Something slipped through the cracks here yesterday while college basketball was being covered: the news that Rockets center Yao Ming is going to attempt another comeback. Yao, who has missed most of the last two seasons dealing with stress fractures in his feet, is still battling hard to come back.
↵For his part, Rockets GM Daryl Morey said that he hopes that Yao comes back and he hopes that it's with the Rockets. Yao acknowledged that he's not planning to leave, and said that while he thinks there's a chance he might not make it back to the court, he wants to be able to tell himself that he tried everything he could to make it happen.
↵It's a bit of an awkward situation, to be sure. Yao's contract is up after the season and he'll be a free agent, assuming the expected NBA lockout doesn't somehow wreck that scenario. Houston fans seem to love the player that Yao is, but after dealing with so many injuries, there has been quite a backlash by those who would like to move on from him. At least as a focal point of the entire franchise. Finally, Yao's popularity overseas and elsewhere has a big effect on the Rockets long-term bottom line. Certainly there aren't many players who dealt with two straight years of missed time and came back to perform well, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is one outlier for that, but he's also not 7'6.
↵So, I put this poll question before you, faithful SB Nation Houston readers: would you be okay with Yao Ming returning to the Rockets?