Today in Austin, Yao Ming didn’t work out with the team, given a day of rest that has been part of the ongoing plan. But we did speak to Rockets’ head trainer Keith Jones that each day, including today, Yao comes to the Austin training facility around 8am to do strengthening exercises, long before team practices start around 11:30am. Yao is living up to his reputation as being one of the hardest workers in basketball.

Jones also said the training and conditioning staff can tell that Yao has improved every day, even if Yao himself may not have felt it. It’s those little exercises they have him doing every day that’s helping him run more naturally…better and more physiologically than maybe he’s probably ever run in his life.

Below is an interview that coach Rick Adelman had with the media after practice. There’s too much stuff to transcribe, but he talks about the meeting the team had with league officials yesterday at their hotel. Essentially, the bar has been lowered on the types of technical fouls they will make against players who get too far out of line this season protesting calls.

At the end of the video, Adelman talks about Yao and some of the challenges they face with him being out for so long, and scheduled to play limited minutes.

Today Yao slightly rolled his ankle during training camp, about halfway through the scrimmage, right about the time he would have stopped anyway. He said it’s no big deal and he should be able to workout tomorrow.

Here’s today’s video interview of Yao from Day 3 of Rockets’ training camp in Austin. You’ll get a kick out of his response to the last question.

And in case you missed it, the NBA tweeted earlier today a link to another article about Yao’s visit to a hospital last Friday to visit a Chinese child who had open heart surgery. His dream had always been to meet Yao Ming, and Yao made that dream come true.

Here is more video that I was able to shoot yesterday (Tuesday) at the Rockets’ training camp in Austin. Unfortunately, Yao wasn’t available for interviews since he was in the training room getting standard treatment. But there are 4 more days left of camp here, so I’m sure I’ll have more video of Yao to post here sometime during the rest of the week.

Here’s Courtney Lee, who mentioned that he’s been playing alot of “1” (point guard) during training camp. That’s interesting since the Rockets already have three in Austin (Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry, and Ish Smith). He responds to the question about him playing the “1” in camp.

Here’s Shane Battier:

And Rick Adelman:

YaoMingMania was there for the first day of Rockets training camp in Austin. I have posted some interviews I recorded, and will update this post with new interviews I find from other media members who were there.

Here’s Yao (you might need to use earphones to hear it better since there’s alot of background noise at first):

And here’s Aaron Brooks:

I also recorded Brooks on audio, asking him first how he felt about going back to China after having been there just a couple of months ago as part of the Yao Ming Foundation Charity Tour:

Aaron Brooks 9-27-10 interview by yaomingmania

Here’s an interview of coach Rick Adelman:

Rick Adelman 9-27-10 by yaomingmania

I recorded the final question to Adelman on video (below), which is really short. He was asked a question about the importance of the Rockets’ depth this coming season:

It was a good weekend of practice for Yao Ming as the Rockets started training camp. Yao looked good running the court…

Click here for more photos of Yao at Saturday’s practice.

This Chronicle article does a good job revealing how excited Yao was through the following quotes:

“Words cannot express how happy I am. I can’t say if I was the first guy here (for the 1 p.m. practice), but I was here at 9 o’clock.

“I still had some limits on the scrimmage. I finished most of it. I’m very tired. For today, it’s fine. No foot pains, just conditioning. I’m still working on it. Actually, not bad today, better than I thought.”

Coach Rick Adelman was also impressed:

“I was really pleased with Yao. He was able to do a lot of things today. Now we’ll see how he responds tomorrow — if he can walk.

“For the first day, he probably did a lot more today than he did in a week. We’ll have to be real careful watching tomorrow.

“He went through all our drills defensively. He went through everything we did, except they limited his time scrimmaging.”

“He’s just such a force around the basket. He can score. The biggest thing is getting his balance and his timing down. The ball comes off the boards, for instance. He might be a count late to get it. He’s not reacting like he used to. And there’s some things he’s not comfortable doing. But when he gets his footwork down and he gets that jump hook, it’s automatic.
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“Right now, he can’t expect too much. I just like the way he went through it. You can see the presence he gives us on the court. His presence is huge”

Chuck Hayes also liked what he saw:

“I’m inspired, impressed. Just seeing him run and up and down the court, working hard, even when he’s tired, he is still getting after it, trying to compete.

“He’s the hardest-working guy I’ve ever played with or seen. He’s also the most stubborn. We need him.”

Then on Sunday, the Rockets held a light practice in front of Houston fans. There was one part where Luis Scola tried a 180-degree tomahawk jam that didn’t work out very well, and all of the players had a huge laugh.

Click here for more photos from Sunday’s practice.

Rick Adelman is so pleased with Yao’s progress, it looks like he may want Yao to play longer in scrimmages. To accomplish that, Adelman may hold him out of practice every other day to give his foot enough rest to not overdo things (click here for the Houston Chronicle story). Yao is cool with trying different things.

Here’s a video the Chronicle put together on Yao’s first practice:

It was good to see Yao Ming back in a Rockets jersey yesterday at Rockets Media Day! It had been so long, it’s easy to forget what he looked like in a Rockets uniform.

