Raymond has posted lots of photos in the forum from the first day of Rockets training camp.

As you’ll see from the photos, training camp is being held in Houston at Toyota Center this year instead of Austin like the past two years. Having been to Austin training camp both of those years, it really provided a great opportunity for the team to get away from all the distractions of being in Houston, like their families, most of the media, etc., and develop a stronger bond with each other. It will be interesting to see if it has an effect on the team’s chemistry at the start of the season.

On another note, the Houston Chronicle did a good story on Yao where in this article, it’s revealed that Yao has lost 13 pounds since last season, and he’s now 100% after being only 70-80% during the Olympics. The Rockets will try to reign in Yao’s work ethic by limiting his practice schedule and not have him play as many minutes per game (37.2 last season).

Here’s another post from Ren, the latest addition to the YaoMingMania editorial team:

Yesterday was Houston Rockets media day; which means its time (at least for bloggers, early birds and now Astros fans) to refocus our energy on the upcoming NBA season. So my heretofore all-consuming fantasy football team to which hours a week had been dedicated to ensure a repeat Championship will be put in the sidecar as we burn on into Rockets ’08-’09 season.

Let’s start off with some links…

Obviously, expectations are high with the arrival of Ron-Ron and the general consensus is the Artest deal is the epitome of high-risk, high-reward. Morey is no Gus Hansen but anyone with enough pressure to win can be pushed to take uncharacteristic risks; not that this is that. No one in Houston is second-guessing the trade… yet.

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