to much weight, and they cant support the weight that is as active as yao. he cant last a whole season, and he never will. he should retire. he has made money, now move on

Great post, great comments.

Thanks to Yao for the fantastic ride, the best ride in a decade i guess.

wow bunch of you HOU fans already sound defeated with at least 2 guaranteed games to go. anything is possible in the playoffs.
what did I say eh? that's right, anything can happen in the playoffs. good luck!

this has nothing to do with the team. my concern is only for yao. the fact that the rockets made it to the 2nd round, after watching them for almost an entire decade, is enough to feel satisfied.

i truly am concerned about his longterm mobility if he continues on and signs another contract.

a graceful goodbye to the game and an ambassador for the league would be my hope for him and his future. he simply cannot play the game of basketball like this. euroleague maybe, but 82 games and 48 minutes? its just something he cant sustain.

TXSun wrote:wow bunch of you HOU fans already sound defeated with at least 2 guaranteed games to go. anything is possible in the playoffs.

Dont get it confused we are only commenting on Yao and the future of our team with two superstar injured players.

I happen to love this rockets team and am very happy with every single person on the roster including the coaches and management. Trust me this team will not roll over and die and I expect us to continue to have a good series.

I have nothing negative to say about Yao or the Rockets because they always give it there all and leave everything on the court. They also have a coach who refuses to get technicals because winning is everything to him and no matter what happens on the court our coach is poised and refuses to give up free points. We play hard and we dont complain about injuries or bad calls the way other teams do.

Im very proud to be a Rockets fan but we need leaders who are going to be healthy for the playoffs otherwise having role players like battier lowry scola ETC are a waste of money if were not playing to make a deep run in the playoffs. Which cant be done without your star players

I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. And before some dufus comes in here and says something ridiculous, I never "wished" it on him. I just have something called common sense. 7 feet + 300 pounds + History of foot problems = Short NBA career.

I don't see him coming back this time. It's the same exact story every season. I hope he considers his life outside the NBA and hangs it up now.

At the end of the day... More than just limiting Yao's minutes I think the Rockets must realistically consider limiting the number of games he plays.

The Suns did it with Shaq and managed to get 75 games out of him without Shaq ever breaking down... I figure if the Rockets can get 65-70 games from Yao that'll leave him good to go for the playoffs...

Now I know this doesn't completely solve things as Yao seems to be much more susceptible to injuries than your normal basketball player so even if you reduce the number of games he plays there's no guarantee he won't get hurt but... Damn...

Yao's one of my favorite basketball players, though I don't necessarily go around hyping him up like I do with some of my bois.

I considered this season successful after we made it to the second round and anything after was just a bonus

This season is a success in my opinion. I don't expect us to beat the lakers with or without Yao. Get well soon big fella.

Yao is Bill Walton all over again...Two of my favorite all-time players.

If Yao retires, I will be going on a hiatus from the NBA for some time and wonder if I should still be a Rockets fan.

wushui wrote:If Yao retires, I will be going on a hiatus from the NBA for some time and wonder if I should still be a Rockets fan.

If Yao retires I'll be back with the loser team known as the L.A Clippers. Yao is the only reason I'm a hardcore Rox fan for the last 6-7 years. I wish the best to Yao.

i think he has been overworked in partly due to playing for the national team along with the nba season. he won't be able to play this summer for the national team...

wushui wrote:If Yao retires, I will be going on a hiatus from the NBA for some time and wonder if I should still be a Rockets fan.

Jaykoolzboy wrote:

wushui wrote:If Yao retires, I will be going on a hiatus from the NBA for some time and wonder if I should still be a Rockets fan.

If Yao retires I'll be back with the loser team known as the L.A Clippers. Yao is the only reason I'm a hardcore Rox fan for the last 6-7 years. I wish the best to Yao.

Good. Getting rid of his fanboys will do wonders for this board.

Yao sounds almost like Zydrunas Ilgauskas of the Cavaliers. He has has feet problems his whole career and I feel almost the same way about him. He has broken and sprained his ankles numerous times and I hate to see a big man go down like that. I wish Yao the best.

Rockets did a great job limiting his mins during the reg season but playoff time Yao had to play big mins. Unfortunately the injury gods are never going to be with this ROX team. Yao is a tru soldier and definately the best offensive big man in the game, I already miss those sikk turnaround Js, just cant stop that ish!! Get well soon Yao!!

The brightside is that the injury is still not as severe as last season's and he came back from that one fine. What this does more than anything is force management to really look at this team's foundation long-term. Yao might not have many more (somewhat) healthy seasons left and it's good we didn't get locked down into some huge extention w/ Yao.

As for this season it was pretty doubtful we were getting past LA w/ or w/o Yao, so the short-term implications isn't significant. But looking long-term I think we have a great coach and solid role-players, we just need the foundation. I still believe HOU management is going to ride this out next year w/ one last go at the T-Mac/Yao foundation and go from there and I think that is the correct decision.

Next season we need a back-up C to spell Yao for minutes, and I think Yao should seriously consider losing some mass to ease the wear and tear on his feet. It might cause him to lose some effectiveness in the post but it has other on-court advantages as well - in particular speed which should help him a lot defensively. I don't think it is a coincidence that Yao was so healthy early in his career when he looked like a twig and then started having all these feet problems after he put on some serious mass.

Yao will recover from this injury for sure. No surgery is required. Rockets need to get a good backup center to relieve Yao for more playing time. Yao was playing heavy minutes (around 40 min per game) in the playoff especially when Deke was out.

BaYBaller wrote:The brightside is that the injury is still not as severe as last season's and he came back from that one fine. What this does more than anything is force management to really look at this team's foundation long-term. Yao might not have many more (somewhat) healthy seasons left and it's good we didn't get locked down into some huge extention w/ Yao.

As for this season it was pretty doubtful we were getting past LA w/ or w/o Yao, so the short-term implications isn't significant. But looking long-term I think we have a great coach and solid role-players, we just need the foundation. I still believe HOU management is going to ride this out next year w/ one last go at the T-Mac/Yao foundation and go from there and I think that is the correct decision.

Next season we need a back-up C to spell Yao for minutes, and I think Yao should seriously consider losing some mass to ease the wear and tear on his feet. It might cause him to lose some effectiveness in the post but it has other on-court advantages as well - in particular speed which should help him a lot defensively. I don't think it is a coincidence that Yao was so healthy early in his career when he looked like a twig and then started having all these feet problems after he put on some serious mass.

It could be everything from the way Yao eats to how he carries himself. I always thought, Shaq was light-footed in his stride and was ready to jump, turn and spin which is an anomaly for something as massive as Shaq. Yao's legs may be too massive in comparison to his upper body which can make him off-balanced and unable to achieve a light foot to save against shock.. Concentrate on lifting those big legs rather than stomping them Yao when you trot.