Rockets.com posted a video on Tuesday of an interview with new Rocket Jeremy Lin. You might remember the Rockets signed Lin last week (details here). Click this link or the image below for the video (a new window will open).

With all the drama that went on with Rockets Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic over the past few days with the proposed Lakers-Hornets-Rockets trade being rescinded by NBA commissioner David Stern, there was some refreshing and happy news when the Rockets surprisingly signed Chinese/Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin.

For Rocket fans who are Asian-American sad that Yao isn’t representin’ any longer, having Lin around gives them something extra to look forward to.

Photo courtesy Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle

Lin was released from the Golden State Warriors on the first day of training camp. Apparently the Warriors are trying to save as much money as they can so they can have a better chance of landing a high-priced free agent. Lin’s contract pays him $800,000 this year.

More details about Lin’s release is here.

Since the Rockets are in a similar position of trying to sign a big free agent, you wouldn’t have expected them to add a 4th point guard (behind Kyle Lowry, Johnny Flynn, Goran Dragic). But you can probably expect Dragic will be traded one of these days (to our chagrin) since he was part of that rescinded trade with the Hornets, so maybe Lin could stick around as the Rockets’ third PG. Or the Rockets will be getting rid of Lin quickly like they do with other players where you think they will be around awhile, only trading them within a season or two for other “pieces” (Dragic, Trevor Ariza, Kevin Martin, etc.)

Here’s a link to a short article in the Houston Chronicle about Lin’s signing.

Here’s a video of Lin meeting Yao Ming in Taiwan (around the 1:10 mark) during Yao’s charity basketball tour in the summer of 2010 (and throwing down a dunk at the 8:10 mark), and photos of his meeting are here.

Update: Here’s a video brought to our attention from a commenter below of Lin being interviewed as a Golden State Warrior, along with his coach and fellow players.

A little home cooking and some friendly fans helped the Rockets break their 4-game losing streak Wednesday night, beating Golden State 111-101.

Golden State has an awesome crowd which really gives their young team a lot of momentum when they get on a roll. But obviously they didn’t have that Wednesday night in Houston. They also didn’t have David Lee, who has missed the last 7 games, with Golden State losing 6 of them. Now the Warriors have an idea of what Houston has had to go through with Yao Ming being out.

Speaking of Yao, he was on the sidelines in street clothes again, but this time without his walking boot. So things are progressing with him. The earliest we can expect him back is early December, but it will probably be longer than that.

Yao Ming gives Chase Budinger some strategic advice during a timeout against the Warriors. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Warriors encountered early foul trouble when their bigs (Dan Gadzuric and Andris Biedrins) were forced to the bench, and that helped Houston get an early lead. But Golden State kept fighting back, going on runs to chop big leads down to stay within striking distance.

This time, though, Houston didn’t lose a lead in the 4th quarter like they have done so many times this season. They almost did when Golden State cut Houston’s lead to 88-86, but the Rockets responded with an 11-0 run to put the game away.

When you look at the stats, it’s amazing some of the disparities you’ll see. Houston made 11 less field goals (42-31), had 3x less steals (10-3), had about 1/3rd more turnovers (15-11), had 3x less fast break points (25-8), and had 2x less points in the paint (60-30). So how in the world could Houston win this game with stats like those?

It really came down to free throws, shooting 33 more free throws (51-18) and making 27 more of them (39-12). And they hit twice as many 3-pointers (10-5) on about the same number of attempts (20-19) for a 50% success rate. This is about the polar opposite of the same stat categories in the Phoenix loss where Houston had 20 less free throws (30-12) and hit only 23% of their treys.

Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry, who had torched the Rockets in the second game of the season, didn’t kill them this time around, scoring 18 and 21 points, respectively, on a combined 15-of-40 from the field and 8-of-11 from the line. Their 39 points collectively was less than the 46 that Ellis had put up on his own against Houston in their first game.

Meanwhile, Houston’s Kevin Martin continues to be a foul-collecting and free throw shooting machine, hitting 14-of-15 free throws while only making 4-of-12 field goals to score a team-high 25 points. Scoring 25 points on 4 field goals? Incredible.

