Hot off the press…As usual, Yao is completely honest on how he’s feeling, how much weight he lost during the off-season, etc.. And as always, he had lots of one-liners that kept the media laughing throughout the interview.
Okay, I’ve finally been able to get my first video I’ve shot and edited from China and Taipei up on Youtube. It was a long road getting around the Chinese firewall, but hopefully my new method will continue to work as I edit and post more videos from the Yao Foundation Charity tour over the past couple of weeks.
The first video below was shot by me last Tuesday in Taipei where Yao had his first public practice on a basketball court. You’ll see a media circus where tons of Taiwanese videographers and reporters were there waiting for him. They were probably allowed in to help promote the charity game that was to be played in Taipei the following evening, which sounds fine to me all in the name of trying to raise more money for Yao’s foundation. You’ll see how they swarm around him, but Yao takes it all in stride.
Then you’ll see Yao shooting the basketball from different angles on the court. He has no walking boot on his left foot like he did last September when we shot video of him at Toyota Center’s practice court, he doesn’t appear to have any problem shooting jumpers and landing on his feet, and he is extremely accurate making most of his shots.
You’ll also notice about two dozen schoolchildren in the background sitting cross-legged on the sidelines, being very respectful watching Yao’s workout. At one point, you’ll see them all cheer Yao in unison, and Yao acknowledging them with a wave. After his workout, Yao goes over to them to pose for a group photo.
I was able to ride with Yao in the van on the way back to his hotel. I can tell you the van didn’t have any air conditioning on a hot and humid day in Taipei, but that didn’t bother Yao or the Chinese organizers with him. Yao continued to sweat from his workout (and we all were), but there wasn’t one complaint from Yao or anyone else. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is that many Taiwanese and Chinese live in a climate much hotter than Houston and don’t always have adequate A/C in the vehicles in which they’re riding, but they don’t complain about it. They’re used to it. Conversely, this former Houstonian (and many other Americans reading this) couldn’t imagine being in a car with no A/C with a heat index over 100 degrees and not saying at least something about trying to get the A/C to work.
Finally, you’ll see Yao get out of the van and being accompanied by a phalanx of security as he makes his way to the hotel elevators.
The next video I plan to post in the next day or two is of Yao going through actual drills on a basketball court with some of the NBA players who came on his charity tour with him. It’s even better than the video above, so keep an eye out for it! You can follow YaoMingMania on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yaomingmania or at Facebook.com/YaoMania. You can also follow Yao on Facebook at Facebook.com/Yao, although this kind of backstory can be read only on the sites that have “mania” in the handle.
Good news from the Houston Chronicle tonight, which reported the following:
An extensive physical on Yao’s repaired and restructured left foot, long considered an important milestone in his comeback, showed the rehabilitation progressing well, clearing Yao to move to more extensive running and on-court workouts.
“We reviewed his most recent bone scans, and they indicate the healing is continuing at the expected rate,” Rockets athletic trainer Keith Jones said. “He’s right where he should be with regard to his rehab.
“He’s been able to increase his rehab conditioning to the point he is running at his full body weight. He’s been doing some limited on-court work, and he’s been able to go through those workouts with no discomfort. We feel good about his progress at this point, and we’re going to keep gradually elevating the intensity of his workouts within the parameters that our doctors have established.”
I had the chance to record some of Yao’s workout at Toyota Center a few days ago (see below). Anyone who is curious to see how he’s doing must watch this.
The first part of the video he works out with the Rockets’ Director of Strength and Conditioning, Darryl Eto. Then he works out with his personal trainer Anthony Falsone.
One silver lining to Yao being out over the past year is that he has been able to work on improving the mobility of all parts of his body that most NBA players don’t have time to do during the busy season and post-season, mainly because they are nursing nagging injuries.
As you’ll see, there’s no boot on his foot, and he doesn’t need crutches any more. He’s even doing leg squats, putting more weight on the foot he had surgically repaired last year. And I love the part of the video where he starts out with 70 lb. dumbbells, and works his way up to 90 lbs…in each hand.
It’s clear Yao is on his way back to being the beast he is.
