Yao returned to Beijing on Monday, July 11th, in time for various basketball and promotional opportunities. To see more photos from Yao’s arrival,
click here. To read more about Yao’s summer, check out the story directly below.
It has been several weeks since my last post. Like Yao, I have been taking a break (actually, focusing on my regular job) since the Rockets lost to the Mavericks in Game 7 on May 7th in Dallas. Since that game, it has been a relatively slow summer for Yao compared to last year’s Olympic Games preparation.
To catch you up on what Yao has been doing over the past several weeks, here are some of the highlights (thanks to Raymond, our correspondent in China):
* Yao recognizes that he needs to continue working hard and step up his game after seeing fellow first-round draft choice Amare Stoudemire dominate in the playoffs. Yao is also extra motivated by the fact the San Antonio Spurs, a team the Rockets beat twice in the regular season, won the championship.
* Yao feels that he needs to improve his strength and stamina since he got tired in the fourth quarter of many games. He also is working hard on his low-post positioning and ball handling skills.
* Yao hired former Rockets strength coach Anthony Falsone to be his personal trainer. Falsone mentioned that he will be shadowing Yao the entire summer: “With Yao, now my situation is going to be when he’s in China, I’m there. When he’s here (in Houston), I’m here. That’s availability to him 100 percent of the time.” Yao’s training regimen appears to have paid off: Yao can reportedly bench press twelve reps of 220 pounds without any difficulty.
* While training, Yao waited several weeks for a determination to be made if he should have surgery on his left ankle to remove a bone spur that forced Yao to play with pain. Yao flew to Oakland, CA to see a specialist, and ultimately the decision was made to proceed with surgery on June 16th in San Francisco. Rockets trainer Keith Jones said the rehabilitation from similar surgeries is generally six to eight weeks, but it’s too soon to know when Yao will be ready for a full-fledged schedule.
* After the surgery on June 16th, Yao stayed in San Francisco for rest and rehab, then on July 11th flew back to China where he will stay most of the off-season. Still not fully recovered from the ankle surgery, Yao can walk without crutches, but still has some pain. After Yao is able to run on his ankle, Falsone will come to China to help in the rehabilitation. It is not yet certain whether Yao will play in the FIBA Stankovic Continental Champion Cup torunament (July 26 ~ 31) in Beijing. But as of now, it looks unlikely.
* Yao will participate in the opening ceremony of the NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp from July 14th – 17th, the Chinese premiere of the film “The Year of the Yao” on July 14th, and a series of promotional activities for the Special Olympics, for whom Yao is an official spokesperson.
Stay tuned for more details on Yao’s progress this summer!
