There is a difference between dictating where you go & when your moron GM asks you you tell him. There is no doubt that Tracy had a say in where he goes because of his ability to sign an extension, but he was at least classy about it and didn't lowball Weisbrod and go to the media. I think it has been established that Tracy never asked for a trade. Instead, he informed the Magic that he was excersizing his option at the end of the next season. So Mr. Puck decided to trade him & get what he could, and Tracy told him he wanted to go to Houston. My problem is that Francis had nothing in his contract that allowed him to hold any leverage. He was signed long term with no clauses to veto a trade yet he still acted like he held the cards. Francis likes to air all of his dirty laundry to the freaking media. In Vancouver he lowballed the Grizzlies into taking Michael Dickerson & scrubs for the #2 pick in the draft. If you don't like your "situation" & are going to cry about it at least do it in private & let the organization do what it has to do. Francis was acting too much like a GM or FA when he shouldn't have been.
T-Mac has matured a lot. I saw last night's interview and I was shocked. He sounds more motivated and driven, much more personable. It seems like he finally gets it. He's not that brash highschooler he used to be. He even looked older to me. Go T-Mac.
It still comes back to the Super Bowl thing to me. There is circumstantial evidence to indicate McGrady might be selfish or immature, but the whole "Steve Francis' Day Off" episode was bizarre are more importantly public. At the point you're willing to do something as straightforwardly assholish as missing a team flight to watch a football game, you are establishing yourself as a me-myself-I guy. Even if McGrady is immature and has selfish tendencies-- debatable, in my opinion, and further mitigated by the sort of things Jeff's pointing out here-- there's nothing in his Permanent Record like Steve's Super Bowl outing. And I know that some people still don't accept that Francis did what was alleged. Let me give you a Cletus on that one.
So missing a team flight, which is what Francis did, is actually worse than mailing in a whole season, and getting your coach fired in the process. The Super Bowl incident was bad, but come on, it was also way over-blown.
If "mailing it in" equals winning the scoring title by almost 4 points with zone defenses predicated entirely on stopping him, I'm excited to see what happens when he is motivated and has other weapons around him.
Ya but we just stole one of the East's premiere players and gave them one of our inconsistent ones.....I still belive that the bitterness of the trade and the fact he is being given a team in the East to do with whatever he pleases Steve Francis is going to have a stellar year. I just hope T-mac adjusts quickly and he counters with a stellar year of his own There is nothing worse than trading a guy and then watch him become an unstoppable superstar
If McGrady put up 28 ppg while mailing it in, I can't wait to see what he does when he's committed to personal delivery.
Anyone hear him on SportsCenter last night? He was being interviewed by one of the anchors and was asked what's the first thing he's going to say to Yao Ming. To that, Mcgrady replied,.."bring me a championship bigman; let's light the city of Houston up"
It's a two way street. It's not hard for McGrady to pick up the phone - if he's AT ALL interested - and call the Magic and ask what's up. There's a reason Weisbrod never called, and it's because McGrady didn't care. TMac is covering himself to make him look good - it's all "me, me, me." His comments about Yao: "Bring me a title, big man!" His comments in that article: "why didn't they call me?" It's never about the team for Tracy McGrady, it's about himself. Sure, he took some blame on his own shoulders, but he'd never do something like take the vast majority of it on his shoulders. The truth lies somewhere between what Weisbrod and McGrady have publicly said. Don't believe one side of the story and give no credence to the other, because you'd be setting yourself up for disappointment down the road.
He is. This is what I meant by him being a bit of a prima donna. But that's the nature of the beast with superstars, and he's pretty low end high maintenance as stars go.
If he can lead the league in scoring while averaging a career high in assists, I can't wait to see what he does now. McGrady vs. the Lakers: 2 games, 36 ppg, 8 apg, 6.5 rpg. 45.6% FG% Maybe that's what he should've done the whole year.
I find it somewhat ominous that the guys we sent out were all so much more professional that the guy we got back. Hopefuly it's just a blip.
are you blind?? who held up the trade from last week til today? it sure wasn't McGrady. It was one of the guys we sent to Orlando. His little pouting session nearly killed the deal. McGrady didn't say a word until yesterday. The only people involved who spoke about the trade for the first couple of days were Weisbrod and Francis. Before we start bashing Tmac because our loveable little Francis is gone, let's at least get it straight.
