Yao will announce season-ending surgery

[smapor]

good for him, after this surgery, Yao owe all of us rocket fans next season, so i expect him to ave 30/14/5 in 2010

I am fine with him just being healthy. LOL

[Mike12345]

Wow this Gilbert Arenas whos athletic, Yao making a comeback and staying healthy is very unlikely sorry to be pessimistic. Do you seriously want to rely on him or Mcgrady every year when we have the bench and role players to be contenders?

If Yao has a good start to the season i would immediately look to trade him or next summer once he recovers.

Were not winning a championship with battier in the next 2 years so unfortunately he will be traded. As happy as a rockets fan i was last year with our effort and team, its pretty sad how the big 3 turned into the big zero.

[stunta21]

this report is not true.... yao said he needs to wait a week to decide whether or not he needs surgery...

[Meatcookie]

Tanking the last 15 games of the season is one thing, but the entire season? No way the Rockets ever do that. You know what that does for motivation and chemistry? The Rockets management wouldn't ever fall that far.

The Clippers would tank, the Lakers would not. There is a reason one of those teams will always suck and the other will always be in position to have a good team or make good deals.

If the Rockets can't win without Yao and TMac, then that is fine. But they damn well better be trying and improving throughout the season until the right piece(s) can join them.

[moofs]

Mr. Feigan is to lawn care as fish are to bicycles. (Sorry, but I hate the guy. He's a 2nd rate huckster...at best. At worst, he's a shill. Glenn Beck thinks Jon Feigan lacks accountability.)

Feigan has 10000x more information that he writes about.

That's why I hate him. He's a basketball co@&tease - So concerned about his (perceived) access that he forgets to be a journalist. ...Though he sure ain't the only sportswriter to have forgotten his original calling/audience.

YOU SEE ME LOOKING AT YOU, ESPN?/Richard Justice?

Till reading the second, the first didn't make any sense. If I was a journalist, I wouldn't piss off my sources either. He'd still get his stories, but he'd lack the insiderism that lets him provide those teasebits.

[Iggyemu]

I blame myself. I really do. It was my pride that set the table for this terrible fall.

(Now if Yao will only do the right thing and decline his '11 player option.)

Yea this is what I am thinking as well. We know his situation and we know he'll never be healthy or dominant again. I hope he does the right thing and declines his 2010-2011 option.

[Guy986]

I think Yao can be a fantastic 6th man. MLE contract and 20 min off the bench will do wonder for his career.

[Munchlaxatives]

According to Jonathon Feigan in his previous blogs, if Yao were out for full season, Rockets get a medical exception of around the MLE ($5.8 million).

Opinions of Feigan aside, is this true? If worst comes to worst, we could be forced to use it on Zaza Pachulia.

[texasholdem]

I'm sure someone will sign ZaZa by the time the exception is approved.

Does anyone know if Yao will count towards the 15 man roster?

[fisterkev]

If this treatment is supposed to breathe new life into his career after this season, then why would he give the Rockets a break in the following season contract-wise? He'd be stupid to do so. Even if it was unlikely he'd come back then, he'd still be stupid to do so.

The man makes in one season more than most could hope to make in a lifetime. That last season could fix him up with a lifetime of hookers and drinks in Vegas if he so chose. Not that he'd go that route... but you get my point. He'd be a fool to not exercise that option if there is even the remotest hope that he could play again within that timeframe.

I think that Yao is a great person. Really, as an individual, I think he is a genuinely good guy. The one time I met him he was truly cool, and everything I've read speaks to a gentle giant sorta thing. But I wouldn't expect him to piss away such a payday as an entire max contract season if he can get it. Frankly, I can't expect that of anyone nowadays short of Mother Theresa, and she's dead.

Expect us to be tied up with that one until expiration.

[TMU]

I'm sure someone will sign ZaZa by the time the exception is approved.

Does anyone know if Yao will count towards the 15 man roster?

From my understanding Yao's medical exception will open up a roster spot. The only downside of the exception is that the Rockets' salary cap will be affected.

[hackle]

So Yao is offically done for hah? What a faacken blow. damn.

[Teckon]

The fact that rockets get the disable player exception does not mean that yao will not play this season. Yao has to make that decision whether he opt for a solution that make him out of full season or allow him to come back in later part of the season. Yao is the one making the decision not Rocket management.