Will Houston have a lift-off?

Asia’s biggest star on the world’s biggest basketball league will be back in action. The 2010-2011 will open with the return of the Walking Great Wall of China, a.k.a. Yao Ming. He was cleared by team doctors to play and little by little, Yao is feeling his way.

In his last full season two years ago, Yao averaged 19.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. To those in hibernation, the gentle giant from China broke his left foot to a thousand pieces which required a complex procedure to solve the jigsaw puzzle. This resulted in Yao being out of circulation for the whole of last season.

The Rockets organization opened Yao’s first workout session to the media a few days ago and as per reports, the big man is surely back with his short jumpers and post-up moves. Considering his long layoff, expect Yao’s minutes to be limited.

Yao begins his day with a 45-minute manual therapy or more precisely, a deep tissue massage. Then it is followed by another 45 minutes of strength and rehabilitation work. 30 minutes of court warm-up follows before a 60-minute individual skill work. Hey, who says it’s easy to earn 16 million dollars a year?

Houston made a great move when they acquired Brad Miller in the off-season which further solidified their middle. He should start at center and let Yao gradually ease his way in the rotation. Limiting his playing time to 15-20 minutes would do him good. By the All-Star break in February, he can regain his starting job. That is if all goes well.

Houston is a merry mix of young talent and veterans. Miller and Shane Battier are the senior citizens in the group. Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Kyle Lowry and Chuck Hayes make up the competitive core.

With the recently departed Trevor Ariza who will be showing his wares in New Orleans, comes Courtney Lee who ably fills up the vacancy. New Orleans by the way, with Ariza’s and Danilo Gallinari’s arrival has improved significantly. Maybe this will hold Chris Paul for another year as a Hornet.

Training camp starts on September 25 and the Rockets travel to China in mid-October for 2 pre-season games with the still hapless New Jersey Nets, or is it already called Nyets.

There are rumors that Carmelo Anthony wants to be traded to the Rockets and if this bears fruit, then we can safely say that “Houston, we have a lift-off.”

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Beauty pageants are not really my thing, unless perhaps it involves my wife and daughter. Toinks! The hype surrounding our “major, major” candidate to the Miss U pageant kindled some interest. Ahh, Venus Raj, to think that you graduated as a freakin’ salutatorian. Your biggest mistake was the major-ity thing.

Prior to the pageant, the world was treated to a live drama in Manila last Monday. Jose Rizal’s statue at Luneta was reported shaking its head witnessing the event. I won’t go into details. With the tragi-comic ending, SWAT now has a new meaning. 

Sorry, Wala Akong Training. I rest my case.

Belated birthday greetings to my pa-in-law, Gerardo “Dodong Gamay” Frasco who had his birthday yesterday. I’ll say it’s your 60th. The dollar has depreciated to our peso’s value so might as well give you a discount. Like the interest rates, we can keep the extra years negotiable.

[email protected], [email protected] – THE FREEMAN