And Tracy McGrady says Yao won't play tonight, but Artest says he might.  Yao said yesterday that he was "fine, so fine".  I don't know what to make of this mess we have. 

Here's my gut feeling:  The MRI was fine, they are just being precautionary with Yao as they should.  Yao really wants to play every game, but shouldn't.  And tonight the Mavs are a fast paced team, but coming off a back to back.  Since they could be tired, we might not need Yao to win, so try and let him get a rest in.  And if they are fast paced and he has a minor issue, no reason to push him tonight.  It's a long season and we need Yao in May/June not as much for one game in November. 

I ask you in the poll who should start if he can't go. 

If it does become a real issue, and I honestly don't like wasting prayers on basketball but this is a big one, what do we do? 

All but last year's injuries to Yao have been freak occurences.  His stress fracture was the first injury where his body just wore down because of his size.  The others have just been weird things.  I'm hoping he just has an ankle sprain, and due to his history they got an MRI.  With the resources available to the team it is really stupid not to get an MRI every time a player gets hurt.  It makes no sense not to do that.  Are they really trying to cut corners that badly money wise?  (Can someone enlighten me?)  From now on, if Yao complains, you won't see them wait to get an MRI.  And this, hopefully, is the case here where it is simply a sprain, but they feel there is no reason not to check it out in the most conclusive manner possible.

But if I'm wrong, then it may be time to try and move him to another team.  He doesn't have a lot of years left, and he's not a 20MM player like Tracy, though he is a max player.  It would mean blowing up the team and starting over however, and the Rockets will not do that, but it is probably the right thing to do.  I have absolutely no idea what we could even get for Yao if we tried to trade him.  Would it warrant draft picks?  That's unlikely because any team that wants him wouldn't have a high enough pick to sway us.  Would it be an up and coming player?  That would only come from a team that is struggling on their own and thinks they are close, isn't that who the Rockets have been?  So why would another team take on our problem? 

I believe in Yao, he wants to be great.  He has the skill to be so.  I'm hoping his body has at least 2 more years of relative injury free time in them.  If it does, we'll be celebrating a championship this year or next.  If it doesn't?  It's back to the drawing board.