Yao has always been loyal to coaches and teammates who have caught alot of heat, as seen with Rudy Tomjanovich, Steve Francis, Jeff Van Gundy, just to name a few. Now he’s doing the same with embattled Chinese national team coach Jonas Kazlauskas, who recently lost 5 straight games in Europe, partly due to Yao’s recuperation and honeymoon.

China Daily reports that Yao said, “I have heard a lot of people speaking against him (Kazlauskas), but I am sure he is a great man, he unites the team and of course he should stay and lead us at the Beijing Olympics.”

“Some media are like grass atop a wall swaying in the wind. When you win some games, they cheer for you. But when you lose, they go to the other side.”

To read the entire story, click here.

If you didn’t hear about it , new Rockets’ power forward and Yao Ming wingman Luis Scola of Argentina won the MVP of the FIBA Americas tournament in Las Vegas that ended a few days ago. Although Argentina finished second to the dominant U.S.A. team, Scola still garnered enough votes to win the award over the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Carmelo Anthony.

Our Raymond has translated an article that appeared in the Chinese press after Scola won the MVP award. You can tell Scola is fired up about getting to work with the Rockets.

It looks like Dikembe Mutombo will play one more year for the Rockets, which is great news in my opinion. Deke was a capable backup last season for Yao Ming, especially during all those games where Yao was hurt while helping keeping the Rockets afloat. But for some unexpected reason former coach Jeff Van Gundy decided not to play him much in the playoff series they lost against Utah.

Mutombo is mad about how things ended last year for the team, and wants one more chance to end his career on a better note.

One unfortunate thing for him is that he wishes he hadn’t let his contract get pushed to the end of the Rockets’ line. He blames himself, probably because he didn’t know if he was going to come back and play this season. Instead, he will sign for somewhere between the veteran’s minimum of $1.2 million and a max of $1.9 million based on the team’s salary cap situation.

The way I see it, considering the millions of dollars that Mutombo has donated to the hospital that he has built in the Congo, this is one of those cases where I don’t mind hearing about an athlete not being 100% thrilled about the money he’s making. Overall, though, he appears ready to come back with a vengeance, which is the most important thing.

For the Houston Chronicle’s coverage of the story, click here.