After going so long without seeing Yao, we get to see photos of Yao Ming in public for the second night in a row, this time at the Rockets annual “Tux & Tennies” benefit.

In the second image below, Yao meets fellow Houstonian and former President George Bush. Pretty cool.

Thanks go to Raymond for all the photos in the forum of Yao taking photos with fans for $500 a pop (for charity), other Rocket players and their significant others, and all the cool stuff that went up for auction.

It had been a few weeks since any of us had seen Yao, maybe dating back to February 26th when he announced he’ll be having season-ending surgery. That’s due to the fact that Yao can’t really walk without crutches and has been resting at home.

He finally was seen Wednesday night to watch the honoring of Dikembe Mutombo at halftime of the Rockets game against Minnesota (injured Steve Francis was also there). It’s good to see the big fella’ back:

Click here and here for more photos of Yao at the game.

Francis did some guest commentating during the FSN telecast, and he had a couple of interesting things to say:

1) When Francis had his knee surgery, he said Yao was one of the first people who visited him at the hospital. Francis really appreciated the gesture. Obviously Yao and Steve still remain very close friends.

2) Francis said although he’ll become a free agent at the end of this season, he doesn’t want to leave Houston and wants to sign with the Rockets again. It could get awkward if the Rockets want to move forward without him.

As far as the game goes, the Rockets were prime for an upset from the Timberwolves because I think they’re alot better than people give them credit for. Al Jefferson is a stud of a player (he proved it with 21 points, 10 boards and 5 blocks) and former Rocket Kirk Snyder played very well (12 points on 5-of-7 shooting) by attacking the basket and getting several dunks.

On top of that, the Rockets were going to have more than 3 days before their next game against San Antonio on Sunday, which is almost an eternity in the NBA. So it would have been easier for the Timberwolves to catch the Rockets looking ahead to the break and their huge game against the Spurs.

Minnesota made a game of it by getting as close as 2 points in the fourth quarter, but Tracy McGrady finally got his shot going by scoring 10 points in the quarter (5-of-10 shooting) to finally give the Rockets a bigger cushion and eventually win it 97-86. Before McGrady started hitting shots in the fourth, he had missed 11-of-15 of them. He would finish with a game-high 23 points.

Read the rest of this entry »