Yao Ming will miss the rest of the season for the Houston Rockets after it was found that he has a stress fracture in his foot. This will really hurt the Rockets as Yao has been the best player on the team by far. He played in 55 games this season (all starts) and he averaged 37.2 minutes, 22.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 blocked shots per game. He also shot the ball well as he hit 50.7% of his shots from the floor and 80.5% from the free throw line. The Rockets will likely either move rookie power forward Luis Scola over to center or they will start Dikembe Mutombo. Either way it’s a huge dropoff.

Yao has now played in 404 games (394 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 32.5 minutes, 19.0 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.8 blocked shots per game. Yao has now made 52% of his shots from the floor and 82.6% of his shots from the free throw line.