Kevin McHale added Greg Buckner to his staff with the Rockets as player development coach.

The position will be Buckner’s first coaching job after a 10-year NBA career with Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, Minnesota and Memphis.

“He’s going to be coaching, a lot of player development,” McHale said. “He’s still young enough to run out there with them. I said he’s got to do a lot of that, a lot of player development. He just got done playing. He was a heady player, played with a lot of heart.

“He came up the hard way, really worked his way around the league. Just a really good, blue-collar guy who understands the league.”

Houston Rockets first-round draft pick Marcus Morris is not packing his bags to go play in Europe, but the idea is on his radar.

With the NBA in the midst of a lockout, many players from around the league are at least considering playing outside the United States.

"It's intriguing," said Tony Dutt, Morris' agent. "If the right offer came along, we would look at it.”

Morris was the 14th-overall pick in the June NBA Draft.

"We both agreed I would send a bunch of stuff to teams over there," Dutt said. "We haven't received anything that makes sense at this point.”

With the door to the NBA that swung open nine years ago closed to him, Yao Ming on Wednesday chose “a new life.”

Yao announced his retirement in a ceremony and news conference in Shanghai, citing the repeated injuries to his left foot and ankle.

“At the end of the last year, my left foot had a third fracture,” Yao said. “Today, I need to make a personal decision. I will stop my basketball career and I will formally retire. Today, thinking back and thinking of the future, I have been very grateful. First of all, I need to be grateful to basketball. It has brought happiness to many people including myself.

“Life is my guide. Just follow it and it will open doors. Out of each door, there will be beautiful world outside. Since I am retired, one door is closed. But a new life is waiting for me. I have left the basketball (court), but I will not leave basketball.”

Yao Ming is likely to make it official on Wednesday, announcing what is expected to be his retirement from the NBA and a sport that made him a household name in China.

The 7-foot-6 center for the Houston Rockets played eight seasons in the NBA, but has missed 250 regular-season games over the past six years.

His career, including frequent appearances for the Chinese national team at Olympics and world championships, has included leg and foot injuries.

On Wednesday, a large reception hall at a hotel in the Pudong section of Shanghai - Yao's hometown - has been booked for what will likely be the country's media event of the year.

Hundreds of media have been accredited to attend the restricted event and are expected to arrive hours early to go through security checks. It is expected to be broadcast live in China and in many countries around the world.

The Houston Rockets made new coach Kevin McHale's staff official on Friday, announcing the hiring of Kelvin Sampson, J.B. Bickerstaff, Chris Finch and Brett Gunning.

Sampson, the former Oklahoma and Indiana head coach who served on Milwaukee's staff the last three years, will be McHale's lead assistant. 

Beneath him will be Bickerstaff, a former assistant coach in Minnesota, Finch, the head coach for the Rockets D-League team and Gunning, who was the Rockets director of player personnel.

The Rio Grande Valley Vipers announced on Friday that head coach Chris Finch has earned a promotion to become an assistant coach with their parent club, the Houston Rockets.

“I want to thank everybody within the Vipers organization for all their support and professionalism over the last two years. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and working with everybody. I found the experience both rewarding and very helpful in preparing me for my next opportunity,” Finch said.

Finch becomes the second Vipers coach to earn a promotion to an NBA coaching staff, with Robert Pack, an assistant coach during the 2008-09 season, becoming an assistant coach with the New Orleans Hornets, who were one of the Vipers’ parents clubs that year. Pack is now on the Los Angeles Clippers’ coaching staff.

Finch is the second coach to earn a promotion to the NBA this off-season, following in the footsteps of Maine Red Claws head coach Austin Ainge, who recently joined the Boston Celtics as Director of Player Personnel.

Finch will serve under head coach Kevin McHale.

The Rockets reached agreement with Bucks assistant coach Kelvin Sampson to be lead assistant on Kevin McHale’s staff, a person with knowledge of the decision said on Tuesday.

Sampson, who was one of the first coaches interviewed for the Rockets’ head coaching position, was expected to be a considered for the head coaching job with the Pistons and Bucks.

In an interview with a Houston newspaper, Memphis Grizzlies forward Shane Battier talked about his upcoming free agency and where he sees his new team in the NBA pecking order.

"Houston is a franchise in transition. From a talent standpoint, Memphis is going to be a force to deal with for a few years," he said. "Talent wins. You can have all the rah-rah you can muster, but at the end of the day in the NBA, talent wins."

Jeff Van Gundy was the second of Yao Ming’s three NBA coaches, and for all 
he has or will accomplish, Van Gundy will be asked about the unique, iconic center he coached for four seasons with the Rockets.

Van Gundy had his 
answer, for a question not yet asked, ready.

“No. 1 to me, he’s a Hall of Famer,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t care if you put him in as player, as a contributor or put him in with his own heading. This guy definitely gets in for the greatness as a player when healthy or what he did as ambassador.”

“People forget,” Van Gundy said, “just how good he was.”

To Van Gundy, the best example of Yao’s excellence was his play against Orlando center Dwight Howard. O’Neal was in decline, with Miami and Phoenix forced to give O’Neal double-team help against Yao. Howard had begun to dominate.

But Yao flourished in one of the few matchups in which he did not go against double-teams, averaging 23.6 points, on 56.1 percent shooting, and 10.4 rebounds in nine games against Howard. Howard averaged 12.2 points, on 45.1 percent shooting, and 9.8 rebounds in those games. The Rockets went 7-2 when Yao went against Howard.

“Dwight Howard is clearly the best center in basketball today,” Van Gundy said. “Yao Ming, when healthy, absolutely dominated Dwight Howard. This guy’s skill and will at that size, people forget just how great he was. When he was healthy, he was a dominant player.”

Many of Yao Ming's former Houston Rockets teammates praised the eight-time All-Star following yesterday's announcement that he would retire from the NBA.

Tracy McGrady tweeted that, "Yao Ming's talent, character and drive led so many new fans abroad to our NBA product."

"He's one of the few guys that I'll be proud to tell my grandkids I played with," Shane Battier said. "Top-to-bottom, from the first day I met Yao to the last I played with him, he was nothing less than a superstar should be. He was the hardest worker ever for a superstar and had tremendous compassion for his teammates. He truly felt happiness and joy when teammates had success. I can't think of a superstar who had those two qualities."