It was a little less than two years ago when Yao Ming was fighting for position in the lane, during a meaningless late-season loss to Utah, when someone -- possibly Mehmet Okur -- kicked him in the side of his foot. It's the kind of thing that happens in basketball. But the tallest of men tend to have most vulnerable of feet, and this time, that little kick fractured a foot bone near Yao's pinkie toe.

Yao struggled up and down the court a few more times, and even hit a jumper, but something was wrong.

Before long he was using golf carts or crutches to get places he would have normally walked, and he spent most of the summer recovering from surgery to fix that bone in his foot.

Two years later, Yao Ming's Rockets have at last, apparently, turned the corner. They have won a dozen in a row, and 16 out of 17, to put themselves a mere three games out of first place in the brutal Western Conference.

And now Yao Ming is out for the season, thanks to a reported stress fracture in that same foot.

It's hard to imagine how there could be worse news for Houston fans.

All-time, the Rockets have won about 58% of their games when Yao Ming has played. When he has been out with injury, they have won about 45% of their games.

If you were to wave your magic wand and fix Yao Ming's foot, this was about to become one of the happiest stories in sports. Redemption for Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, both of whom have been celebrated as superstars, but maligned for not proving it in the playoffs. Redemption for GM Daryl Morey, the stat geek barnstormer of the league's GM boys' club. Redemption for Rick Adelman, a coach eager to get beyond discussions of his transition from previous coach Jeff Van Gundy. Redemption for a team that once looked like it might never get out of the post-Olajuwon doldrums.

Now? The future of the Houston Rockets is back on spin cycle. The player some believe plays like Bill Walton is now threatening to have a career like ... Bill Walton.

Not to mention, as the trade deadline just passed, it's harder now for Houston to stick band-aids on a roster that only had two guys over 6-10 to begin with. Dikembe Mutombo has been a wonderful player for a long time. But now a team that is built to play around an offensive big man will be playing small ball most of the time, and with a big man who is not a scorer the rest of the time.

Their only way to add a center would be by cutting someone to create the roster space to sign a free agent. (UPDATE: The Rockets are just about a million dollars shy of the luxury tax.)  And the one player they were really willing to cut, Adam Haluska, was just cut to make room for Bobby Jones, who is not a center.

What's more, the Rockets just traded away Bonzi Wells, who was one of their best post players.

The Rockets will be holding a news conference this afternoon. There is a lot to discuss. But nothing really matters today but the spirit of poor Yao Ming. How dreadful it must be for him, to have worked so hard to find success, only to be rewarded with yet another season-ending injury. I only hope that one day we get to see him enjoy the thrill of a championship.

Beyond his mood, however, there are all sorts of issues to consider:

• That's two season ending injuries to the same foot. A lot of obvious questions about trusting his long-term health arise from that.
• The relationship between the NBA, the Houston Rockets, and the Chinese government figures prominently in any and all matters Yao Ming. Even picking him first in the draft was not simple. Now, with Yao Ming slated to be the superstar showpiece of perhaps the most important sporting event in China's recent history -- the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- there must be a hundred new ways these international relationships can be tested. With something this bad having happened, there will be blame to spread around, and future questions to work out. Will Yao Ming be ready to play in the Olympics? Whose decision will that be? Are the Rockets prepared to let the Chinese team make that call? And what about next season -- now that China's national basketball treasure has injured himself repeatedly Houston's watch (he has also had a broken tibia) might there be concerns about his returning to the NBA at all?
• Look at the crowded Western Conference. The Rockets are three games out of first. But as the Nuggets, Warriors, Mavericks, Blazers and company will tell you, they are also three games out of giving up a playoff spot entirely to one of those other teams. And if that happens, it won't be long before almost everyone has forgotten that this team was getting hot at the right time.

(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images)