Speaking of lots of free throws, Chuck Hayes was a machine himself hitting 8-of-8 free throws and 4-of-5 field goals for 16 points. He also had 7 boards and 5 assists. Luis Scola was his consistent self, hitting 8-of-15 field goals for 24 points, although he had the same stat at the free throw line: 8-of-15. Not that great.

And I’ve always said when Shane Battier has a good game offensively, Houston’s chances go up significantly to win. Shane delivered with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field.

The man who really made the most difference, though, was Kyle Lowry, who is getting back to the Lowry we all know and love by scoring 14 points (4-of-8 shooting), grabbing 7 boards, and doling out 10 assists. His plus-minus when he was on the floor was +20, the highest on the team. He’s beginning to earn his $5 million a year contract he just signed in the off season.

Houston’s bench with Chase Budinger and Courtney Lee has been doing better lately, scoring 9 points each Wednesday night. But it was their 3-pointers that really got the crowd going, with Bud hitting 2-of-4 that hopefully bust his slump, and Lee hitting 2-of-2 from behind the arc. Brad Miller and Jordan Hill hardly played, but it was interesting to hear Rick Adelman say that he really likes playing those guys together since Miller really helps Hill on offense, and Hill helps Miller in rebounding.

For Jeremy Lin fans, Lin got some decent playing time and actually showed some good moves on his way to 8 points in 13 minutes.

Random thought:

– Since I have NBA League Pass, I’ve been watching more of the alternate broadcast (road team coverage) of the Rocket games. Instead of listening to Bill Worrell and Clyde Drexler, I thought I’d mix it up a bit Wednesday night. I have to say the Golden State announcers blows Houston’s away. Worrell and Drexler are just too “light” on in-depth aspects of the game, talking way too much about esoteric fluff that doesn’t have anything to do with the game you’re watching. And they made a huge mistake by saying Jeremy Lin was the first “Chinese-American” player in the NBA, that he played in Yao Ming’s charity game in Shanghai, and continuing to talk about “Chinese” basketball talent. Uh, guys, he’s a TAIWANESE-American, and he played in Yao’s TAIPEI game (there wasn’t even a game in Shanghai, only in Beijing and Taipei). Not that they would even know where Taipei is, so to make it more explicit, Taipei is n TAIWAN. It’s really embarrassing to have announcers like this make such errors showing their ignorance of the world outside the American borders.

I know it has been over a month since the last game on the Yao Foundation Charity Tour game in Taiwan, and the game in Beijing a few days before that.

It was such a great trip, I’ve had time to reflect and look at other photos and notes I took beyond the 4 videos and other blog posts I’ve already published. So I didn’t want them to go to waste. Plus, it’s the dog days of summer until the Rockets’ training camp starts up in a few weeks, so you’re probably looking for a Yao Ming or Rocket fix anyway.

Before I get to the photos below, I had some great conversations with many of the players on the tour. I’ve already posted mentions from some of those conversations, like with Chase Budinger, who was very cool and personable. I spoke to Budinger’s agent Bill Duffy, whose agency played a major role in organizing the NBA players to come over to play in Asia.

I asked Duffy how things may be different for Chase this coming season with the Rockets. Duffy responded, “(Chase) has proven himself. He is valuable. He’s versatile. The thing I’m excited to see is him playing with Yao Ming to see what he does ‘inside-out.’ When Yao Ming gets double-teamed, to be (Yao’s) release and his cutter. It’s going to be beautiful. I’m very excited about it.”

At the end of the trip, I also spoke another Bill Duffy & Associates player: Dajuan Summers, who was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the 2009 draft.

I asked Dajuan about some of the differences between playing in the U.S. and playing in Asia on Yao’s charity tour. Dajuan replied, “It surprised me how big we are over here. How much publicity we get. It’s kind of crazy. They treat us like rock stars. People show us love in the States, but it’s on a completely different scale over here.” Dajuan also said he was amazed to witness the very strong reaction fans in China and Taiwan had to Yao Ming, and he said he’d love to come back to Asia next year if they have another charity tour game.

Okay, on to some of my behind-the-scenes photos:

Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin meet for the first time before the charity game in Taipei, Taiwan (7/28/10). For more information about Jeremy, read my other post here.