YaoMania spoke to Yao several hours before Sunday’s Phoenix-Houston game at Toyota Center before Yao started his workout. Yao told us that the doctors would be checking out his foot, and based on their determination, decide if he could shoot baskets Sunday without his protective boot on, something he hasn’t done since the surgery. It turns out they must have cleared him to shoot free throws, just like we thought they might, since free throws don’t put any pressure on his feet in comparison to jump shots.
You may remember how we shot video of Yao in the fall shooting baskets from a chair to keep weight off his foot. Yao told us on Sunday afternoon he really hadn’t been shooting any baskets at all the past several weeks and months – especially since he had been in China the past few weeks — and also because he had plenty of time to regain his shooting touch before next season. That’s why we find it amazing that Yao reportedly hit 92 of 100 free throws Sunday without really having any practice lately!
In the video you’ll hear Rockets’ broadcaster Bill Worrell saying that the TV crew spoke to Rockets management that Yao was videotaped shooting free throws without his protective boot on, and that Rockets’ management was surprised by that news. But it’s obviously a mis-communication since Yao told us as he was headed to Toyota Center, that there was no way he was going to shoot baskets unless he was cleared by the doctors after they examined his foot.
Rockets.com posted on Tuesday afternoon an interview with Yao, along with video of him working out…(if for some reason these videos don’t display in your browser, you can click here to view them on Rockets.com)
They also interviewed his personal trainer Anthony Falsone. One of the big revelations that’s good news for Yao’s fans in China is that Falsone says that Yao will be able to go back to China in December.
Click here for some of the transcripts from the interviews with Yao and Anthony.
Since I recorded and posted the videos of Yao working out at Toyota Center a few weeks ago, it looks like the press thought it would be a good idea by recently taking some photos of him doing the same.
Click here to see more photos of Yao working out with his new boot.
Yao said on Wednesday that an examination shows that the bones in his foot are healing properly after having surgery in late July. Obviously, this is great news, but he knows for sure he’ll miss all of next season.
Yao reveals how bummed he was when he heard he was going to need surgery, but now feels ‘born again’ since he knows he’ll be able to play in the 2010-11 season.
Many of us have been wondering what Yao has been up to the past few months. We’ve seen periodic updates and photos on his Facebook page (Facebook.com/Yao) as well as YaoMingMania.com. But we haven’t seem much video of him. Until now. Check it out below.
Earlier this week I spent a couple of hours with The Big Man, who was gracious enough to let me record him working out.
Yao had posted on his Facebook page a few weeks ago that he was working out 5 days a week, on weekdays, for 2-3 hours a session. He said these workouts were ‘light,’ just to keep his upper body in motion. So I was thinking he’d be doing something along the lines of ’12 ounce curls,’ or maybe a little more than that. After all, he has over a year before he’ll be playing serious basketball. Kick back and relax, go to Toyota Center mainly to get out of the house, right?
After seeing what I saw, I feel like such a wuss. A light workout to Yao is a P90X-like workout to me! Understand that Yao will not be playing basketball professionally for more than a year. But he’s still commuting into downtown Houston — during rush hour mind you — every weekday and slaving away in the gym.
He has every excuse to just lay low, maybe go to Toyota Center a couple of days a week, workout an hour, and just ramp up his workouts a couple of months in advance before the 2010 season starts. Or do what Charles Barkley did — start trying to lose the flab during training camp.
I now know why Jeff Van Gundy and many others around the league say that Yao is the hardest working player they’ve known.
Making the workouts even a little more challenging was that the weight room was a bit warm and humid, probably more than normal [Note: a second video will be posted in a few days from his weight room workout]. I was told by a Rockets’ staff member that the room partly gets cooled by the air conditioning that hits the arena floor. Since there are no events scheduled at Toyota Center they obviously don’t need to cool the arena like they normally do. That made the sweat pour out of their skin in just a few minutes.
In the weight room were other players like Joey Dorsey, and recent free agent signees Jelani McCoy and Lorenzen Wright. They were going through some pretty impressive workouts themselves. But they are all vying for jobs with training camp only a few weeks away. Yao is a YEAR away.
Thanks Yao for the privilege of letting us see what you do during the off-season. Hopefully this is an inspiration to all of us so that the next time you don’t feel like exercising when you know you need it, think of Yao.
