Sure. Each individual practice session won't make you as a player better. But it'll get you more attuned with the plays and the playstyles of your teammates and team... Surely he doesn't honestly think practice is supposed to make you a talent overnight?
{flipping a coin to see if a tornado of spin is about to touch down in this thread or if it will be a case 5-min amnesia striking} I'll say this - I don't hate McGrady, want him hit by a bus, or to see him fail. I give him a ton of credit for dedicating himself after reality set in during March-October '09. He's taken a step back and enjoyed reasonable success as a Grant Hill type. I've said it before, and will say it again - McGrady and Barkley are cut from the same cloth, and their work ethic absolutely separated them from the Jordans and Kobes of the league. And you can look at it either way - 1) They could have been among the very best to ever play the game if wired differently and would have had much lengthier primes 2) They were so ridiculously good and naturally gifted that they could whip 95% of the league during their peak years despite not working as hard as most.
If you're not used to practicing hard, then you will be less physically/mentally prepared to play hard when it counts. The ability to play hard, itself, needs to be obtained through practice.
I have defended, and will continue to defend McGrady against some of his more unreasonable critics. But I will not defend this. Though he may be right that going hard in practice might not have made HIM a better player, it would have made his teammates and his team better. And like the Iverson rant, this is an absolutely reprehensible message to send to young players (talking about kids/teenagers), though I doubt many still look up to him these days.
oh god, tmac should have gone to college. jesus, the things he can say are so dumb. that did not apply to iverson. iverson played as hard as any player i have ever seen. and he loathed practice also.
Poor conditioning and crappy work ethic cut this chump's career short, and he's saying he doesn't think practicing harder would have helped?
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Not a very good mentality to have. I got a question though. How often do NBA teams practice? I have heard people say they don't get a lot of practice during the regular season but from the Terrence Williams thing in Garm about practice it seems like the Rockets practice often.
I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice.
Like other talents, it may come naturally to some and not naturally to others. McGrady needed to be trained to play hard, because it didn't come naturally to him.
Iverson's "style" made it seem like he played hard, because he takes it to the basket unlike a certain someone. But don't be ridiculous. Those Philly offenses basically had Iverson play 1-on-5 basketball while everyone else twiddled their thumbs. There was no sense of cohesion and team the way you see, for example, in Adelman's offense. The only reason AI gets more of a pass than T-Mac is because he played in an era where his conference is so bad its best team wouldn't make it out of the west's 1st round. But he and Kidd both lucked out and received that nice finals beatdown on their resumes.
i don't know what to say. i'm not the biggest fan, but i do think he was hampered by being on limited teams. so i won't hold this comment against him in regards to his playoff record. i think the only time he was favored was against utah in 07.
If McGrady had been on MJ's team, he either would have had a serious attitude adjustment about practice or he would have been gone after one year. Same for AI.
