Injury Plagued Yao Ming Contemplates Retirement
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming has revealed that he is considering retiring from the game if he does not full recover from a lingering foot injury.
“If the foot injury does not heal next season, I might choose to call it quits,” he told Chinese state media, adding that his health issues will probably also rule out his involvement with the Chinese national team, including the 2012 London Olympics.
“The chance is very small,” he told the official Xinhua News Agency. “The foot injury will not allow me to play so many games anymore. Like I said before, I will quit the national team and the sport one day. It's what happens to every athlete.”
These comments will come as no real surprise to Rockets fans, as Yao has been rather forthcoming recently about both his injury trouble and his future plans. “I know I will retire one day. My career will end sooner or later. Even if I can play until I am 36, I have to accept that fact,” he told Chinese state media last month. “The only problem is that 30 is the golden time for an athlete, but for me it's sudden death and I find it hard to accept that,” he said.
Yao underwent surgery last year to repair the hairline fracture in his left foot, which forced him to miss the entire season. Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas suffered a similar injury early in his career, and following surgery, has managed to play eight seasons. However, Ilgauskas was seven years younger than Yao when he broke his foot, which may be a difference maker when it comes to recovery.
Last month, Yao exercised the player option in his contract with the Rockets to avoid free agency and remain with the team, however, he recently told China Daily that expectations should be tempered. “Talk about recovering my form is nothing but nonsense and will only be realized if I can get through the next season smoothly,” he said.
“I have no idea if I can return the peak of my form,” he added, explaining that it was far too early to tell if he was ready to play. “I have not been tested. I have not played competitive basketball since the injury even in training. I cannot answer if I will return to my best.”
Without their 7-foot-6 center, the Rockets lacked presence and an identity last year, using a rotating cast of players in his role, with mixed results. As an insurance policy, the team has recently signed former Chicago Bull Brad Miller, a 7-foot center that can share the load in training camp and take some of the pressure off Yao. Should Yao be unable to recover, however, Miller would most likely become the de facto starting center for the team.
The Chinese national team, meanwhile, has also struggled without Yao – they lost at home to Iran last year in the final of the Asian Championship – and is without many other alternatives. Yao, who is a hero in his native country and often plays charity events there, has blamed these poor results on the distraction of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the effect it had on the country’s professional and developmental leagues.
“We are paying for what we didn't do leading up to 2008. We skipped the development of a reserve team and the CBA league and focused only on the national team and the Olympics. It's like you are killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said, adding that the national team might be relying on him a little too much. “I'm 30. As an athlete, I am not the future of China basketball anymore.”
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