Battered but Not Broken Yao Ming Battles Back from Injury to Resurrect His NBA Career he Houston Rockets Chinese center Yao Ming will play no more than 24 minutes in each NBA game next season as he returns from injury. An NBA game lasts 48 minutes, so Yao will only play half of it. The team's athletic trainer Keith Jones told the Houston Chronicle newspaper Thursday that the time limit would be applied strictly, adding that the seven-feet-six-inch Yao would even skip lots of practiced sessions to limit the impact on his surgically repaired left foot. Ahead of his long-awaited return, Yao spoke with Anjali Rao for the Talk Asia program. Everything looks perfect on pictures, I mean those X-ray pictures, and today, I'm walking on it well, full pressure on my foot already. But before I start to play the first real NBA game,