China Media Blames Yao Injuries On Long Season

[duncan228]

China media blames Yao injuries on long season (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=afp-basketnbarocketschnyao&prov=afp&type=lgns)

China's state media Tuesday blamed the rigours of the NBA for a career-threatening injury to star centre Yao Ming, calling on the world's top basketball league to shorten its playing season.

The Houston Rockets centre, seen in China as a national hero, said last week he would have surgery on his broken left foot in the coming days and would probably miss all of the next National Basketball Association season.

A commentary in the Communist Party-run People's Daily dismissed the widely-held view in the United States that Yao's repeated injuries stemmed from training with China's national team during the NBA off-season.

"It can only be said that the NBA game has worn Yao Ming out," the paper fired back.

"The physical beating taken by every player due to the long season, the high level of match play and the endless travel cannot be overlooked.

"The NBA should consider changing its match scheduling from the standpoint of safeguarding players."

The iconic centre broke his foot during the Rockets playoff run in May.

The Rockets said Friday they had no timetable for the return of the seven-time All-Star but he was "expected to be available" for the team's training camp in October 2010.

The commentary analysed Yao's recent injuries and said they all occurred during the NBA season, including a break in the same left foot six months ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Yao led China to an eighth-place finish in the Games.

"With the world's most advanced sports medicine and treatment the NBA has been unable to resolve the continued problems with Yao Ming's health," the commentary said.

"So this problem might actually not be decided by his body or the conditions of his medical treatment, but is a basic issue related to the games themselves."

Yao recently bought his former Chinese team, the financially embattled Shanghai Sharks. But he said this week that was not a sign that he was considering retirement.

[45 bank shot]

now this is fucked-up. The result of Yao being injured has a mutual cause from both the Chinese National team and the Houston Rockets. Both teams tried to get the best of Yao by forcing him to play extra minutes and not resting him well enough

[Muser]

:lmao


I don't know what to say to this...:lmao

[all_heart]

China can have a big cup of STFU!!

[BruceBowenFan]

Fucking hypocrites

[robbie380]

now this is fucked-up. The result of Yao being injured has a mutual cause from both the Chinese National team and the Houston Rockets. Both teams tried to get the best of Yao by forcing him to play extra minutes and not resting him well enough

how is 33 mpg "extra minutes" for a top tier starter? he only plays 2/3's of the game. :downspin:

[TDMVPDPOY]

china gets half of his paycheck and still give him shit?

how about surrounding him with good players instead of the shit thats on the team.

[TFloss32]

Too many minutes/games? How about that he's a giant trying to support a 7'6" frame?!?!? Forget running up and down a hardwood floor...just walking has to be difficult on Yao. I'd be extremely surprised if he ever plays a full season again (assuming that his foot heals).

[Leetonidas]

Yeah...that's why he's 28 or 29 or whatever and his body is breaking down yet Shaq is 38 and still playing. :rolleyes

[Cane]

Going to have to agree - the NBA season has too many games especially for teams that go deep into the playoffs.

Duncan, Ginobili, David Robinson, etc are all Spurs whose performance is shortened because of this.

[pauls931]

I do admit the season is pretty damn long and brutal, but I'll have to agree and serve China a big cup of STFU. That's what the bench is for...

[Cane]

Ratings are also pretty shitty for regular season NBA games.

[pauls931]

Ratings are also pretty shitty for regular season NBA games.

As long as most of the seats sell, I don't think that matters much.

[Ryvin1]

I think they could create a better product with a shorter regular season so more players are healthly for the post season, regular season games would also mean more. We could also handle the contraction of a few teams, think the games would be more entertaining.

