A senior Chinese sports official expressed disbelief yesterday following a report that basketball icon Yao Ming may not play next season and could be facing a career-ending injury.
Chinese fans also largely voiced skepticism over the 2.26m center’s repeated injuries, speculating it could be a ploy to lower his value as his contract will soon be up for renewal.
Yao’s camp had earlier given a pessimistic read-out on the slow recovery of his broken foot to the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), the sports Web site of major Chinese portal Sina.com said, citing CBA vice head Hu Jiashi.
“But they did not say that he would miss the coming NBA season, nor did they say he would miss the [2010] World Championships,” Hu was quoted as saying.
“I believe his injury has not progressed to such a stage,” he said.
‘CAREER-THREATENING’
On Monday, Houston Rockets team doctor Tom Clanton told the Houston Chronicle that Yao’s left foot, which was broken in a May post-season game against the Los Angeles Lakers, could be a “career-threatening” injury.
“At this point, the injury has the potential for him missing this next season and could be career-threatening,” Clanton said.
“One of the things we are trying to get is a consensus opinion on that, to make certain there is no option we are overlooking that would provide an earlier return or would be an option for treatment that he would prefer rather than doing additional surgery,” he said.
Yao has already been given approval to miss this summer’s Asian Basketball Championships in the east Chinese city of Tianjin, but the CBA hopes he will be able to play for the national team at next year’s World Championships in Turkey.
Fan postings on the Sina.com Web site expressed suspicions that the Rockets were trying to drive Yao’s value down, as he has two years left on his contract and could opt out next year and sign with another team.
PRICE
“The Rockets don’t want Yao to leave, so they hope to sign him early, this is the way to bring his price down,” a Sina.com posting said. “As soon as Yao Ming signs, his doctor will immediately say he can play again, 182 games will be no problem.”
Other postings were not so kind to the superstar, with many expressing impatience with his repeated injuries.
“I support Yao retiring from the NBA,” said one. “That will save him from making a fool of himself.”
Yao played in 77 regular-season games in 2008-2009, his most injury-free year since 2004-2005, when he played in 80.
Before last season, Yao missed chunks of previous three seasons with leg and foot injuries.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier