May we be as lucky as Orlando post Me-Mac move? Lock if posted With Tracy McGrady in town tonight, holiday tidings to John Weisbrod http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sp...tonight-holiday-tidings-to-john-weisbrod.html Put a Magic ornament on the tree in honor of John Weisbrod dumping Tracy McGrady Once again, as we move closer to Christmas morning and with Tracy McGrady coming to town tonight with the Houston Rockets, it’s time for Magic fans to once again send holiday tidings to former general manager John Weisbrod. Although his methods were clumsy and ham-handed, Weisbrod made the most important decision in recent Magic history when he jettisoned Me-Mac all those years ago. What’s that? You say drafting Dwight Howard was the most important decision the Magic have made in the last decade? (If you have time, please vote in the poll at the bottom of this blog) Yes, maybe, but I contend unloading the selfish and lazy Me-Mac actually made it possible to draft the young Howard out of high school and start over with a new nucleus of players. If you’ll recall, McGrady, if he was going to stay in Orlando, didn’t want the Magic to draft Howard. He thought it would take too long for a high school player to develop and he wanted help immediately. He was more in favor of the Magic taking Emeka Okafor out of college. Can you imagine how disastrous that move would have been? Yes, Okafor would go on to to win Rookie of the Year, but Dwight is on his way to becoming a player for the ages. McGrady, of course, was shipped to Houston, where he has fallen out favor once again and has still never won a playoff series. He’s just returning from serious knee surgery after nearly a year on the sideline. Certainly the Rockets want to see if McGrady’s knee has healed, but they’re probably more interested to see if his attitude has gotten better. Here’s an excerpt from a recent column on NBA.com a few days ago after McGrady returned from knee surgery: “A year ago, McGrady’s season came in fits and starts as he was in and out of the lineup with his balky knee, averaging just 15.6 points and shooting 38.8 percent from the field. He played his last game on Feb. 9 in Milwaukee, where he tried to elevate for a breakaway dunk and could only jam the ball against the underside of the rim. As bad as that play looked, it was only a tip of the ugliness as McGrady often went rogue, pulling himself in and out of the lineup, confounding his teammates, exasperating the front office and infuriating coach Rick Adelman. When McGrady posted the news on his website that he was done for the season and would have the microfracture surgery before informing the Rockets, Adelman’s head might as well have exploded. McGrady arrived in training camp this season and declared himself ahead of schedule in the recovery process and the pot began to boil again. Then McGrady sent out an e-mail to media outlets saying he was getting to make his season debut in the middle of November. The Rockets, who were already looking for ways to unburden themselves from the roughly $23 million on the last year of McGrady’s contract, could only spin their wheels in frustration. On the barometer of marriages gone askew, suffice to say this one falls somewhere between Bill & Hillary and Tiger & Elin. Yet if they want to trade him, at his hefty salary, there is no way they can until McGrady proves he can return to health and close to form.” Translation: Merry Christmas, John Weisbrod. May Santa fill your stocking with many thank-you letters from Magic fans, who are now glad to be rid of Me-Mac and enjoying a most prosperous Dwight Christmas.
Like seriously, I don't know if people have any clue what they're talking about, or they're just misinformed. The reason for the Magic being successful after McGrady's trade, was because of a multitude of reasons, big FA signings like Pietrus and Shard, acquiring Hedo, drafting Jameer Nelson, and you know, drafting that big man...his name is Dwight Howard. The only similar thing between post "Me Mac," in Houston and Orlando is we both traded away McGrady. Other than that, nothing else is similar. Magic didn't even make the playoffs, the year after.
Another sports writer who still doesn't understand that Tracy's expiring contract is more appealing to other teams than Tracy's ability on a basketball court.
I agree but most Rockets fan here will agree to unleash some hatred out on the most selfish player the game has ever seen.
It is not bad to bring TMac to houston, but the 3-year contract extension is the worst thing happened for us.
