You know what else is real? Some 30-something year old obsessive fan who's been on this site for nearly 20 years farting on younger, potentially kids with their little hero's like Francis, T-mac, Harden, and others because they aren't Robert Horry or Vernon Maxwell or didn't join the site in 1999.
Horry after leaving the Rockets was a big time flopper from what i recall, still got love for him though.
Pop signed him (as a replacement for Stephen Jackson when he was dumped near the end of the regular season). McGrady played very sparingly during the playoffs, and only saw about 15 minutes of burn in the 7-game finals series against the Heat. Got his ring, though. I think Pop thought he was doing T-Mac a favor of some sort. Still a very strange situation. EDIT: My bad, McGrady didn't get a ring that year after all, just made the finals. Moot point anyway, since it doesn't change the fact that Horry was the beneficiary of some historically great rosters throughout his career. <BR>
T-Mac was on the 2013 Spurs team that lost to the Heat in the final. He's not on the 2014 team that beat the Heat in the rematch.
Tinman, I respect you for keeping the flame burning, but labeling me as a "McGrady fan" and saying I make up my own reality is a total d!ck move. If I mistakenly thought T-Mac got a ring with the Spurs that last year of his career, it's only because I didn't really care enough about what happened to him post-Rockets to remember. I've been watching the Rockets since long before you, my friend. I was a fan the first year they moved to Houston and saw them play live in 1971 with Calvin, Rudy, Elvin, Newlin, Egan, and even Stu Lantz, who's now a Lakers broadcaster. The Rockets have remained my ONLY NBA team as I've moved from Houston to Los Angeles to New York to Washington State. You can mouth off as much as you want about ClutchCity being the only two-season span worth mentioning, but the fact is that REAL Rockets fans don't live in the past. We experience every season, good or bad. You can't claim to being a bigger Rockets fan than I am simply because you registered on ClutchFans before I did. Sorry, the truth is the truth. This idea that you can only be a TRUE Rockets fan if you despise McGrady with every fiber of your being, as well as love even the stupid things done by any player on the two title rosters, is absurd and demonstrates a middle-school level intelligence. And yes, Horry is a ClutchCity hero -- which is why it's distressing to see him take a cheap shot at someone else who wore the uniform for a number of years. It was uncalled for and quite frankly, came off as a punk move from someone who's desperate to solidify his place in league history when he knows he wouldn't be wearing a single ring on those hands if he hadn't been fortunate enough to ride the coattails of some amazing players along the way. <BR>
Getting rep on this site isnt a big deal, after a few years its a given you will accumulate a good amount of it....dont pat yourself too much now...
My bad. Horry is a great analyst and speaks his mind like Barkley. If his shot was for entertainment purposes, Then I was entertained
That is true, you switch out Horry for Tmac and Tmac would have 7 championships... Period. Tmac was a beast before injuries got him. Horry could disappear and the Rockets would still win. Tmac had to score just like James or the Rockets had no shot!
Yes but you are fooling youself if you think he is only carrying only one torch not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4 (agendas)
99'ers who rarely show up- here I am. Can I discern any real diff between Harden & McGrady, from an impact standpoint? Sadly, no. Did T-Mac dribbledribbledribble down to 5 seconds on the shot clock before setting up the play? No, but his was a game best predicated on movement and passing, which is why I'd start a team on him over the Beard- he'd be better suited to play in today's NBA if he had any semblance of a winner's heart. I fear that, if it happens at all, Harden will be approaching 30 before he understands what's at the heart of winning, which means he'll probably be adorned in purple and gold on his second lifer contract. Houston needs to grow more talent containing the savagery of a '99er who will NEVER settle for the big paycheck and the accompanying perks because - let's face it - Houston is an acquired taste relative to the destination stops on the West Coast and South Beach; best you can hope for is a local legend with a Jordanesque heart whose motivation has nothing to do with max contracts and endorsement deals, but to bring the O'Brien trophy back to the Bayou. You can't generate the kind of excitement the West Coast teams do whenever they roll out the welcome mat- you have to find either the one-in-a-million local world beater who will take it personally, or a Mario Elie-in-Mcgrady's body who wants to make the world pay for its disrespect. Can this happen? Based on the numbers provided by the 4th biggest metro area in the US, you'd have to think so. But to find the party willing to be here and shock the world, well... You'd better forecast the perfect storm.
McGrady fans would rather have his failures than Roberts team success. McGrady fans have no love for clutch city.