I generally keep my stances on players vague, because I know players are loyal to the money, fame and playing time first, then team fitting in somewhere Anyway, after McGrady picked the LAKERS to BEAT HIS OWN TEAM in the playoffs, while he was still A MEMBER of that team and highest paid, that was gutless to his ORGANIZATION and the city. (Can you imagine if James Harden picked the Clippers to beat the Rockets his own team in the playoffs?? ) McGrady deserved every bit of non-backing he got after that.
I am not excusing anyone. Francis wasnt a a fav. of mine and he had frustrated me plenty. I am not defending him, I was only pointing out to the other poster that his claim that we enjoyed success with McGrady while failure with Francis was not right. We are not successful in either of those eras. Comparatively, Artest was a success because in shorter amount of time as a Rockets he had more success when compared to the other two.
Ron Artest was also very friendly to the fans, honest, and entertaining. There was something we called "REAL" about him, which is not what McGrady had. He left cause Yao wasn't healthy, but for that one year, it was a great ride. Thanks Ron! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y_yk4Egfqys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The lasts part of that video is really important for every star/superstar to hear. You want those players to set the tone on your team... If the Rockets want to achieve greatness...It truly does start with Howard and Harden. Ron illustrated a point about the best players on the team going out there and setting the example. The bench players rally around things like that. Tracy just inherently wasnt born with that ability and it resulted in his underachieving career... Success is paramount with the best player "showing" everyone around him that he is giving a 100%. What allowed the Rockets to push a Lakers team to 7 was just from the heart that Yao showed returning to close out game 1.
Mcgrady fan blames yao for one playoff series, but ignores that yao actually won a playoff series without him Also the only reason that tmac is popular in china is yao ming. Yao owns the sharks, he could have moochie Norris jock strap hung up there too if he wanted.
Not sure why you brought up Artest to compare with Francis and McGrady. Francis and McGrady were the "cornerstones" (to use Harden's words) of the team. Our success and failure were "on them" (to use McGrady's words). Artest was a role player who happened to be playing with a bunch of gritty role players after our stars went down. Artest's role was like Ariza's. Was he a key player in that season? Sure. Was he THE reason of the relative success or failure of that season? Hardly. IMO, it's an insult to guys like Brooks, Scola, Landry, Battier, Hayes, etc. to single out Artest as the reason for getting to the second round and took the Lakers to 7 games.
This goes to the heart of the matter: If Yao has gotten over it (or perhaps never felt any slight to begin with), who are we (and by "we" I mean some of the posters here) to hold a grudge?
It's not the heart of the matter, it's a dude who's number is hanging in the rafters of a chinese team he never played for. The chinese team he did play for, guandong, didn't even make the playoffs when he was there. we're talking CHINESE BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION. CHINA.
It's kind of odd, but that's just Yao going above and beyond for a friend. He owns the team, so he can do what the **** he wants.
This just shows how great Yao is after mcgrady threw him under the bus in the SI article when he said he'd wish he played with Shaq and when he threw the Rockets under the bus when we were playing the Lakers and he was 'rehabbing' with Tim Grover. Yao is letting that shell of a former all star do his pull up 3 pointers and step foot on a court again. Yao is the one who's the honorable one. He knows nobody else will retire Tracy's number.
Not quite. Everyone knew Yao's best friend was former Allstar Steven Francis... He has yet to retire Francis' shirt.
I know you can't tell, but you dismissed your own argument about Yao being sole reason for Mcgrady's jersey retirement.
Dude, if yao didn't own the Shanghai sharks, Tmac's bootleg jersey wouldn't be hanging in that stadium. Just because yao doesn't retire francis number doesn't mean anything. Besides, why doesn't guandong eagles retire his number?
