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!

A few days ago I posted a trivia question at the end of a very long post. A few people wanted to know the answer, so I thought I would post the question by itself to bring more attention to it before providing the answer. So here’s the question one more time:

What common term have I not used this season, which I had used alot over the past couple of seasons, and why?

You can provide your answer by submitting a comment below. The first one who gets it right will earn bragging rights as a top YaoManiac!

No surprise here after Yao racked up the numbers he did this past week. Check it out here at NBA.com. Considering the way Yao is playing, I think there will be several more of these to come.

It was announced today that Luis Scola became the fourth Rocket to sign an endorsement deal with a Chinese athletic shoe company. Click here for photos from the press conference. Hmmmm. I wonder if all of these signings have anything to do with Yao Ming being a teammate. I wonder….

Scola joins Steve Francis in endorsing Anta. Shane Battier endorses shoemaker China Peak, and Chuck Hayes currently endorses Li Ning. Click here for the story. Yao should get a percentage of these deals, don’t you think?

I’m also wondering if Anta and Li Ning would be interested in signing me? Seems like anyone remotely associated with him is getting a deal. I’m associated with Yao to some degree, and there are probably 20 people who could see me each day wearing their shoes.

Our Raymond in China reports the following…

“For the very first time in Chinese sports history, the National Mint of China launched on October 23rd in Beijing a set of Yao Ming-related commemorative medals, in the form of gold, silver and bronze coins. There will only be 3,000 of gold, 10,000 of silver and 4,000 of bronze coins available for sales. These medals are made in honor of Yao’s achievements in the NBA and for being an official image spokesperson for Beijing 2008 Olympics.”

Click here for more photos of the medals.

I saw these funny photos in the YaoMania! forum linked from HoopsChina and another site, respectively. Click here to see larger versions in the forum.

Some interesting news about Yao working with the United Nations…his image will appear on some posters to try to end the stigma of living with HIV in China…

Here’s a short story about it on Reuters.com.

Here’s a more detailed story from the United Nations Web site.

Good work, Yao. And great timing for bringing more visibility to the campaign as millions of fans wait to see how you do in the NBA playoffs.

We take a break from all the exciting action on the court to bring some attention to Yao Ming attending Dikembe Mutombo’s charity dinner gala Friday night for the hospital he has built in The Republic of Congo. Yao attended the event with girlfriend Ye Li (pictured below).

Even Patrick Ewing came back to Houston for the event, probably to help out his old Georgetown buddy and alum Dikembe. That explains why he was at the Rockets game on Saturday night (I was thinking there was no way he would come to Houston just to see a game).

Thanks to Raymond for posting these photos from the event in the forum.

Everything is falling into place for the Rockets. A couple of weeks ago, it looked like the Rockets were out of the hunt in catching Utah for home court advantage.

But then Utah lost 5 games in a row. Then Houston rebounded from a 3-game losing streak to win 3 on the road, plus beat the Hornets last night for their 4th win in a row.

Then today the Spurs lost to the Mavericks in Dallas. Now there is no way the Spurs can catch the Phoenix Suns for the 2nd seed in the Western Conference playoffs. So the Suns really don’t have much to play for. They are locked in at #2.

So when the Suns come into Houston on Monday night, hopefully they will rest alot of their big guns (just like the Mavericks have been doing this past week) and lay down for the Rockets so Houston can gain home court advantage against Utah in their playoff series. Houston only needs one win (or one Utah loss) to win home court against the Jazz.

It’s ironic the Mavericks won on Sunday since they could have done the Rockets a favor a few days ago if they had just beaten the Jazz in Dallas, but they lost partly because they didn’t play many of their key players. So I guess it was difficult for the Mavericks to lay down two games in a row. At least they have some morals. They played to win Sunday afternoon against the Spurs, and they pulled through.

But it’s amazing that it took a strange ejection of Tim Duncan in the second half to give the Mavericks an even better chance of beating the Spurs. I was watching it on ABC, and I had never seen a player get ejected by getting two technical fouls while sitting on the bench. I think Duncan got a raw deal. While getting some rest on the bench, Duncan obviously did something referee Joey Crawford didn’t like, resulting in his first tech. With the smile he had on his face, Duncan looked like a school kid caught muttering something behind the teacher’s back.

After that, the cameras were focused on Duncan to see if any additional drama would unfold. It did. A couple of possessions later, Duncan started laughing at something that happened on the court, perhaps a foul that was called by Crawford on another player. Well, Crawford thought Duncan’s laughter was taking it too far in that he was trying to upstage him, so Crawford ejected him. Unbelievable.

With that, the Spurs lost a very potent weapon down the stretch in game that ended 91-86, Mavericks. I guess with all the bad calls against Yao this season, maybe it some strange way Duncan’s strange ejection made things a bit more even for the Rockets.

Finally, the Rockets and the rest of the Western Conference might be catching another break because the Golden State Warriors won their game against Minnesota today, while the LA Clippers lost at home to Sacramento today. That gives the Warriors a one-game advantage over the Clippers with only two games to play.

How does that help the Rockets and the Western Conference? Because the Warriors have been giving Dallas all kinds of trouble this season, and you can’t help but think that Don Nelson has a few tricks up his sleeve on how to beat his old team.

At minimum, the chances are good the Warriors will tire the Mavericks, and maybe even upset them. That could make the road to the Western Conference finals that much easier for Phoenix, San Antonio, and Houston.