26 February 2008

Yao aot


Life has gotta be tough for Rockets fans. After winning back-to-back championships in 1994 and 1995, Houston has not even returned to the Finals, let alone managed to win another championship.

In 2002, they drafted Yao Ming. In 2004, they acquired Tracy McGrady from Orlando. It appeared the Rockets were set to make another run.

But injury after injury after injury has really hobbled the franchise. T-Mac fought back trouble through most of the 2005 season. Yao had surgery to repair an ingrown toenail the same year. The 2006-2007 season not much different, as Tracy missed 11 games and Yao was unable to play in 34.

This season, though, started out differently. Both stars have been healthy, and the team is currently on a 12-game winning streak. Though the West is ridiculously deep, it looked like Houston would be able to compete and make a lot of noise in the playoffs.

Then the news broke that Yao would miss the rest of the season due to a stress fracture in his left foot.

Ouch.

Now Houston goes from West contender to "we hope we make the playoffs." Of course, they did shellack the Arenas-less Wizards tonight, 94-69, so maybe they'll be fine. Maybe McGrady can become a combination of Michael Jordan and LeBron and lead his team the Finals, but I doubt it.

4 comments:

Nicholas G. James said...

replace lebron with kobe

Anonymous said...

Of course, they did shellack the Arenas-less Wizards tonight, 94-69, so maybe they'll be fine.

Shellac or not... that just shows that they can beat a team from the East that is missing their star. I wouldn't hold my breath (or put any money down) on Houston going deep in the playoffs without Yao... Not without some time to rebuild around someone else.

Of course, I have been wrong before.

Anonymous said...

Yao is one big dude. That's all I have to say. And what's with the "aot" thing? Am I missing something?

Brandon said...

The "ao" in Yao is pronounced the same as the "ou" in out.

Now you know. And knowing's half the battle!