Rockets could lose Yao for season, if not longer

"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.

“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.

This has turned into an impossible situation for the Rockets’ capable GM. Even if Yao plays again, Morey knows it’s just a matter of time until his lower body breaks down. His feet and ankles just can’t support the mobility of his 7-foot-6 frame.

With four surgeries in three years, the Rockets worried they were reaching a breaking point. Well, it’s here. After missing 86 games in the previous three seasons, the 28-year-old Yao missed a mere five this past regular season before injuring his foot during the Rockets’ second-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

It wasn’t until last week when Houston issued a statement saying Yao’s fractured foot hadn’t healed properly, that he would be unavailable “indefinitely.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-yaorockets062909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Celebrity Golf Tournament

Matt Lauer, Justin Timberlake, Tony Romo, and John Atkinson played in a celebrity golf tournament June 5. Guess who won.. My Romo! GO ROMO!!

"Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and singer Justin Timberlake may not be qualified to play in the U.S. Open, but both proved they could break 100 Friday on Torrey Pines’ South Course.
The pair joined “Today” host Matt Lauer and a regular guy from Omaha, Neb., in a foursome bent on disproving Tiger Woods’ theory that it takes a pro to beat the course.
Romo, who missed qualifying for the U.S. Open this spring, won with a 13-over 84. The beefy quarterback, who boasts a 2.2 handicap index, barely broke a sweat playing the first nine holes in 5-over 40 but slowed as the six-hour round wore on."

http://www.worldgolf.com/blogs/william.wolfrum/2008/06/07/take_that_tiger_justin_timberlake_tony_r

I Met Jason Terry!

Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks was at Wingstop in McKinney, probably 2 months ago and I got his autograph! Me n Billy got Mavs tickets for Christmas too; we went January 19. They played the Seattle Supersonics and won so yay!