[JamStone]

Yeah...that's why he's 28 or 29 or whatever and his body is breaking down yet Shaq is 38 and still playing. :rolleyes

The NBA has witnessed that, for whatever reason, major physical problems are aggravated quite exponentially once people/players get past the 7'2" to 7'3" height. For whatever reason, that's when basketball players become super prone to injuries, particularly feet, knees, and back. There have been a lot of 7'0" and 7'1" players in the history of the game to have had long and relatively healthy careers. But, if you start drawing up a list of all players over 7'2", the ones that actually had long and relatively healthy careers is pretty short. Think of the Ralph Sampsons and Shawn Bradleys and Gheorge Muresons. Kareem and Dikembe are the only two that immediately come to mind that go against that. Obviously, being over 7'2" is rare in itself, and being that tall and good at basketball makes it even a shorter sample. But, the ones who were, they were often injury riddled.

[Texas_Ranger]

Yea...And it's NASA's fault that Red Rocket can't do shit!

[v2freak]

Maybe the Chinese government should have done more research on how long the NBA season was before they let Yao come over. It's not like the number of games in a season has recently been increased to 82.

And what are they whining about? Yao never played deep in the playoffs either.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

It's like they sat down and tried to figure out what they could say to confirm every preconceived notion that people have about what the Chinese government and media machine does with its athletes. The problem can't be that a 7'6 frame is simply not designed for a lot of running and jumping, much less trying to do it almost year round. No sir, it's that damned NBA's fault!

[Agloco]

China media blames Yao injuries on long season (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=afp-basketnbarocketschnyao&prov=afp&type=lgns)

China's state media Tuesday blamed the rigours of the NBA for a career-threatening injury to star centre Yao Ming, calling on the world's top basketball league to shorten its playing season.

The Houston Rockets centre, seen in China as a national hero, said last week he would have surgery on his broken left foot in the coming days and would probably miss all of the next National Basketball Association season.

A commentary in the Communist Party-run People's Daily dismissed the widely-held view in the United States that Yao's repeated injuries stemmed from training with China's national team during the NBA off-season.

"It can only be said that the NBA game has worn Yao Ming out," the paper fired back.

"The physical beating taken by every player due to the long season, the high level of match play and the endless travel cannot be overlooked.

"The NBA should consider changing its match scheduling from the standpoint of safeguarding players."

The iconic centre broke his foot during the Rockets playoff run in May.

The Rockets said Friday they had no timetable for the return of the seven-time All-Star but he was "expected to be available" for the team's training camp in October 2010.

The commentary analysed Yao's recent injuries and said they all occurred during the NBA season, including a break in the same left foot six months ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Yao led China to an eighth-place finish in the Games.

"With the world's most advanced sports medicine and treatment the NBA has been unable to resolve the continued problems with Yao Ming's health," the commentary said.

"So this problem might actually not be decided by his body or the conditions of his medical treatment, but is a basic issue related to the games themselves."

Yao recently bought his former Chinese team, the financially embattled Shanghai Sharks. But he said this week that was not a sign that he was considering retirement.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2430558720_4386b0158d.jpg?v=0

[024]

i agree that the NBA plays way too many games but this is dumb.

[Rogue]

ROFL :lmao :lmao :lmao I'd rather blame his injuries to his exaggerated size and his stupidity. Every NBA player shares the same length of season but most of them can enjoy an off-season without playing one game, while yao has to work even harder every summer for his national team. Yao should have quitted his national team but he is too stupid to do so, so that his stupidity should take more responsibility for the early exit of his short career.

[bringbackmario]

yeah nothing to do with being 7'6", it must be the league. By the way he wanted to come over and play in this league knowing the length of the season so as someone said earlier.....China STFU and feed your people

[wireonfire]

china gets half of his paycheck and still give him shit?



They are not getting any of his paycheck. He had an expensive buyout with his old team and that was it.

[GuerillaBlack]

Fuck the Chinese Media.

[diego]

I dont have the means to research this, but I'm fairly certain NBA players suffer more injuries than FIBA ones. the fact that the games are 8 minutes longer and that the season is 2x - 3x longer has to be the primary reason.

of course in Yao's case his height and weight are also a huge factor. but I dont get why people discount the toll of the 82 game season. its not like Yao and players that play on their NT are the only NBA players with injury problems.

of course someone will come with the "they get paid millions to play a game, what whiners" argument. and yes, they knew the rules before signing their contracts. but I think it would improve the league's product to either shorten the games or the season.

