me neither. homeboy is gonna be upset if Krispy Kreme goes bankrupt this year like everyone is fearing.
News story on Channel 2 about an MRI T-Mac had today. That specific story mentioned the possibility of a season ending injury as well as microfracture surgery to rescue T-Mac's career. Reaction on this board is as expected. News update: the MRI found no change in McGrady's knee. The season ending/microfracture stuff was bogus. T-Mac's out again for an indefinite period. Nobody knows anything about a trade although Clutch thinks Artest is likely going to go.
Okay, everybody. Let me see if I follow this... Tracy McGrady has a "minor" offseason surgery on a knee (no structural damage repaired, just wear-and-tear stuff, basically)... ...which, depending on which side of the fence you're on, McGrady should have gotten over four months ago if he was any type of self-respecting human being... ...that's STILL, more than halfway through the most important season of his Houston career, a problem. I could ask a bunch of stuff to get McGrady off the hook...like who's making the decisions when he's ready to play if he's got to PLAY like T-Mac before anybody will go back to the usual anti-McGrady rails (not like McGrady needs to add any more angst to his reputation)... Come on. I like McGrady well enough as he is. Warts and playoff losses and all. But something about this whole thing is starting to smell like leftover garbage truck juice. And even more strangely, I'm not so sure the stink is all coming from McGrady. I don't generally have any sympathy for any professional athletes. They are too well-paid for rabid fan bases on either side of the popularity scale to affect them one way or the other. A regular fan would sooner get run over by a hay truck than make a pro athlete screw up a play he's worked on or practiced with his whole life with any kind of rant or voodoo curse. But, what the heck...somebody's got to play devil's advocate around here... I know this is a stretch, but what exactly was the criteria for measuring WHEN McGrady would be ready to go? I mean, you know, taking into account his fragile body and girlie-man personality? Was there really such a mad, desperate rush to get him on the court, because of potential team chemistry problems or tough schedules or lack of confidence in other players or a need to shop his wares, that there may have actually been NO NEED to have McGrady do anything like PLAY with this team before he was deemed ready to go 100%? No triple-double nights bookended by 0-fers and pity parties, with the occasional facilitator role sprinkled over that salad? Athletes are fickle. All of them are. Superstitious and maniacal and sometimes, even unknowable. It's like this for me. If I need Tracy McGrady RIGHT (whatever anybody's definition of that might be)...putting aside whether he rehabbed as hard as we would like to think we would have if we were in his shoes... ...he goes through practices and looks like a bad stunt double...but because no doctor can see anything wrong with him because there's nothing that says to them that his knee isn't going to feel better if he WORKS on it (and no, that DOES NOT mean going full bore against NBA players with outcomes on the line)... ...then what I would do (assuming, of course, I pay attention to my eyes) would be to work him as hard at a rehab schedule as I want to, assuming again that he didn't work in the first place... ...until I'm satisfied that this guy, who I'm going to count on if he's suited up, can get done what I need him to do. Period. No "let's-play-only-on-select-nights" or "deal-or-no-deal-scenarios-before tip-off”… See, this thing about “McGrady” not winning in the playoffs HAS become, finally, a TEAM concern. Because it was so important for “McGrady” to win, and for “McGrady” to be healthy and “McGrady” to not waste his last chance to silence boo-birds… …that that ever-elusive TEAM concept got swept out like dirt from under a rug, and had people who should have been more concerned about how the Rockets were going to fair (and by extension, McGrady) let things get turned the other way around. If your player isn’t ready to play, in spite of what he tells you in a closed door meeting or what he tells the media cameras or however many doctors it takes to scrape a few loose pieces of cartilage away from a bone or however much you may be awed by even his diminished ability and convinced that you need him in order to win, then he doesn’t play. I’d sooner believe McGrady was some kind of chump if he hadn’t bothered even to step onto the court at all this season (and go ahead, I know I left myself open), than to ask any of us to take this drivel seriously. WHY, in God’s name, would it have mattered to ANYBODY if McGrady needed more time than anybody expected to recover? It was never like anybody was ever going to see him as some kind of warrior like Ron Artest or a tough guy like Shane Battier, who gathers up court burns like everybody else in the league gathers up tattoos, if we all did this ridiculous dance anyway? Now you’ve got a team struggling to define itself, because a big part of your plans isn’t available (insert reason/excuse here)… Fran Blinebury said something pretty funny recently. And probably more right than he knows. The Rockets DID tank all those games years ago to get Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon on purpose… Karma has a way of kicking you right in the 'nads... ...and to think I was actually starting to believe an All-NBA performer like McGrady was actually a quitter or a coward... ...Seems like what he is injured and not ready to play. Duh.
