During Tuesday’s announcement about the charity gala that Yao’s Foundation will throw with the Museum of Fine Arts on January 30th, there was something else that Yao announced that should also be noted.
“I’m very close to local people. They treat me like family, and I want to give back. ”
Not to get too sentimental, but I think this statement shows Houston has lived up to its reputation of being hospitable to an outsider like Yao. It brings to mind what I saw Trevor Ariza say the other day about his short time in Houston.
The biggest adjustment (from living in LA is that) everybody is really, really, real, real friendly in Houston. So, having to say ‘how you doing?’ and all that stuff is a little different. Everyone is like that, very, very homey, very friendly oriented.
Back to Yao’s donation. This past summer, Yao toured two local schools with “nature-based” playgrounds before deciding to give money to the cause since it overlapped well with his foundation’s mission to promote education and opportunities for children. That’s what motivated him to get involved with helping reconstruct these playgrounds.
In case you missed it, here are a few more photos from the announcement of Yao’s donation as well as the charity gala on January 30th.
Recently YaoMania had an opportunity to talk with Rockets.com writer Jason Friedman, who was nice enough to spend some time with us at Toyota Center.
In part 1 of our video interview, Jason tells us the effect that Yao still has on the team even though he’s injured, how well he’ll be expected to fit into the offense the Rockets are running successfully this season, and more (apologies for the construction noises in the background in the first minute or two).
After another stunning win in this short season — the Rockets beating Utah handily in Salt Lake 113-96 Monday night to push their record to 3-1 — I think even the most die-hard Rockets fan has to be shocked at how well they are playing together as a team, not to mention the millions of NBA fans who thought they were going to be terrible. The Rockets are shocking everyone right now.
I never thought the Rockets were going to be as bad as some people predicted this season, like Charles Barkley saying they were going to be the worst team in the Western Conference this season. But to beat Portland and Utah in consecutive games so early in the season, with 8 players scoring in double figures last night in Utah? I don’t think anyone could have predicted that.
Still, Barkley made himself look like an ass again. Remember when he said back in Yao’s rookie year that Yao would never score more than 19 points as a pro, and had to kiss a donkey’s butt on national TV after losing that bet?
This team continues to amaze us: the 22-game winning streak two seasons ago that had spans where either Yao or McGrady didn’t play. Two victories against the Lakers in the playoffs last season without Yao or McGrady playing. Chuck Hayes now as the starting center. A very short point guard in Aaron Brooks showing no signs of being handicapped because of his lack of height in the NBA. A free agent signee in Trevor Ariza, who no one thought would be this good this early, even his former team the Lakers. An “offensively-challenged” Shane Battier being more aggressive and amping up his offense. A rookie in Chase Budinger (17 points Monday night in 22 minutes) showing skills and maturity far beyond his middle-of-second round draft selection expectations. The list goes on and on.
You’ve got to these guys a ton of credit, including coach Rick Adelman. They were expected to be a shambles by now. They may still miss the playoffs when it’s all said and done, as everyone had predicted. Even without Yao, though, you can’t help but want to watch each one of their games to see what they will do next. And none is bigger than the Rockets’ next game on Wednesday: a rematch against the Lakers at Toyota Center. You can bet Ariza is going to be motivated for that game. Will he eclipse his career high point total (33) from Saturday night’s game against Portland? That’s going to be Must See TV.
Yao was able to attend the Rockets’ home opener Saturday night against Portland. Because he’s still on crutches, it will obviously be a hassle for him to attend every game. Our Raymond has posted in the YaoMania forum photos of Yao at the game, which the Rockets won thanks to astounding performances by Trevor Ariza (33 points) and Aaron Brooks (28 points).
YaoMania met briefly with Yao on Friday afternoon to get caught up on what he’s been doing lately.
He’s had his cast off for a few weeks now and said his foot feels good. As seen in the photos from Saturday night, Yao is wearing a black boot and brace when he goes out. He currently leaves home to workout 5 days a week at Toyota Center with his personal trainer Anthony Falsone in the mornings. Falsone will pick Yao up at his house since he can’t drive yet because of his foot.
Because Yao is so diligent in going to Toyota Center to work out early each morning, he wasn’t able to watch all of the Rockets’ first two road games because those games started so late on the West Coast, so he couldn’t really speak too much about the performance of the team at that time. But he said the excellent play of Chuck Hayes (who led the NBA in steals after two games) and Luis Scola‘s game Wednesday night against Golden State (21 points) didn’t surprise him at all because he has seen how good those guys have been over the past few years.
We talked a little bit about the anti-smoking campaign in China with which he has aligned himself. He said no one in his immediate family has smoked because of their involvement in athletics all their lives, but he sees the effects of second-hand smoke in his country, and has a hard time dealing with it whenever he’s around second-hand smoke.
Yao vowed to keep YaoMania up-to-date on how things are going for him from this point forward, so make sure follow YaoMania on Twitter or Facebook.
Rockets.com posted on Tuesday afternoon an interview with Yao, along with video of him working out…(if for some reason these videos don’t display in your browser, you can click here to view them on Rockets.com)
They also interviewed his personal trainer Anthony Falsone. One of the big revelations that’s good news for Yao’s fans in China is that Falsone says that Yao will be able to go back to China in December.
Click here for some of the transcripts from the interviews with Yao and Anthony.
Since I recorded and posted the videos of Yao working out at Toyota Center a few weeks ago, it looks like the press thought it would be a good idea by recently taking some photos of him doing the same.
Click here to see more photos of Yao working out with his new boot.
Although Yao isn’t playing anytime soon, the Chinese news agency Xin Hua did a big article on Yao the other day. It’s basically a recap of Yao’s past history, similar to what you would read in his biography “A Life in Two Worlds.”
But there’s some new nuggets of information in there that I didn’t even know, like how his first thing to drink as a baby was not breast milk, but a bowl of bitter soup of “Huang Lian,” which was a local custom to give children a better idea of what sweetness is later in life.
He also said he’s not an adventurer. For example, he always drives the same route to Toyota Center, and rarely takes chances in shooting the basketball in different ways for fear of picking up an offensive foul. But he is more independent than his parents, who grew up during a much different time in China’s culture.
