china’s Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets will play two pre-season games against the New Jersey Nets in Beijing and GuangZhou, the National Basketball Association said on Wednesday (August 4).

Yao, a seven-time NBA All-Star who missed last season after surgery on his left foot, will headline the NBA’s fifth set of pre-season games in China.

The Rockets, who fell short of the playoffs last season for the first time since 2006, will play New Jersey on October 13 in Beijing and on October 16 in Guangzhou.

The Nets last season set a record for the worst start to an NBA campaign when they went 0-18 but are hoping for better things this season after signing freshman forward Derrick Favors, the third overall selection in June’s NBA Draft.

In 2004, the NBA became the first American professional sports league to play games in China, with two games between the Rockets and the Sacramento Kings in Shanghai and Beijing.