Recovering from injury, Yao unsure of career

Yao Ming has cast doubt on his return to the NBA, admitting he may not play again as he battles to recover from his latest injury.

The towering Houston Rockets centre, China's most recognisable athlete, told China's CCTV he could not predict when, or indeed if, he would fully recover from a serious ankle fracture suffered in November.

"I don't know if I would join some champion team in the future," the China Daily quoted him as saying when asked about leaving a new-look Rockets team. "I don't even know if I can play again."

Yao also said the prospect of playing in front of his baby daughter, Amy, gave him extra motivation to continue his injury-plagued career in the NBA.

"I wish she could watch me play and even win a championship," the 7ft 6in (2.28-metre) Yao said.

"Not only see through video highlights how her dad played. She is definitely a big motivation for me to continue, although my foot still needs lots of treatment."

Yao also confessed he was not sure how he would fit in with the plans of Kevin McHale, the new Rockets coach.

"A championship ring has become not so important in my plans," Yao said. "My main thought for the next 10 years is to look after my family and continue my community activities."

Yao's five-year contract with the Rockets, valued at US$76 million (Dh 279.1m), expires on June 30.

The 30 year old triggered NBA-mania in China after being selected first overall by Houston in the 2002 draft but has been cursed by injury in the United States. Yao insisted it would be hard to leave the Rockets.

"I have spent the best 10 years of my life playing and living [in Houston]," the former All-Star said. "That makes it much harder to bid farewell."

* Reuters

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Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

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