It became known late Sunday (see article) that Tracy McGrady is having more of a problem with his left knee than earlier thought because of a “deep bone bruise.”

I know alot of skeptical fans may think McGrady may be faking or dogging it, but I have to come to his defense a little bit. That’s because I had the exact same injury 3 years ago on my left knee, and it hurt like hell. At first I was hoping it would heal and the pain would go away, but I was surprised it took longer than I thought. In fact, I still feel it to this day. I have had it MRI’d since the injury and the doctors say they can’t see anything, but I still feel it.

So personally, I’m actually going to give McGrady the benefit of the doubt because I have suffered the same injury. Ironically, I hurt it at a Rockets game at Golden State when I fell flush on my knee on concrete, and I have never been in so much pain in my life.

In a way, there’s a bit of silver lining to McGrady’s expected absence for the next 7 games (or more, or less, who knows). It will give everyone the opportunity to really see how well the Rockets can play without him over an extended period of time. If the Rockets tank while McGrady is out, like they did last year, then everyone will appreciate what he brings to the team and the calls for him to be traded should subside.

However, if they play extremely well with players like Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks, (who weren’t there last year), Bonzi Wells (who basically wasn’t there), Luther Head, and maybe even Mike James or Steve Francis, then we’ll all know that McGrady may be more expendable. If that’s the case, I’m hoping that the injury doesn’t reduce his physical ability — like it has mine — to the extent it diminishes his overall value. That would be even worse. Given his pain is gone and he’s now rehabbing his knee and leg for more strength, he should be okay, but it wouldn’t surprise me if his pain came back.

With the holidays being so busy, I didn’t notice until now this article that was published 10 days ago. I don’t take too kindly to it. It’s another example where Tracy McGrady seems to say the wrong thing, even if you can understand why he thinks that way.

It’s okay for a player to say they respect another player’s game, but when McGrady was recently asked if he thinks about what it would have been like to play with Dwight Howard of the Magic, he responded:

“Oh yeah, I think about that a lot. And when I’m with my (Orlando-based) trainer (Wayne Hall), we talk all the time about how good me and Dwight could have been together.”

So is Yao not good enough for you, McGrady? A guy who never has dissed you?

When later asked about the idea of playing with Howard after his current contract held by Houston ends in 2010…

“I’ve thought about it. You never know.”

You just don’t say these things, even if it’s true. He should have responded by saying he is thinking about today, not two years from now.

In your mind, does the drumbeat to trade McGrady get even louder after these statements?

On Sunday night, the Rockets’ players participated in their annual season ticket holder event where they had to hob-nob with the people who pay their salaries. Here Yao plays some blackjack.

You can check out more photos by clicking here (courtesy of Raymond). I had a few observations after looking at these photos.

*It was really crowded on the floor of Toyota Center. You can bet the players weren’t too excited about having any wahoo be able to walk up to them and ask them questions about why they aren’t playing better. When you’re playing bad as a team, it must not be fun to talk to anyone (at least it wouldn’t be for me).

*It seemed odd that it was a casino night theme just 9 days before Christmas. It seemed like it would have been a better night to raise money for charity or something. Casinos and Christmas don’t seem to jibe with each other.

*I didn’t see GM Daryl Morey on the floor wheelin’ and dealin’. Hopefully he was on the phones upstairs talking with other teams about potential deals, because so far this season has been a ‘bust,’ or a pair of ’snake eyes’ (or make up your own gambling metaphor).

I listened to a podcast of Tracy McGrady’s interview on Houston’s 790AM sports station on Tuesday. It appeared that McGrady was obligated to make the call to promote his deal with Yahoo! Fantasy sports, not to come on and say he’s pissed about what’s happening with the team, and what he’s going to do about it.

Remember last year how McGrady said “It’s on me,” during last season’s playoff series against the Jazz, and how he has always referred to his teammates as his “supporting cast?”

Well, now that times are tough for the Rockets, it looks like McGrady thinks Yao is The Man and the “franchise player” instead of him. Here’s what he said when asked about his reaction to Yao’s comments that the Rockets were soft.

“My first reaction was….Finally. Yes! Yes, Yao. That’s what he has to do. Vocally. Express yourself. Let us know how you feel. Don’t hold it inside…that’s just showin’ signs of leadership. What he says is true. It’s showing up on the basketball court. I’d rather for him to come out and say it than me. He’s more of a franchise player than I am.”

I can’t believe the interviewer didn’t dig deeper and question him if he really believes Yao is the franchise player. Instead, after that last statement, the interviewer immediately comments (and basically interrupts him before McGrady has a chance to explain), “We (the audience) know better than that,” and bails McGrady out by moving on quickly to a softball question like, “It’s gotta help that the big man in the middle is saying it, right?” Instead, I would have loved to hear him ask, “When did Yao become the franchise player?” or “What’s your role in calling people out?” or just let him continue talking. Sometimes the best interviews are when the interviewer just lets the interviewee talk.

