ANCIENT HISTORY. He hasn't said anything like that in months and when he did say it, he wasn't feeling to good about his game. Natural human reaction. I like to overanalyze and pshychoanalyze all the time, but there's nothing here to discuss. If he does have a bad game I would rather him say "I'm old" than "I got shut down". Why would he say "I got stopped"? That's showing he has a pride
Pretty sure last game, or game before last, he said post game that his body couldn't take the dunks anymore. So he does it rarely. He was speaking about the put back dunk at the time(pretty sure that was just the last home game), and how it felt good to inspire his team mates in that way - but that these days its rare because his body cannot take it anymore.
when he's healthy his play has always been at an mvp level. you're talking ****. you would think he made the dunk comment while he was struggling. he said it in the midst of an incredible run and that's all you want to pick at. you people are amazing. i wonder what you haters would say if the team situation was reversed and the rockets won without him. we've won 73% of the games he's played in this season and you're talking about what kobe and kg might say. f them, let their teams win 73% of the games they play in and might give a **** about their comments.
No it hasn't. In Orlando he was healthy, and he admitting to playing below his level. In the beginning of this season Tracy was healthy, but he wasn't playing at an MVP level. Infact, he played pretty crappy. Remember 2004-2005, the beginning of the season, he had not played at an MVP level. I can just imagine the argument you are going to give me, "JVG wanted him to defer to Yao", or something along those lines. Kobe Bryant had to defer to Shaq, yet you didn't see him playing below MVP status. He might not have been a frontrunner for the award, but he definately played like he wanted the MVP. ClutchCityReturns and I, along with many others are strong T-mac supporters. We have loved this team whether they sucked or whether they were good. We've seen T-mac play below who he is at times, and we've seen him at MVP level. He hasn't been healthy throughout, but many times he has, and he has simply just shot jumpshot after jumpshot.
why is this a lock???????? Tmac dunks when he wants! If it saves his back one more day then the hell with it I have seen him dunk 1000 times over. Lay it up it TMAC if it saves the back!!!
Please cut the crap. clutchcityreturns has never been a tracy supporter. he has bashed tracy every chance he's got. here and on Insidehoops forums. he is more of a yao fan then a tracy fan. reading he's constant tracy bashing posts clearly shows he harbours a pretty obvious resentment towards mac.
KG and Kobe? Tmac is playing at the same level now if not better and Houston has a better record. Tmac simply became smarter.
some news article said it perfect, tmac is one of the best scoring playmakers in the league, the way hes playing right now i think u can only put 1 person infront of him at the sg/sf position and thats kobe....tmac is back to being a top 10 player NO DOUBT and perhaps argubally top 5
I think last night was just a sign of Tracy saying that he CAN dunk, and if he wants to he will. So stop questioning him.
^ True that. He can still dunk, we can see that. Remember that slam against the Sonics??? When he said "My body can't take it like that anymore" I bet you he meant his back. He probably doesn't know if his back can take the pounding dunking puts on it, so he's dunking a little more and a little more to see if it can. It's not that, physically, because he's so weak, his body can't take it. It's because his back can't. Maybe.
I don't think Tracy was healthy at the beginning of the season. I think his back was still giving him major problems, but he wouldn't admit it publicly. It seems to me that the last month is the first time in about a year that he's really been healthy.
You're forgetting that McGrady has been in the NBA almost as long as both Bryant and Garnett. This is Tracy's 10th season in the league, Bryant's 11th, and Garnett's 12th. Also keep in mind that most elite players in the league don't have McGrady's injury history. He does have a bad back, one that has forced him to miss significant time. McGrady did not say that he couldn't dunk at all. He said that he could not dunk as often. If you have watched the Rockets play this season, you should have noticed by now that he does not elevate as well as he used to, and has lost some of the athletic ability that was part of his game during his time with the Orlando Magic. Injuries and age have altered his game to a certain extent. He is hardly the first player to arrive at this realization. Michael Jordan made significant adjustments to his game as he got older, as did Dominque Wilkins following his achillies injury. Neither of them openly talked about it, but if you take the time to think about how their respective games evolved, each of them had to change his style of play as he got older, just as McGrady has had to do. Finally, one of things that is taught in medical school is that every patient is different. What may be true of one individual is not necessarily true of another. McGrady's body is different than Garnett's or Bryant's. Therefore, it is foolish and shortsighted to assume that his game should not change because he's younger than either of them. A number of athletes retire at a fairly young age, often for reasons that don't make sense. That has been a part of organized sports for as long as they have been in existence, and is not likely to change.
Sure I'd love it if he dunked over people all the time like he used to...but as others have alluded, veterans learn to score in easier ways and save the dunking for certain memorable moments...like last night. Remember Drexler, didn't dunk so much anymore when he came to the Rockets (even though his first basket as a Rocket was a dunk), but he still had some pretty awesome ones (over Sean Elliot in the WCF and Dennis Scott in the Finals)...good enough for me!
in orlando he made the playoffs 3/4 years and finished in the top 5 in mvp, leading that cast of characters to the playoffs took mvp type performances. kobe as the top dog has made it 1/2 years, this year should make it 2/3. so if every year you don't make the playoffs means you haven't been performing at an mvp level, then you can't say that kobe and kg always play at an mvp level because they have missed the playoffs as well. and tracy was not healthy at the beginning of the season. he was getting by and eventually the back started to give him problems and he missed games (you know when we were like 2-5). and i'm glad you lumped yourself in with a known t-mac hater.
