Here are more photos from Friday’s training camp, Day 4, courtesy of Raymond.

Raymond has posted photos from Day 3 of Rockets training camp here and here.

Raymond has posted more photos from yesterday’s training camp session here in the forum.

Raymond has posted lots of photos in the forum from the first day of Rockets training camp.

As you’ll see from the photos, training camp is being held in Houston at Toyota Center this year instead of Austin like the past two years. Having been to Austin training camp both of those years, it really provided a great opportunity for the team to get away from all the distractions of being in Houston, like their families, most of the media, etc., and develop a stronger bond with each other. It will be interesting to see if it has an effect on the team’s chemistry at the start of the season.

On another note, the Houston Chronicle did a good story on Yao where in this article, it’s revealed that Yao has lost 13 pounds since last season, and he’s now 100% after being only 70-80% during the Olympics. The Rockets will try to reign in Yao’s work ethic by limiting his practice schedule and not have him play as many minutes per game (37.2 last season).

Here’s another post from Ren, the latest addition to the YaoMingMania editorial team:

Yesterday was Houston Rockets media day; which means its time (at least for bloggers, early birds and now Astros fans) to refocus our energy on the upcoming NBA season. So my heretofore all-consuming fantasy football team to which hours a week had been dedicated to ensure a repeat Championship will be put in the sidecar as we burn on into Rockets ’08-’09 season.

Let’s start off with some links…

Obviously, expectations are high with the arrival of Ron-Ron and the general consensus is the Artest deal is the epitome of high-risk, high-reward. Morey is no Gus Hansen but anyone with enough pressure to win can be pushed to take uncharacteristic risks; not that this is that. No one in Houston is second-guessing the trade… yet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming was back in Houston for Media Day today where he met his new teammate Ron Artest.

Click here for Raymond’s photos from Media Day.

On top of that, the electricity in Yao’s house was restored today from Hurricane Ike. The mood wasn’t all festive, though, considering the news that Tracy McGrady will have to play with arthritis in his left shoulder this season, Shane Battier will miss up to 4 weeks because of swelling in his ankle after rehabbing it after surgery in the off-season, and Rafer Alston still not in top condition. Click here for the story.

Later on in the evening after Sun Yue‘s press conference in front of the LA media, he fell ill and was rushed to the hospital where they diagnosed him with mononucleosis! So he’s out indefinitely! Click here for a short article about it.

Sun Yue had his first press conference with the U.S. media yesterday in Los Angeles.

A second round draft choice of the Lakers, over 50 reporters (foreign and local) attended. Click here for Raymond’s photos. Click here for video from the press conference.

Check out this interesting story from Raymond about Yao’s visit to see the Shanghai Ballet Troupe.

Raymond reports that Yao Ming has been working off his butt in the past 3 weeks (other than weekends and those days he spent visiting the earthquake-affected area of Sichuan) on his rehab with Anthony Falsone and Rockets assistant coach Jack Sikma. Yao spent 5 hours per day on his rehab (2.5 hours in the gym, 2 hours on shooting practice, 1/2 hour jogging).

Click here for translated articles from Raymond about Yao’s workouts.