Hey Clutch, can we just replay this today what, 39 days from now? It should have been just as embarassing to many, and there was no joke going on anywhere. Dark day today.
what are you trying to say? that the team forced him to play? your post is clear as mud, just like mcgrady's words.
Well, thank you ever so much... I'll try to fix it a bit... First, if you spend as much time with McGrady as his teammates and coaches do, and you know what it takes to get through an NBA season, you need to find out just how strong McGrady's knee feels by having him do what you need and he needs to do through repetition and specific drills to make sure that he does get that knee strengthened. You don't learn anything about a guy's specific ability to run and jump by going though practices with his teammates. Nobody's going to go at him full-speed. He's not going to go full speed. That's called rehab. McGrady's rehab routine or schedule hasn't seemed to be followed or even implemented, if his injury isn't anything more than in his head. Just because a noted and reknowned doctor says that the knee WILL heal and that there's no way to further damage it by playing basketball, McGrady isn't playing basketball against you or me or some old ladies at the rest home. He's going against pros who get paid to win, and maybe embarass a guy who probably shouldn't be on the court if he can't go, just as a little extra incentive. Second, I don't care what anybody, knowledgeable or not, thinks or says or feels about anybody else's injury. If you see a guy who isn't healthy, the last thing anybody ought to be suggesting is that he needs to play injured in order to prove he's tough or he cares or he's a good teammate or he's not stealing our milk money. How severe this thing is may be in his head or it may not be. But if he's stop-and-go and start-and-stop as much as this, then everybody needs to find out what's wrong. You do that by taking him off the court, not rushing him back, or letting him rush himself back, get whatever the hell is going on sorted out, and see what you got then. You can ask Gregg Popovich down in San Antonio how to handle something like that if you don't believe me. Third, and this is good, so pay attention, the Rockets' priorities should have always been about the TEAM first. Everybody knew going in that McGrady and Shane Battier would be coming off surgery, and would take some time to get back up to full strength. Saying ridiculous things like minor surgeries shouldn't take long to come back from or playing through a rehab process (extended or not) will set things right or we got to get everybody ready to go as soon as possible so we can jell and any of this other stuff just gets in the way. Everybody's been chomping at the bit to turn the reins of leadership of this team over to Yao Ming. And that's exactly what should have happened. Even if Yao isn't what you'd call a leader, everything the Rockets need to do should start and end with Yao. Offensively and defensively. he wouldn't have had to carry the team. There's plenty of talent here, for a change. This team would have probably won a few of those game that they lost so badly had they been given time to form an identity around guys who are ready to go. McGrady's isn't submarining anybody here. Whatever is going on isn't intentionally malicious by him or by management or by the coaching staff. Everybody's heard from day one that the Rockets could challenge for a championship with this team. That's pressure that some of these guys aren't ready for yet, including some of the coaches. All those wins we thought we got during the tough part of the schedule while McGrady and Artest and Battier were in and out of the lineup, not to mention the confidence in their ability, has been shot to hell by uncertainty. In wars, soldiers get killed because that's what happens in war. But wars are won and lost by the decisions the commanders make. You think long-term, you prepare long-term, and you probably deliver long-term.
