Great news for Rocket fans, who were an extreme longshot to get Bonzi Wells. Click here for more on the Bonzi signing.

Although he plays a different position, this takes some of the sting from the Rockets not being able to sign Mike James, who seemed like a lock since he really wanted to come back to Houston.

The Rockets are really loaded now. Barring major injuries, I’m predicting a 53+ win season coming on!

Thanks to Raymond for alerting us about Yao being awarded yesterday the University of Houston’s President Medal for his contribution in bridging and promoting friendship between the U.S. and China.

It was the 10th year anniversary of the Asian Amercian Studies Center at the University of Houston. Some 450 people attended the event, including the Chinese consulate in Houston, Mr. Hua Jinzhou, and the Chancellor of the University of Houston. Yao Ming was the Chief Guest of Honor, and sat at the center position of the head table between the Chinese consulate and the Chancellor.

In his thank you speech, Yao Ming expressed that he will continue to use his best efforts to make more contributions to Sino-American culture and sports, and said: “I wish I can be a good textbook not only limited to the basketball sports.”

Now that Yao is in Houston, Channel 2 in Houston has a 3+ minute video interview with Yao available here. It’s pretty good.

Shane Battier is greeted in Beijing upon his arrival to announce and promote his becoming an official spokesperson and shoe-wearer of Chinese sportswear company PEAK. Click here and here for more photos from promotional events with Battier.

Shane Battier hasn’t played a game as a Rocket with Yao yet, but he still got a deal with Chinese sportswear company PEAK. He’ll be PEAK’s official spokesperson and wear their shoes during every NBA game. He follows Damon Jones and Shaquille O’Neal as the third NBA player to sign a deal with a Chinese sportswear company, who signed deals with Li Ning. PEAK apparently signed a two-year, $4 million deal with the Rockets back in February as a sponsor.

Since Yao is tied up with Reebok, no doubt PEAK saw an opportunity to get their shoes seen by millions of Chinese eyeballs worn by a guy who will play alongside Yao. Smart move on their part, especially with a guy like Shane who will represent well.

To see more photos from Shane’s first visit in Beijing with PEAK, click here. To see photos of Shane at another promotional event, click here.

It has been dreadfully quiet the past 12 days or so on the Yao front. Yao is back in Houston now gearing up for training camp that starts in a couple of weeks.

Thankfully there was some interesting news on Thursday. A group of basketball experts all agree that Yao very soon could supplant Dirk Nowitzki as the best international player in the world. Rather than recite all the great quotes here, click here for the article on ChinaDaily.com.

Last week Yao said that the Chinese need to send some of its players overseas to improve. He said it again yesterday, this time with more detail:

“As the 2008 Olympics are drawing near, we should send abroad the likes of Yi Jianlian and Wang Shipeng as soon as possible in a bid to raise our level in the short term.”

Click here for more of the story, which explains that’s going to be tough to do given past experiences with Wang ZhiZhi — lots of sitting on the bench and moving from team-to-team. But Yao refutes that argument with the following statement.

“Even if our basketballers fail to play as regulars, we still could benefit at least from their training. I played as a substitute 10 minutes per game initially, too. It depends on your will and work.”

We learned last week that the Rockets were interested in signing former Stanford standout Casey Jacobsen, and they made it happen on Tuesday. Click here for the story.

The Rockets also signed another Stanford guy, Matt Haryasz, who was somewhat impressive in a few games at the Vegas Summer League in July. He probably won’t make the team because the Rockets drafted a similar but better player — Steve Novak (click here for a YaoMania! interview) — before Haryasz, but he should get some looks during training camp.

Team USA’s nemesis — and new Rockets guard — Vassilis Spanoulis, is profiled in this Houston Chronicle article. I really like his confidence. Looks like he’s ready to make an impact in his first year in the NBA just like Yao did.