New Blinebury Blog: Rox (allegedly) fed up with TMac I know Fran is on a mission to destroy TMac after he quit in Toronto (can't say I necessarily blame him after that one), but in tonight's blog he discusses the feelings of players and management...some interesting stuff http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2009/01/build_me_up_buttercup_rockets.html The Rockets need Tracy McGrady back right now. Not just to score 26 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder. But, yes, to score 26 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Rockets need to see that old T-Mac smirk after he's drilled three straight 3-pointers with a hand in his face. Not to just to make the ESPN highlights with a takedown of Kobe and D-Wade and the Nuggets and the Jazz on the rest of this home-stand. But, yes, to make the ESPN highlights with a takedown of Kobe and D-Wade and the Nuggets and the Jazz on the rest of this home-stand. The Rockets need a McGrady-into-T-Mac transformation back in the lineup as soon as possible. Because it's their best chance of getting him off their roster as soon as possible. The knee-jerk reaction when McGrady takes a powder in Toronto is to tell him to take the next 2 or 3 months off and come back when he's ready to play. The instant inclination when the Rockets thump the Knicks by 20 without McGrady or Ron Artest in uniform is to say that they play harder and more cohesive and are more fun to watch and they don't need him. It's gotten to the point, in the locker room and in the executive offices of the franchise, where they're thinking more and more about that last notion. The scene near the end of the "Wizard of Oz," where Toto pulls away the curtain has been played out now. They all know who he is and what he is and that they have nothing more than a "Hail Mary pass" chance of ever winning anything significant - and no, a first-round playoff series doesn't count - with McGrady on the roster. Many of them have already traveled the road toward anger and have gone around the bend to openly laughing at his shenanigans. Will he or won't he? Is it Monday-Wednesday-Friday and he's on the floor or Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday and he's on the bench? "I'll toss a coin and let you know if I'm playing," said one Rocket, chuckling and shaking his head about 90 minutes before the Knicks' game. They have talked to him, cajoled him, confronted him and they know that nothing is going to change the spots on the leopard. They also know they can no longer trust him, depend on him, expect him to carry them deep, deep, deep into the playoffs. They also know that McGrady's antics have had a spillover effect on Artest, who is now openly showing signs of all the things that set off alarm bells when the Rockets traded to bring him into the fold. The bet was that a strong locker room would keep Artest on the straight and narrow, playing hard. But a locker room with an atmosphere of an asylum run by one of the inmates, now has Artest less than fully committed to playing on an achy ankle as he moves closer to free agency next summer. You know there's a P.T. Barnum sucker out there every minute who thinks his team is close and might look at McGrady's age (29) and listen to his braggadocio promises and think he can still take them to the next level. But only if the Rockets can build up their buttercup and get him back onto the floor playing every night and playing again like somebody who really cares and really competes, if you don't bother to look beneath the surface. Nobody is saying the Rockets are dead-on, fully committed to unloading McGrady before the Feb. 19 trade deadline. But after all of the shortcomings of the past four seasons, all of the soap opera episodes of this season and then the quitting in Toronto, it is safe to say they're closer than they've ever been before. There is a little less than six weeks and the clock is ticking before the Rockets commit themselves to another spring time of hope and prayer and ultimately coming up short, which means a lot of guys have wasted another year on careers that are over in a flash. Knicks general manager Donny Walsh was in town on Saturday night and he's got that nagging problem of what to do with Stephon Marbury. And he's got that that deliciously aggressive David Lee. Is there still enough leftover stupid laying around Madison Square Garden from the Isiah Thomas Era for the Knicks to think that McGrady's act could play on Broadway? Chances are, if the Rockets were to make a move, they would have to take back a big contract, a bad contract from somebody. But in the deal could they find themselves an under-the-radar budding star like Joe Johnson of a few years ago? Or failing that, would they consider it addition by subtraction just to turn the page and stop fooling themselves that they'll hit lottery-jackpot-long odds with T-Mac and they'll all live happily ever after? Three straight wins over plummeting Boston, OKC and New York don't mean that the Rockets are back. Only back to Square One. The Rockets, all of them, know that. Which is why they need Tracy McGrady to return to the lineup as soon as possible. If only to let him go.
Don't believe everything you hear. I call 95% of this is BS. Winning cures all things, lets see what happens in the next month.
the guy's a moron. three straight wins is back to square one? what if they beat the lakers? just one win after square one, so nothing too? i guess he didn't hear the new report on Artest's bone scan. yup, injured players get better by playing. not. why doesn't he just stick to doing his job and reporting what actual people are saying besides some offhand joke about a coin toss, and ridiculous speculation and spin.
I didn't really give this entry any weight until he quoted "one Rockets player." If he wasn't breaking the journalistic code of honor (by fabricating a quote) and actually heard a player say that, then you have to wonder if the team is really fed up with Tmac's antics.
I'm not saying that this isn't mostly speculation on his part...I have no idea. I think it's obvious from the other thread that Artest's injury is legit and he needs to rest it. He keeps painting a picture of a fractured locker room...but he seems to be the only one. No idea if he's just saying it b/c he hates TMac or if it's really true...
In before DaDakota accuses Blinebury of jocking him with the ideas about Marbury and "addition by subraction".
"Is there still enough leftover stupid laying around Madison Square Garden from the Isiah Thomas Era for the Knicks to think that McGrady's act could play on Broadway?" Hysterical!
I agree. That "I'll toss a coin and let you know if I'm playing" quote by the anonymous Rockets player sounds taken out of context to me. Who knows what it was referring to. Plus, what are all the terrible things that Artest is doing, according to Blinebury? I thought Artest was told by the doctors not to play for a week? On top of that, is he hinting the Rockets should trade McGrady to the Knicks for Marbury and David Lee? And that's going to prevent our guys from wasting "another year on careers that are over in a flash"? Um, ok.
you KNOW fran is making all that garbage up when he said it spills over onto artest's behavior when we just found out today he had a stress reaction. fran, are you a reporter? or a liar? which one is it?
The same cynical view Blinebury has for Tmac is the same I have for writers like him. I know it's Blinebury, John Lopez, his crony Deluca, and all the others sports talking heads' jobs to talk about the hot issues in local sports. But at the end of the day their opinions are like buttholes, everyone has got one and some are bigger then others. Another smear report from Blinebury on TMac. Stop the presses.
he just said tracy's antics is spreading to artest and artest is sitting out b/c he is imitating tracy. but yet we find out today artest had a stress reaction to his ankle. so is this reporting? or pure speculating/gossip like one of those you read on fictional gossip magazines? fran amazes me sometimes on how he can keep a job just blatantly speculate like that and make it sound like it's true. thank god he writes a blog. if this was an article, he'd be fired.
I thought about this as well when I read it. Who knows what kind of spin he has put on this, but it was worth mentioning considering he has taken his accusations about team chemistry and management's tolerance to a new level, IMO
That means BLINDvery is full of $#!T! If you check back you'll find Fran said the same things this time last year just before the streak. He'll jump back on the jock AGAIN after we get healthy and run off a string of wins.
i don't mind what he said about tracy b/c we all know his opinions about tracy. but what he accused of ron was way out of line b/c that was purely speculation and showed he would do ANYTHING to criticize tracy. can't believe he implied ron took games off on purpose.