[Halberto]

The length of the season is the reason? How about physics and biology? Or that he's perhaps the most unathletic person in the world's most athletic league?

Besides that, I think they're right that it should be shortened. Imagine how it would be if each team played their conference teams only 3 times... that would make games matter more than just divisional records etc. But at the same time, that would make games that much more expensive.

Conclusion:
http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10063/stfu-cookie.jpg

[duncan228]

Meanwhile...

Rockets center Yao Ming undergoes foot surgery (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=txyaoinjured&prov=st&type=lgns)

Rockets center Yao Ming had surgery Tuesday to repair a broken bone in his left foot.

The team announced the surgery was performed at Memorial Hermann Hospital by Dr. Tom Clanton, the Rockets' team physician, along with Dr. Bill McGarvey.

Surgeons grafted bone onto the tarsal navicular bone and realigned his foot to reduce stress on the repair. The seven-time All-Star is slated to remain in the hospital for several days.

"Everything went according to play, and we were able to achieve not only fixation of the broken bone but also realignment of the bones to improve the stress pattern on his foot," Dr. Clanton said in the statement. "We expect him to be immobilized in a cast and using crutches for at least 6-8 weeks."

Yao is expected to miss the 2009-10 season, but be ready to go for training camp in 2010.

Yao suffered the hairline fracture late in a May 8 playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Rockets said late last month that the injury had not healed and he was out indefinitely. Last Friday, the 7-foot-6 center announced that he'd have the surgery.

The injury had raised questions, especially in his native China, about Yao's playing future. But on July 8, he said through his agent that he was "optimistic about the future and I will return to playing basketball when my foot has fully healed."

Yao played in 77 regular-season games in 2008-09, his most injury-free year since 2004-05, when he played in 80. Before last season, Yao missed chunks of the previous three seasons with leg and foot injuries.

In 2006-07, Yao missed 32 games after breaking his right leg. He sustained a stress fracture in his left foot in 2007-08, underwent surgery and sat out 26 games.

Yao is due to make more than $16 million next season, with a player option for 2010-11 that would pay him more than $17 million.

He has averaged 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in his career.

[Danny.Zhu]

You see, China media are controlled by the government. So guys please transfer your hate to the government please.

[redzero]

Yao's foot broke because he's too damn big to play in the NBA. Playing with the Chinese Olympic team only compounded on the problem.

[xellos88330]

If they wanted a shortened NBA season, then why did the Chinese government allow him to play in the NBA anyways? That is what the real question is now.

[J.T.]

Is Yao still eligible to be voted an All-Star if he's out for the year? Cuz it'll be awesome to not see the massive fucking voter fraud put him in another ASG.

[cornbread]

Their scientists should have considered the 82 game season when they were engineering him.

[BadOdor]

lol rockets = communism.

[sabar]

I agree the season is too long and there are too many teams, but their government can just stfu and worry about their own problems.

[pawe]

lol pinkage

[ambchang]

This is all but a direct response to people who say that Yao gets injured frequently because of his commitment to the Chinese national team. IMHO, both sides are stupid, as it is clear that Yao gets injured alot because he is huge.

[z0sa]

Nothing like a state controller media, is there?

[diego]

what does the state controlled media have to do with this news?

what proof is there that a market controlled media is superior? I realize manufacturing consent was researched and published in the US, but does that tiny pocket of dissent really outweigh the fact that 98% of the western worlds' media outlets are in the hands of 3-4 corporations? why should i trust Rupert Murdoch anymore than Hu Jintao? I have just as much in common with one than I do the other.

oh wait, nevermind, we're free here out west! free to mock the commie state controlled media, because our media and schools say we ought to. boy do i feel better now. especially since Uncle Rupert always speaks the truth and never lets anyone's interest interfere with his primary goal, keeping me informed. look, American Gladiators coming up next! :bang

[Trainwreck2100]

that's why you don;t breed people like they are cows