I don't know if the Tmac apologists are just young and foolish and/or eternal optimists or whatever the case. The article is spot on. SPOT ON. Tmac took himself in and out of the lineup, announced to the media (but not to anyone in the Rockets' organization) he was shutting it down and having microfracture surgery.... Sure, we'd all love McGrady to be 100% healthy and 100% motivated, but everything is always about him. He's never grown past the spoiled prodigy who, in the end as in the beginning, has really never had any real love for what he gets paid a ridiculous amount of money to do. Imagine if Dante Alighieri had lacked motivation or sit-ability or follow-thorugh and the Divine Comedy had either never been written or had been half-assed. Apply that to Tracy McGrady and his NBA legacy. Captain Half Ass. He'll take the celebrity, thank you. And I give him credit for the Darfur project. But it doesn't help the Rockets. So, are we Rockets fans first or are we Tracy McGrady fans? I'll take the Rockets, and I'll thank McGrady for stepping up in the 22 game win streak (the same that probably helped screw up that knee), even if he was probably happier not having to defer to The Big Man he thought would help Shaq him to an NBA title. But it's over.
It's a good thing Billy Donovan isn't their coach. Talk about a dumb move. That team should be infinitely thankful Donovan walked away scared and then hired a real coach. SVG maximized their potential.
1. I beleive they won twice as many games as they did Me-Mac's last year there 2. They were headed to the playoffs until the GM stupidily traded they starting SG for a hill of beans [Doug Man-Purse Christie] Rocket River
1. Yes, they did. 2. The bottom line was, they didn't make the playoffs, stupid trade or not. That wasn't even the main part of my post. I just added the playoffs bit at the end. The reason for Orlando improving so much, was because they brought in so many new pieces. Don't forget Grant Hill was healthy, and an All-Star, Dwight Howard was drafted, and was a double double the minute he entered the NBA. That's more than enough to double a teams win total. Let's not pretend that McGrady leaving was the reason they all of a sudden became so much better. They made a lot of great moves after that, and that's why they became better. I don't know if this is directed at me. Personally, I agree, the article is spot on, but I disagree strongly with the notion that they got better BECAUSE he soley left, there was A BILLION reasons towards why that happened. You'd be blind, not to realize that.
Most have figured out Tracy is poison and is nothing more than fool's gold. But there still are some that have a hard time learning and continue to plague the Rockets forums. I can only hope one day this will all be behind us and everything in Rocket land can return to normal.
Don't like the article at all. I think the McGrady trade was a bad move for the Magic. Sure they got rid of McGrady (and Juwan Howard), which in hindsight was a good decision. But they really should have done way, way better in my opinion. I'm sure they could have gotten a clearly better package than Francis/Mobley/Cato somewhere else - I mean these were the days when T-Mac was still playing on the level of his scoring champion days. And none of the players the Magic received turned out to perform well over the next couple of years, IIRC. So you really can't talk about a good move by Weisbrod, he should have gotten a lot more in return.
You usually have to get worse before you get better. In the case of the Magic, the threshold was set so low after McGrady's season of quit that they couldn't really get worse. Also, they couldn't have signed all those players you listed above if McGrady's massive contract was still on the payroll. Imagine if they decided to keep McGrady and pick Okafor to appease their "franchise" player.
Even then, they had Grant Hill under contract, and the year he finally gets healthy, is the year McGrady is gone. Then they also traded Denver for the rights for Jameer, and drafted Dwight, NONE of which would have been done, and still possible if McGrady's contract was on the book. Pietrus was signed even despite Rashard's contract as well, a team has the MLE every year. And wasn't Hedo signed to a contract less than the MLE as well?? All of that could have been done.
The bottom line is that you rarely see this kind of elation and celebration by the fans and media of every city that a player leaves. You never saw this kind of reaction from Mavs fans and the media after Nash left. It was actually quite the opposite.
I'm not arguing that, I'm arguing that McGrady leaving wasn't even one of the main reasons towards why the Magic improved after he left.
Heh, and Tmac actually thinks Orlando is a possible destination for him. I'm surprised he doesn't need a visa to enter the state of FL, let alone be welcomed back as a FA.
Funny thing is, we still got the better of that trade no matter how much the Orlando media would like to say otherwise. McGrady has been on the All Nba teams many years since the trade, and the Rockets have been a 50 win team most years. What did Francis/mobley/cato do for the Magic?? Or even any of the players traded for them?? Absolutely nothing
