Results tagged “houston”

With the opening Olympic tournament game against Team USA just around the corner, a less than fully recuperated Yao Ming finds himself sandwiched between angry fans on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Chinese fans blame the Rockets for the stress fracture Yao Ming sustained during this last NBA season, thus jeopardizing his upcoming performance and China's chances to shine in the Olympic tournament. American fans hurl back that it is the year round obligations to the Chinese National team that have worn him out, and remind the Chinese exactly who is footing Yao Ming's $15 million salary. Given the headache of dealing with pressure from both sides, it should come as no surprise when Yao stated that he would like this to be his final Olympic appearance.

"It will be my third," he said. "I was a very young player and got my first taste of the Olympics in 2000 at Sydney. I played in Athens in 2004 and now this is my home country and the highest special honor in 2008. Enough, I think. Why would I need to play in London in 2012?"

"China's giant centre Yao Ming will undergo surgery Monday to fix a stress fracture in his left foot, the Houston Rockets announced on Saturday."

• SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others.
• Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list.
• Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island.

Yao Ming is not the best singer. And neither is any of his team mates from the Houston Rockets as this latest video of them spreading the holiday cheer with their own rendition of Jingle Bell Rock shows (Click here to watch them sing 12 Days of Christmas). But we love it!

Notorious NBA bad boy Yao Ming has done it again. He's late for national team training — and China's official sports association has made it clear they are sick and tired of his Rodmanesque antics:

Chinese basketball fans held their collective breath this morning as the NBA draft took place a full 12 time-zones away. 22-year old 19-year old Yi Jianlian slipped past his projected spot at the number 5 pick when the Boston Celtics signed a draft-and-trade agreement with the Seattle Supersonics involving 7-time all-star Ray Allen.

So after reports that Yao Ming would get married to his fiancée Ye Li, a player on the Chinese women's basketball team last year in Shanghai proved to be all but wrong, it appears the Houston Rockets star is finally ready to tie the knot this summer. According to the Rockets' Manager Daryl Morey, the couple will hold their wedding in August after Yao Ming is done with serial practices in July.

The NBA is coming to Shanghai again on October 17. This time the Cleveland Cavaliers, fresh off the worst NBA Finals performance we have ever seen, take on the Orlando Magic. If meaningless preseason hoops is your thing, start booking tickets to Minhang District now. The game is being played way the hell out there at the Shanghai Qizhong Forest Sports City Tennis Center. And for those of you who remember the 2004 Shanghai clash between the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings (tickets for which started at US$12) you might be interested to know that tickets for the 2007 version start at US$105. Now, we know the dollar has gotten weaker ... but this seems like a greedy move for a sport and league that should be trying to appeal to the common man. (UPDATE: According to the seating chart, it looks like very few nose-bleed seats were priced at RMB 200, but maybe they are sold out.)

In 2006, Shanghaiist prayed for a direct flight connecting the United States' east coast to Shanghai. Hell, we even signed a petition to the FAA. But the travel god(s) turned a deaf ear to our pleading, and awarded the precious route to Washington, DC/Beijing. Bummer! But an announcement made yesterday after a two day summit between the senior American and Chinese finance ministers has rekindled our hope. To accommodate surging trade and air traffic between the two nations, the US and China have reached a broad based agreement to open more direct passenger and cargo routes. According to the Houston Business Journal:

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists.

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to...

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate.

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

Happy Holidays!

Five reasons we won't be rushing back to Yeeha Texas BBQ & Sports Bar

is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour.

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder?

You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater.

Gothamist gets us started with "Law & Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking pictures on the MTA. So, why are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a group of Asian men was attacked by a group of white guys in Queens. Finally, Boy George reports for his court mandated community service. Sweet.

Last week, the always entertaining People's Daily website ran a series of photographs under the headline "Yao Restaurant opens in Shanghai." The first Yao Restaurant opened in Houston, Texas, in 2005 -- Yao Ming's parents are part owners. The People's Daily headline surprised us. We hadn't heard anything about Yao opening up a place in Shanghai.

We -ists are an eclectic bunch, but there's a couple of things we all love: famous people, social causes, and wacky local facts. Join us as we starf**k, get virtuous, and learn across the -ist network!

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash.

DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now.

We'll admit it: When we first saw the map at ShanghaiClimb.com, we thought it might be an addendum to the "14 ways to die in Shanghai" map. But it's not (not yet, at least -- as far as we know no one died during the first month that normal folk were allowed to walk to the top of the world's longest arch bridge). On April 28, the Shanghai Yangzi International Travel Agency opened the Lupu Bridge hike -- 367 steps to the top of the arch, 100 meters above the Huangpu River. During this "trial-run," the duration of which we aren't sure of, the activity costs 68 RMB. Later the price will get bumped up to 80 RMB. You know, we actually might do this. This is about the closest thing to hiking we've got in downtown Shanghai. (And if walking up a bunch of steps crowded with tourists isn't your idea of "hiking," then you haven't attempted much hiking in China.) We're also intrigued by the hike's "emergency route," which by the looks of the diagram, includes rappelling down one of the bridge's supports.

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow.

We just came across an interesting New York Times article about art, design and architecture in China. Much of it deals with the work of Ai Weiwei, an artist and designer (and son of famed poet Ai Qing), who has created a number of interesting living spaces, such as loft complexes, where the living space is near to or combined with gallery space:

Mercer Human Resource Consulting just released its annual standard of living report, which ranks the quality of life in the world's major big cities. Shanghaiist has kept up the results the last few years, and there haven't been any major changes. Bloomberg reports:

Houston Rockets center and Shanghai native Yao Ming saw his season come to an end this morning when he broke his left foot late in the first quarter in a game against the Utah Jazz. The break apparently happened when Yao's foot was stepped on by Utah's Andrei Kirilenko, whose hobbies include injuring himself and others.

The Rolling Stones arrived in Shanghai yesterday and the media noticed. We read a couple of these stories before we got bored.