Hi. In the context of this whole discussion, I first want to point out that I'm inclined to believe as follows : (1) Tracy has real physical issues in his body, and with his knees. (2) Tracy also has some underlying motivational and consistency issues. (3) What we're seeing here is a combination of the physical and mental. Now, on to Dr. Patterson. Although he has a list of big-name clientele, the guy is far from the mainstream of medicine and physical therapy. Reading his site makes me believe that he has influence or borrowed thinking from the eastern world in his view of the body and medicine. (see the following) I'm personally NOT skeptical of alternative medicines, although some are quite bogus. But, I think acupuncture, Chinese herbs (hot/cold balance), and treating the body holistically are valid forms of medicine (but they have limitations just like western medicine). As far as McGrady's experience with Dr. Patterson : Interestingly, of all the things to mention about McGrady, he mentions his mental state in this article. I make the crack about being a psychologist, because that's nearly what this article makes it sounds like... 2.5 hour session, and then "you'll feel great when you get off the table" and after that nary a peep regarding his back ever again. When do you ever hear of physical therapy that has that kind of result? Physical therapy as it is typically known involves slow and gradual strengthening of muscles, range of motion through stretches, etc. Again here, Dr. Patterson mentions aspects of the person that are apart from merely physical. I'm not saying that this kind of therapy is illegitimate, but its just interesting that the practitioner of it doesn't seem to focus ONLY on the physical aspects, AND that this kind of practitioner had such great success with a guy like McGrady. Also interesting is that he pointed out that McGrady's problems are : (1) with his knees, and (2) that he lacks leg strength. Interesting that his back problems pointed to his knees, and here we are down the road, with his messed up knees as our collective problem. And, that he points out his legs are like chicken legs - no strength... correlation it seems, that without an offseason routine that McGrady would play so crappy and experience these problems in his body (save from the obvious surgery).
Bad knee or good knee, T-MAC has been an unnecessary distraction for the team this season. The team now is a one-and-done deal. If they want to move past the first round, they must place t-mac on the injured list for the remainder of the season. I know in order for the Rockets to go far into the playoffs, T-mac must play at a high level. That's not going to happen this season or next season. Even if his knee is 100%, he doesn't play to the flow of the offense. And when you have two guys who like to dominant the ball (t-mac, ron-ron), the offense is going to be a problem. Let's see if Yao, Artest, Battier, Alston, Scola, Brooks, Wafer, Landry, and Barry can all play at a high level together. Look at all the close games against top teams...virtually all of them were without t-mac.
GO TO HELL T-MAC AND STAY THERE YOU MONEY STEALING PIECE OF TRASH SHELL OF FORMER SELF LOOSER. STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM US AND LET US WIN WHILE WE PAY YOUR SALARY TO SIT AND PMS. pathetic go to hell tmac and stay there for good your worthless piece of trash!
McGrady shouldn't expect his knee to look normal post surgery IMO because any operation will lead to scar formation. I don't expect anything different from a second opinion. He has to accept what is there,period. The real question is whether he can play through the soreness. Any physical activity ie game/practice does bring about inflammation/soreness at times even without any further structural change. If he is experiencing physical pain or a lack of strength around the joint,he needs to either play through it(a hard decision) or to sit out. It all depends on the extent of the injury and his physical/psychological response to it.I wish that Dr.Andrews or any other orthopedic surgeon should come out with a medical statement,but it would be a violation of patient's rights if he did so without McGrady's permission.
no way... Krispy Kreme can't go bankrupt! they make the best donuts. the world has hit a new low dammit.
i understand the hate everyone on the BBS has for the Jazz. really, i do. but putting that aside, Tracy is No Karl Malone. Karl Malone was an iron man. Tracy is a glass man.
Isn't it T-Mac who came to the team to say he only wanted to play every other back to back? Isn't it T-Mac who took himself out of the lineup for extra re-hab? And isn't it T-Mac now taking mhimselg out of the lineup again? Yes it is. Adleman doesn't need to do a damn thing in regards to sitting Tracy down. He's been making those decisions on his own all season.
If I am the GM, i will ask Tmac to get his surgery done now and end this season. first tmac said surgery is his last option. I don't want a half-ass tmac on the court killing chemistry. either he play like he was a year ago or just sit on the sideline. second, this year could be the best year we had in some time, even without tmac this team has played well when he was out. I want to see how far rockets can go without tmac. Third, no one will know what's gonna happen next season. so do It now.
