From Chad Ford's Blog: T-Mac's awake I think I was way off on the Mavericks-Rockets series. To put it simply, I forgot how dominant Tracy McGrady can be when he wakes up. Even with his sleepy eyes, T-Mac can drop 25, 8 and 8 on just about anyone. When he's angry or motivated, he's still the most unstoppable player in the league on both ends of the floor. McGrady's scoring in the first two games is impressive enough: 34 points on Saturday, 28 points on Monday. But it was his relentless defense on Dirk in Game 1 and his ability to get Yao Ming involved in the offense in Game 2 that put the Rockets over the top. Remember when the Magic traded Mike Miller, McGrady's best friend, to the Grizzlies two years ago? McGrady responded by scoring 52 points in three quarters. Afterwards head coach Doc Rivers said, "I asked T-Mac after the game if he had any more friends," Rivers said. "If that's what he's gonna do every night, we're gonna trade 'em all." Rockets fans can thank Magic GM John Weisbrod for the inspiration this year. McGrady's had a chip on his shoulder all season, thanks to his being traded and then insulted by Magic GM John Weisbrod, who clearly disliked McGrady for laying down last season. Many of us, me included, bought into Weisbrod's indictment that while T-Mac is a special player, you can't win with him. At the end of the 2002-03 season, I cast my vote for T-Mac as MVP of the league. Pound for pound, I couldn't come up with a more talented or more dominating player in the league than McGrady. He followed up that remarkable season with an indifferent 2003-04 campaign that did serious damage to his reputation and ultimately led to his being traded to Houston for three guys the Rockets were trying to get rid of anyway. That will all be erased if the can lead the Rockets deep into the playoffs. He's always had the talent, the athleticism and the size to be one of the greatest. All he's been missing over the years is the winning. If T-Mac leads the Rockets to the promised land this year, a lot of us are going to want to revisit our MVP vote http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/magazine/magBlog?id=2039748
THUD! that was the sound of ChadFord being pushed off the band-wagon. Sorry Chad, the wagon is full........... Sell crazy somewhere else. oh, by the way, the jerk store called & they're running out of you (Dampier is their #1 seller)
Thanks for the concession, Chad. And it might even have meant something, if anyone who had read anything you've written about McGrady in the past year had seen any evidence that you could be counted on not to weasel out of your current position at the next shift in the wind.