Yao poses for a photo with Jeremy Lin and his family.

Chase and Yao talk in the locker room in Taipei.

Aaron Brooks hams it up before the game in Taipei.

Aaron continues to have fun twirling anything he can find on his finger.

Yao watches the game in Taipei from the sidelines.

Jeremy Lin seemed to get more questions from the Taiwan press than Yao Ming, Bill Duffy, or any of the Taiwanese players or coaches combined.

I guess JLin is going to have some lasting power in the NBA if they feature him on NBA.com like this. Good for him. Check it out.

Here’s a video of the second game that was played in late July in Taipei, Taiwan (for videos from the Beijing game, click here for part 1 and here for part 2).

In this video, you’ll see the first meeting between Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin. Many of you who read YaoMingMania.com may already know about Lin. He’s a very accomplished college basketball player who just graduated from Harvard, and has signed a partially-guaranteed contract with Golden State. Many Asian-Americans have been following his progress through college, hoping he can ‘represent’ them as the first American player in the NBA to be of ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese descent.

Obviously, Lin is a big deal in Taiwan, too, as you’ll see from the reaction of the crowd whenever he touches the ball. He was a late addition to play in this Taipei game, and had just flown in the day before to play. Several Lin fans had asked me over the years if Yao Ming had ever met Lin, or if a meeting could ever be arranged. Well, that meeting finally happened, and I was able to capture their first meeting ever in this video.

You’ll also see in this video many of the players having fun before the game. Aaron Brooks twirls a pack of napkins on his finger, makes an underhand granny shot from behind the basket on his first attempt, Amir Johnson makes a crazy shot from behind the backboard, and Brandon Jennings tries all kinds of trick shots sitting from the bench and trying to kick the ball into the basket.

Aaron is quite a crack-up. For example, the Taipei crowd was eerily quiet (except for when there was a score, then they cheered). Because of this, they played music during every possession to provide some kind of noise during game action, except during free throws, of course. Before one free throw attempt when the music was off, Aaron had some fun and said out loud, “Hi everybody!” (this isn’t on the video, but thought I’d share with you how funny Aaron is).

You’ll also see on the video the introduction of Yao Ming to the crowd. They cheer him heartily, as you would expect. What I didn’t expect was to hear them play the “Yao Ming” song when he came out onto the court. As you may know, this song was created by a local Houston fan several years ago, and was a song I thought would only get played in Houston. That’s why it was a pleasant surprise to hear a DJ play it in front of thousands of Taiwanese fans, making it a global song now. I’m sure the guy who created that song is happy to hear this news!

The NBA players are announced shortly after Yao is introduced, and I show in the video Chase and Aaron getting introduced. The guy who gets the biggest ovation, though, is Jennings. He received lots of attention for the show he put on during the first Yao Foundation charity game in Beijing a few days earlier. It doesn’t take long for the word to spread among millions of fans if you have a good performance in front of them in their own country.

I included several clips of great plays from the game too numerous to mention, but keep an eye out for great plays from Jennings, Amir Johnson, and Chase. Some of them happen so quickly, or are so spectacular, you might be compelled to rewind some of them to see them all over again.

One of my favorite moments of the video is when Yao Ming urges on the Taipei crowd to get Chase to do an impromptu dunk. First, I have never seen Yao have so much fun with a crowd like this before. Second, it shows how much Yao is impressed with Chase’s athleticism and dunking ability that he would immediately choose him. Chase would later tell me that he was happy that Yao had that much confidence in his abilities to pick him without hesitation.

What’s not shown in the video is how many breaks there were during the game for various contests to be held with Taiwanese celebrities, like free throw shooting or a skills drill. Sometimes these breaks would last for 15 minutes or more! That was definitely something the NBA players weren’t accustomed to experiencing, so they had to continually keep warming up after these long breaks so they didn’t pull a muscle or hurt themselves when they went back on the court to play.

By the end of the game, all of the players were pretty tired of having to warm themselves up mentally and physical over-and-over. Aaron, quite the jokester, wrapped himself up in several towels mummy-style to keep himself warm, and to have some fun on the bench unlike what he could do during an NBA game.