Yao is the New Way

Yao is the new way
from Yao Central

ESPN's John Hollinger is starting a cult, the cult of Player Efficiency Rankings... and the divine one this season is none other than Yao Ming. Click here for Hollinger's pre-season player projections; for the full description of why Yao is on top of the list, you'll have to have the dreaded Insider membership.

In Rockets camp news, Jonathan Feigen reports that new coach Rick Adelman has nothing but praise for Yao and his integration to the new system. He also promises that Yao will still get plenty of looks in the low-post--even if he's never had a player like him before.

A story from ChinaDaily.com tells roughly the same story except it has this picture of Yao and T-Mac laughing at fans trying to dunk during the open-to-the-public scrimmage on Monday. Yao Ming Mania links your boxscore for last night's preseason game, but oddly enough has no pics. Yao looked good out there, though, or sounded good... had to listen to the game on NBA.com radio.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barret has declared October 7th "Yi Jianlian Day." Whadafuss? We don't even have an Hakeem Olajuwon day... or do we? We do have a Yao Ming Day on Dec. 11th, which is just as ridiculous. There should be some guidline: no official "days" for current players with no Championships... or in Yi's case no actual minute on a NBA floor. So what do Milwaukeens do for Yi Jianlian Day?

Yi's fans held a reception at Bradley Center yesterday, attended by more than 500 fans and VIPs including Senator Herb Kohl, who owns Yi's new team the Milwaukee Bucks, Mayor Tom Barret and Huang Ping, the Consul General of China in Chicago.

I'm guessing there were fireworks and at least one lion dance... and mooncake.