[SI] Zach Lowe: Van Gundy, Morey call out McGrady

About comments made by JVG and Morey regarding McGrady and other Rockets players.

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/03/04/van-gundy-morey-rail-against-mcgrady/


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Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, is moderating the first panel, which is about the notion, developed by experts who study talent and discussed in Gladwell’s book “Outliers,” that anyone interested in being truly great at something has to practice for at least 10,000 hours to reach an elite level of greatness. The point of the panel, which features Jeff Van Gundy and Houston Rockets’ GM Daryl Morey, is ostensibly to talk about things like the concept of “natural talent,” the importance of work ethic and how to weigh those variables in the draft and in free agency.

Perhaps it was inevitable with the heavy Rockets flavor on the panel, but the discussion quickly to turned to Tracy McGrady — in an unfavorable way. “Tracy McGrady was 1,000 hours of practice,” Van Gundy said, to some pretty loud laughs. “He should be a Hall of Fame player. His talent was other-worldly. He was given a great leg up in the race against other players. He’s as close as I’ve ever seen to someone with a perfect body and a good mind.”

And then Morey got to the heart of it: “McGrady was the most gifted player I’ve ever had on the roster. I do think [his talent] got in the way of Tracy’s development. Much of the game was so, so easy — and you see this in the AAU level, where they have freakishly talented players. When it’s that easy to dominate at that young age, because of your physical tools — his wing span was freakish, his size was enormous, his IQ. But my sense was that all of that did get in the way of Tracy reaching his highest heights.”

Poor T-Mac. But it wasn’t over, yet. Van Gundy came back to McGrady later: “I like a lot of things about Tracy McGrady. I just wish I could have changed his practice habits and his mentality.”

None of this is really disputable — Morey and Van Gundy are far from being the first to say this kind of thing about McGrady, and it’s sad to think about someone that talented failing to work as hard as perhaps he should have.

...

Other highlights from the Gladwell panel:

• Van Gundy referred to Charles Oakley as “a rocket scientist” in terms of his on-court IQ;

• He also called Bonzi Wells fat;

• Justin Tuck, a defensive lineman for the New York Giants, is also on the panel and knew both Jamario Moon and Gerald Wallace in high school. Tuck said Moon was far more talented than Wallace during their teen years, but even then Wallace was the gym rat who worked harder on his game.

• Want to be really sad? Here’s Van Gundy on Yao Ming: “I thought Yao Ming was a model athlete. You take his ability to genuinely enjoy others’ success — which almost hard to find in the NBA — to be as truly happy for others as he is for himself.”

• Van Gundy on Shane Battier: “He had the most unique ability to concentrate on every possession in practice and in games that I’ve ever come across.” Of note: Van Gundy says Battier is not the sort of guy who spends a lot of hours in the gym by himself, working on his game or his shot.
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That last comment on Shane Battier is interesting to me. As much as Battier is praised for being the model role player and "intangibles" guy, one thing about him is that he was never really committed to improving his skills.

 

From: "The Art of a Beautiful Game"

(p 113):
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... His evolution from all-around player to defensive specialist, though, has been a gradual one. As a senior at Detroit Country Day High School in 1997 he was the Naismith player of the year. At Duke, he was a star on both ends of the floor, setting school records for blocked shots and finishing eigth on the school's alltime scoring list while receiving the Naismith and Wooden awards as a national player of the year as a senior. Early in his NBA Career he was a capable scorer, averagin 14.4 ppg as a rookie for Memphis; at 6'8", 220 pounds, he was versatile enough to play multiple positions. The longer he played in the league, though, the more he realized that he was built for D. (He hasn't averaged more than 10.1 ppg sine that rookie season.) "I don't have an offensive mind," he explains. "Soe people are brilliantly creative offensively. I'm not that way. I can't see how plays develop on offense, but I can see how plays develop defensively and what the rotation should be, two to three passes from the current point during the play."

Thus Battier has embraced defense and become that guy for the Rockets, ...
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(p 116):
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[preparing on game day]
6:02 p.m. Taped and dressed, Battier jogs from the locker room to the court to go through his pregame shooting routine. It is the only time during the day that he will focus on his individual offense, cycling through a handful of post-up moves, mid-range jumpers and three-pointers, making 10 to 12 from each spot before moving on.
...
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Developing his offensive game just has not been a focus of his, and I don't think its deceptive at all to say that. I remember also reading somewhere that he doesn't play basketball at all in the offseason. He runs and does yoga or something.

 

Battier has found his niche as an all-defense, glue guy who relies on mental preparation and zoned-in concentration. He just did not commit to improving his offensive skills, and his lack of progression in that phase of the game since his rookie year shows that very clearly. On the whole, he's been a good player throughout his career, but would it have been a waste for him to put more effort into developing his offensive game? I don't think so. I guess he values his time away from basketball too much to be bothered with it.