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Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle has some interesting quotes from Yao in this story about how the Rockets fell apart yesterday in Toronto, a game that I also wrote as being pathetic.

“I feel this is the worst game I ever had in my career,” Yao said. “When we played on the court, no intensity, no patience, no (adherence to the) game plan, don’t know our game, don’t know their game, no trust (of) each other, no defense.

“I hate this game. I hated it. It’s all on us. Us. I’m one of us.”

Yao also commented about his thoughts when he and his teammates were getting ready for the fourth quarter. Yao was yelling out, “Let’s go. Wake up! Let’s go!”

“I knew something was wrong. When we were waiting to step on the court, I was walking to the middle line and saw the people; I was trying to wake everybody up, myself too. Everybody was like they had the same as my ear.”

I think these statements are significant steps for something to change, and I’m not just talking about an attitude adjustment, which rarely works. When your franchise player voices his displeasure about his teammates’ effort (and his own), then you’ve got something there.

The Rockets have finished a quarter of the season, are a measly 11-10, and have lost 9 of their last 14 games. They always say you can tell how good (or bad) a team is after the first 20 games. Well, we’re there, and it sucks.

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It has been about 3 1/2 years since I last took online donations. That’s around the time that I started putting Google Adsense ads on my site. I thought Adsense would generate enough revenue to do away with ads, but I was wrong. It’s barely enough to cover my hosting costs each month.

Recently many readers have expressed a desire to help me out given how much time I have put into the site over the past 5 1/2 years since its inception. One reader asked me today if it was possible to donate, so I went ahead and found some of my old code that allows you to donate using Paypal. And compared to the last time I took donations through Paypal, the good thing is now you can make donations using credit cards through the Paypal payment system (you don’t need a Paypal account).

I figured this is really the best way to collect money rather than making YaoMingMania a “walled garden” only viewable to people who pay a subscription fee.

The donate button is on the right side of the page, or you can donate using this button here:

Thanks again to all the readers who have expressed a desire over the last week to help me out financially, and for all your support and kind words!

I have gone ahead and created a new photo gallery that has many of the photos from this past year of Yao’s activities. It’s basically the same photos you have seen on YaoMingMania, but all on one page. It’s a cool way to find interesting photos you like of Yao, as well as see a chronology of Yao’s life in pictures in 2007.

Just click on the “Photo Gallery“ link in the navigation bar. You’ll then see two “sets” to choose from — one set of photos without Yao, and another titled ‘2007′ with photos that include Yao. Click on that 2007 set, and you’ll see thumbnails of the Yao photos. You can then hover over each thumbnail to get a short description of the photo. To see a larger photo, just click on the thumbnail image.

Over time, I hope to get all the photos I’ve posted in this gallery and apply descriptions to all the photos, but it’s alot of work, so please be patient as I try to do that over the next several weeks (or months).

Enjoy!

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports that when the Rockets were flying back from Miami to Houston after losing their 6th game in a row, that the players (especially Yao and McGrady) had discussions with coach Rick Adelman on how the offense should focus more on Adelman’s new system as opposed to keeping remnants of the old one around.

Evidently Adelman hasn’t been comfortable making a complete switch to his new offensive system. But after several losses in a row where guys were “standing around” and the shot selection was terrible at the end of games, I would have thought it would be a no-brainer for him to go to a more motion-oriented offense much earlier than after losing 6 games. That’s what Adelman had been brought into to do in the first place, right?

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Raymond has translated an article that Titan Sports’ Wang Meng wrote after interviewing Yao Ming about how the coaching change has dramatically changed how things get done at Toyota Center before games. One word of caution: this writer sometimes has quoted Yao for saying some almost unbelievable things, but this story sounds very believable to me.

It’s clear that Rick Adelman is an “old school” players’ coach whose pre-game preparation doesn’t stand up to Jeff Van Gundy’s. There probably aren’t very many coaches who could match JVG’s control freak-ism. So I don’t have too much of a problem with coaches who don’t spend as much time obsessing as JVG did. I think too much obsessing can make a team tight. But it’s obvious this season, by looking at the product on the court, there is very little dedication to defense, and that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way. Adelman is clearly letting the players do what they want more than JVG would have ever dreamed.

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I wanted to bring attention to the “PamBee” ad I put on the right-hand side of the page a few days ago underneath the calendar. If you’re looking for a unique holiday gift, this is a really good one to consider. Just click on the ad to be taken to the PamBee home page.

This is the first time I’ve put an ad on the site that wasn’t provided by Google (which pays virtually nothing), so if you purchase a PamBee, it would really help me out since I get paid a little something for each sale, rather than each click on the ad.

PamBee offers free shipping, and to reward you for your patronage, you can get an extra 10% off if you use the promotional code “YaoMania” when you checkout, so make sure to consider a PamBee as a gift or travel accessory this holiday season. Thanks!