This article on FoxSportsHouston.com has some interesting quotes from Yao that he provided after helping open the playground at the Chinese Community Center on Saturday.

When asked if he would opt out of his contract and become a free agent, he didn’t provide any details, but he did provide this:

“I think my future is still in Houston. Still, my agent will handle this. We will communicate with (Rockets General Manager) Daryl Morey and we will work this out.”

As many of you may already know, even if Yao opts out, that doesn’t mean he does NOT want to be a Rocket and test the free agent waters. With variables like a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and a new salary cap amount the teams will have to work with, it may make sense for many players who are happy with their current team to opt out and sign a longer-term deal with their own team rather than risk getting penalized with a worse contract under the new environment after next season. So don’t get all upset if you hear that Yao opts out. It still means he wants to remain a Rocket, and he’s doing the best thing for his long-term future as a Rocket.

In regards to his action on the court next season, Yao said he expects his minutes to be reduced at the beginning of the season, and perhaps beyond. When asked if he thought this was a good strategy, Yao replied, “I think so, yes.”

Click here for the entire article.

Luis Scola is in China on an Anta tour, and Raymond has been following many of his activities online.

Here’s just one photo that Raymond has posted in the forum. In this one, Scola was in Harbin on June 1st where he drew a big crowd.

Click here for more photos of Scola’s activities in China.

Also, Titan Sports interviewed Scola, and Raymond has translated the article. It’s an interesting read. Scola is a free agent, and says he really wants to stay in Houston and play alongside Yao.

Here are some of the excerpts from the translation:

“I’m just like that. When I like something and grew accustomed to it, then I would not want to change. I love Houston very very much. I’m not willing to leave. I sincerely hope that when this summer is over, I will still be wearing my Houston Rockets jersey. And then when October comes, that is a few months later, I can come to Beijing again for the China Game.

“I really really enjoy playing alongside with Yao Ming. I’m telling the truth from the bottom of my heart. Both on court and off court, he had opened a lot of doors for me, and had completely changed my life. I’m not going to say more about what he did for me off the court.

But on the court, I enjoy playing together with him. I definitely play better together with him. Perhaps it was not reflected correctly in the statistics; he did not play this season, and I’ve improved in major categories of my statistics. However, as a matter of fact, I crave to be able to play together with him. Everything will become relatively easy playing together with him. I have no idea how much he can recover, 100%? 80%? But that doesn’t really matter. As long he stands on the court, he will be a threat. Opponents guarding him definitely dare not lose their target to come to guard me; and opponents guarding me might let me loose so as to help play defense on him. When he plays, you’ll forget that he is actually 2.26 meter tall. His style of play and his response are just like he is a player at least 10 centimeters shorter than he actually is. I eagerly look forward to him returning to court quickly, and definitely we can play much better next season.”

Click here for the entire translation.

Yao took a quick trip from China to Los Angeles a few days ago and made an appearance at the Rose Parade in Pasadena to help promote the Shanghai Expo, which had a float in the parade.

Reportedly Yao was going to ride on the float during the parade, but the spot where he was going to be was too high and too small for him, so he just kept it to giving interviews to the media.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the float before the parade began.

It’s hard to believe we’re so close to training camp. Ramping up the P.R. machine, the Rockets in advance released the design of a third new uniform, what they call their ‘alternative’ uniform.

Raymond reports that Yao said the following about the uniform: “This looks very nostalgic like an uniform/jersey for a school team, But I like it very much. Everything about the color, the design and the texture of the fabric feels great. But regrettably, I can’t wear it in the new season. But I’m already getting impatient and itchy to wear it in the next next season.”

Click here for more on the story behind the uniform change. Click here for more photos from the unveiling event at Toyota Center.

Simultaneously, the Rockets announced their new marketing slogan: “We are Red Nation.” Uhhh. Okay. Personally, I think it’s ‘been there, done that.’ Raider Nation and all the other ‘nations’ have been overused. What’s wrong with keeping, “Get Red?” Click here to understand the Rockets’ logic behind it.

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.

In the Chinese town of Guangyuan a couple of days ago, the opening of a new school was celebrated, built in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake last year. The Yao Ming Foundation funded the construction of the school.

Yao called into the opening ceremony from Houston. He wasn’t able to attend in person because of travel restrictions due to the recuperation of his foot. He congratulated the principal, teachers, and students, and told them that he hoped that the new school can give them renewed hope and confidence. He also told them the school represented the love and care of many people, and that they should study hard and stay healthy. Through their diligence and good results, they would repay the love and care shown to them.

Click here for more details and photos.

Yao gave each of the students a photo album and booklet, and promised he would visit the school.

ESPN.com is reporting that Yao could return sooner than anyone expected based off Yao’s progress. Rockets GM Daryl Morey had this to say to ESPN The Magazine:

“Yao Ming is progressing well. I don’t think that [a career-ending scenario] is something that will happen, based on what I’m hearing from the doctors. They do know that the bone will heal and he’ll get back on it. And they have not actually ruled out [his return] this season. I think that’s less likely than likely, but they haven’t ruled it out.”

First, the good news is that Morey feels confident it won’t be a career-ending condition. However, I think it may be way too early to say Yao could return next season. He had the surgery on July 21st, a little less than 6 weeks ago. So let’s not get our hopes up too high, folks. After all, he’s still in a cast.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Yao thanks his fans in the video below, and asks you to support the Rockets this season.

As you know, I met with Yao recently. I asked him some questions that I thought you guys wanted to know (as did I). Yao will actually be responding to those questions over time through a new platform that I’ll tell you about later. So please be patient. It should be announced soon.

This morning Yao recorded a PSA asking his mainland China compatriots to support the Taiwanese who have suffered their worst flood in 50 years. Click here for the pics.

The Christian Science Monitor reported the following today…

Basketball fan Barack Obama opened his speech to a Washington meeting focused on building a strategic and economic dialog with China by citing an unusual philosopher – Yao Ming, the seven-foot, six-inch Chinese-born star of the Houston Rockets basketball team.

Obama ended by quoting a more traditional philosopher, Mencius, born in 372 BC and a major figure in Confucianism. The reference came as Obama outlined the need for continued dialog between the two nations. “A trail through the mountains, if used, becomes a path in a short time, but, if unused, becomes blocked by grass in an equally short time.”