Look, regarding swyyyguy, tinman and their T-Mac love/hate - it's their schtick. It's their internet personality. It's how they draw attention to themselves. Let it go, stop taking them so seriously. It's not that hard.
Sure it can, but not for you. You were rooting against Harden the entire playoffs because you are too insecure about McGrady's status as a Rocket. Harden has already left McGrady in the dust and he has long ways to go. Deal with it!
Can't really compare the two. Different rules, different era and different team. Tmac/Yao barely had a team and they were often injured. Our current team has a much better supporting cast as evident in the Clippers win when Harden sat out the fourth quarter. People that want to make an argument either way are only doing it to try and prove their bias/agenda.
Not really. Almost all logical fans realize that Harden has left McGrady behind as a Rocket. Regardless of circumstances, he never got us out of the first round, and he had 4 years to do so. I think McGrady gets too much crap around here, but results are results, and Harden has them, T-Mac didn't. Anybody who would suggest otherwise is the one with the bias.
I was a big TMac fan - and still love the guy! I don't get why some harbour a grudge against TMac but I guess how it all ended, left a bad taste in some ppls mouths. But Harden has definitely surpassed McGrady as a Rocket - both regular season and playoffs. The regular seasons this guy has had for 3 consecutive years now is just amazing. Playoffs, because well he had a great playoff run this year (statistically) and he has made it to the WCF as the number 1 option on a team that was missing 2 starters and that was plagued by injuries all season long. Again, I think it was unfortunate that TMac/Yao were plagued with injuries and yeah the role players were not all that great. They still had defensive studs on that squad though and more importantly playmakers, other than TMac. The impact of more than one playmaker on a team can't be overstated in my opinion. Add a legit playmaker (other than Harden) to this current squad and now you are talking CHAMPIONSHIP. Also I think you shouldn't be pointing to ONE game (Game 6 vs Clippers) as EVIDENCE that the current supporting cast is better (although I do agree that they are slightly better). You could easily find games where one or more role players made crucial plays during the TMac era! On top of my head - take game 22 of the 22 game win streak. TMac had a horrible game (I think he scored 10 points on 16 or 17 shots), was pretty much shut down by the Laker defense all game - if not for Rafer, we would have totally lost that game! Now I could take this even further and argue that if Harden EVER, EVER scored 10 points in a game = DEFINITE Rockets loss ( I don't remember the Rockets ever winning with Harden scoring around 10 points - though I might be wrong) !!! Therefore TMacs supporting cast couldn't have been that bad!
Zboy is right and mcgrady fans have always had an agenda with stupid what if scenarios case in point this old gem
TMac was a monster and in his prime I would argue he was better than Harden. By the time he got to Houston, Mac was damaged goods and on the decline. His first year was the only real taste of prime TMac we got and he played fabulous vs Dallas in the first round. TMac was the more complete player over Harden, better post player and defender, equal passer, though he settled for too many jumpers. Harden is the better driver but he also benefits from modern NBA touch foul calls and gets away with initiating contact.
Tmac was not a leader and did not make his teammates better. With what lebron is doing and the clutch city documentary, it clearly shows what true greats do. An argument with tmac fan says he was a top 5 player with the rockets. A good measure of this is mvp voting. Tmac was never in the top 5 in mvp voting with the rockets. Harden finished 2nd. The lunatics who point out one game where the team helped when harden was out in the fourth is a stupid one. Hakeem got locked from getting the ball in game 3 vs phoenix and Maxwell scored 30 plus points. Hey one game that delenova kid played better than lebron. And we wouldn't even be in positon to make the conference finals without harden. And the injury bug is crap. You work on your health like dream or lebron. You make yourself a tank not stack of legos like tmac. Clutch city is where otis thorpe played 500 straight games. Tmac era was entertaining, but the harden era. That's real
with no real superstars left I feel like the NBA is manufacturing some. Lebron is the real last superstar after Jordan. Curry and Harden are manufactured.
Other logical fans realize that basketball is a team sport, and if Harden was dragging a team of Luther Head, Chuck Hayes, and the corpse of Bobby Jackson through the playoffs.... well, you know. Harden's ability to play without injury (knock on wood) is the biggest key. I personally can't hate a guy for being injured, like many of my fellow Clutchfans. The Rockets team that lost to the Blazers was more talented than most of the McGrady-Yao teams. The team that lost to the Thunder was more on par. Why didn't Harden lead those teams to the WCF? --- Don't think too hard --- he's a great player, but basketball is a team sport. TMac was a helluva talent. I don't get why it's cool to downplay that.
The difference between Harden and Mcgrady should be smaller than the difference between Harden and Hakeem. You're talking about top 10 all time for christ's sake.
Tmac is not special enough. Every team has players . It's not like stannis burnt some kid to voodoo hex tmac. Players get hurt. But they come back stronger. Hakeem had a broken eye socket. Jordan broke his foot. Toronto won a playoff series after he left, orlando went to the finals , the rockets took the lakers to 7 etc Yeah great player with zero leadership ability You watch the clutch city documentary and hear what they say about dream, they'll go to war with him Nobody wants to ride with tmac. He wouldn't make it as an uber driver
this is incorrect but thanks for trying. why would i root against harden? i'm a rockets fan you weirdo!
Your points have some validity. The real reason why Harden gets the edge, is because of his hard work ethic. The effort that he has put in ever since he came to the NBA is much higher than McGrady. McGrady had some bad teams, but he didn't put in the work, that could have propelled him into the elite club of players. That was the main difference between Tracy and Kobe.
No one is downplaying his talent. The fact that he was a miserable loser that whined and constantly threw his teammates under the bus despite being extremely talented is what makes it even worse for him. The guy was always ready to whine about and blame it on his teammates yet the only time his team went onto second round was when his ass was firmly seated to his couch at home. Lets not downplay that. How was that for poetic justice? Also, for a guy being extremely talented, a 0-7 record in first round is absolutely embarrassing. Not championship, just crawling out of the first round! Seven times!!! Seven ****ing times!!!! Which is why he will be known as one of the biggest losers NBA has ever produced.
