Turns Out They Don’t Make 7’6’’ People for a Reason: Yao Ming Could Miss 2009-10 Season

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Houston Rockets, Injuries, Player News
Posted on: June 29th, 2009

Timing, as they say, is everything. Going into the start of the 2008-09 season, we here at GMTR were pretty damn low on Yao Ming. He was a 7’6’’ monster with a history of foot problems: the man had averaged a mere 53 games a season over the previous three seasons. He had fractured his foot in February 2008 and missed the rest of the regular season and all of the playoffs. Then, only a few months after going through surgery, he declared himself fit enough to play in the Olympics for China.

I’m not sure how you could look at those facts and think Ming was in for anything other than another injury riddled year. Naturally, I stayed away from Yao this past fantasy season like he was the swine flu (and recommended that every else do as well) – then watched in dismay as he racked up an all-star caliber year while playing in 77 games. It absolutely made no sense.

But now Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that it’s likely Yao could miss the entire 2009-10 season after re-fracturing the same bone in his foot as he broke last year. It appears that Ming did indeed come back from his surgery too quickly last summer, not allowing his foot to heal properly. Not surprisingly, the Rockets are being quiet about the subject for now.

We of course wish Ming the best and hope he can come back healthy (and anyone who’s played in a 2 center league has to agree with that). But it looks like the man’s feet may no longer be able to withstand the punishment of playing 82 games a year in the NBA.

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Tags: China, Houston Rockets, National Basketball Association, Olympic Games, Yao Ming