Do the Rockets relish the opportunity to take Yao Ming, the 7-foot-5 bundle of potential from the Shanghai Sharks, and turn him, quite literally, into the next big thing in the NBA?

Or do they run from all of the questions, from all of the negative opinions, from the risk that is inherent in hitching your future to a 21-year-old who comes from a wholly different culture and a vastly different style of playing the game?

Maybe, as the old saying goes, it's harder than Chinese arithmetic.

Or maybe it's not.

If there was ever a time in the history of the franchise to take a gamble so huge, this is it.

Because the Rockets, as they are currently configured, are irrelevant.