You can check out all the photos of Yao and his teammates in the forum, thanks to Raymond.

Here’s also a link to his video interview in front of the Houston press. As usual, Yao was cracking them up.

After Media Day was over, Yao took some time to visit a child in the hospital who is recovering from open heart surgery. Click here to see a photo and read the story.

The season is right around the corner! Tomorrow is Rockets’ Media Day in Houston, then training camp starts on Saturday!

I had a chance to catch up with the Big Man recently over the phone. Things had obviously quieted down for him, at least from a visibility perspective, since his intensive activities during his Foundation’s Charity Tour in late July, but here’s a summary of what he’s been up to since that time.

* He’s mainly been working out at Toyota Center where he has seen Chuck Hayes, Aaron Brooks, and Chase Budinger (who is sidelined with an ankle injury). You probably had a chance to see Yao’s workout video against Hayes a couple of weeks ago. Although it looked intense, Yao said he is getting better every week, and he’s looking forward to training camp in a couple of weeks where he’ll get his conditioning up to an even higher level from the 50-60% where he is right now.

* Yao was beaming when I asked him about Chuck’s progress. He said Hayes has really improved, his shooting is “so good” right now, and his defense has always been there. So I take that to mean Rocket fans can expect an even further boost to the backup center position this coming season.

* Yao was proud of Luis Scola‘s dominating performances at the World Championships in Turkey. Yao had spoken to some of the Rockets’ staff who had either been to some of the games or had spoken to NBA personnel who were over there, and it sounded like Scola was making the Spurs regret even further they traded him to Houston after his domination in that tournament.

* You might have seen last week how Yao greeted the FIBA World Cup Federation delegation in Houston since the U.S. is vying for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup games. If the U.S. wins it, then Houston is a candidate to host some of the games. I asked Yao if promoting Houston for the World Cup would produce any conflicts with the Chinese, and he said it doesn’t because China will probably make a run at hosting the 2026 World Cup.

* On the home front, his baby daughter is doing well, who now sleeps all through the night. So things are much easier with her, especially since Yao has admitted in the past that his wife is taking on most of the caretaking.

* Finally, and most poignantly, I asked Yao before he gets into the fray of the NBA season, to reflect back on the trip he took back to China in July and August and summarize his thoughts. Yao paused and really wanted to take the time to tell me about a story of a trip he took to a poor village in a remote area in the northwest part of China, three hours from the city of Chengdu. They visited a school in the morning until noon, then had to take a 4-hour drive back to the airport, and then took a 3-hour flight back to Shanghai.

When he got back home to Shanghai that evening and took in the view of the city from his condo, one of the most modern cities in the work, it struck Yao that within a matter of hours he had traveled from the Third World to the First World in his own country, and it really hit home. This experience gives him even more motivation to try to help the people in the developing parts of his country, especially the children in the schools there, get a better opportunity in life.

So even though Yao won’t be going back to China after their pre-season games in China in October, all the way through the time the Rockets’ NBA season ends, he continues to be in touch with his initiatives in China to help improve conditions in his home country. And we’ve all seen what he has done for children in his adopted city of Houston (here’s just one example).

* I will be in Austin for the Rockets training camp starting September 27th, so expect more reports on YaoMingMania next week!

In case you missed it, Yao Ming was interviewed recently (probably in late July when he was in China) by CNN’s Talk Asia program, which only airs on CNN International. But luckily Raymond found the full interview on Sina.com. Since it’s streaming from China, keep in mind it may start and stop frequently, but it’s tolerable.

Enjoy!

Interesting article from the Houston Chronicle that confirms the Rockets will limit Yao’s minutes to 24 minutes of playing time each game. That means if he only plays 20 minutes one game, like in the case of an early blowout, he won’t be allowed to play 28 minutes the next game.

They will also limit him from scrimmaging in practice the day after a game. He’ll practice, like shooting drills, but won’t be running up and down the court. He also won’t play much, if at all, in back-to-back games.

This philosophy could change as the Rockets and Yao’s surgeon evaluate his progress through the season, but I don’t anticipate much of a change until the playoffs, as they acknowledge in the article.

I like the approach the Rockets are taking, and Yao is on board with it. We’re entering somewhat unchartered waters with a 7’6″ center entering a season after having major foot surgery like what Yao had, so discretion is the better part of valor.

And the Rockets are so deep, they can afford to give Yao and several of their veterans more rest this season to reduce wear-and-tear. And I always liked the idea of saving your veterans for the playoff grind.

It’s been pretty quiet for Yao recently as he continues his workouts in preparation for training camp in a couple of weeks. But he did take time out on Thursday to greet members of the FIFA delegation who came to Houston to checkout Reliant Stadium and the convention center to see if they were suitable venues if the U.S. is awarded the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

Here’s a video where Yao is interviewed on why he thinks Houston would be a great World Cup host (excuse the very short commercial at the beginning).

Here’s the article that appeared on the Fox Houston Web site:

HOUSTON – The city of Houston Thursday hosted members of the FIFA delegation who are considering the United States as the location for a future World Cup.

“I think the diversity here is right for the sport. I think it would be great for the Houston economy,” Ching said.