DaDa is right. T-Mac doesn't have that aura around him of winning. Maybe because he has never done any in the post season. But, he doesn't have that fire, or at least it really doesn't look like it and that's something everyone's got to admit. Vince/T-Mac to Jordan/Bird. What's the gap made of? Surrounding talent or personal drive? Kobe's got the fire too, but he hasn't done any winning on his own either. He is in the same boat T-Mac was in.
I don't really know how to respond to the heart vs. no heart, motivation vs. no motivation debate. I believe he (and the whole team) is motivated. I believe he (and the whole team) has heart. What concerns me is killer instinct more than anything. The whole team seems to lack it. We could have won 60 games this year easily if we gave 100%, 100% of the time, and didn't play down to inferior competition. We'll build a lead vs. equal and superior talent alike, and then be fighting for our lives at the end. We'll have to come back against lesser teams. You can't say the same about Dallas and Phoenix. Killer instinct. We lack it. And that concerns me more than anything.
I've been meaning to ask you this for some time. Is there a reason why you always include a space between the last word of a sentence and the exclamation point? It's... interesting.
I've seen this kind of thing time and time again...Smart media members like to get a rise of certain players to make them look bad. Some players always take the bait. Really great sports figures, eg: Tiger Woods, MJ, don't take the bait. TMac always gets manipulated. If there is one thing man can't do is pump himself up. It always has the wrong effect. That's why in the business world you have one guy build up another in front of a client. TMac definitely doesn't understand this concept...at this point in his life.
At first I was going to disagree with you on this...actually looking for something funny to say about women, but I gave up. I'll chime in to support your claim. While many people might say that Muhammad Ali was pumping himself up to the media in pre-fight interviews and histrionics, I say he was actually trying to psyche out the opponent; just ask George Foreman. Arnold Schwartzenegger says the same thing. While he didn't exactly use words in pregame histrionics, he, nonetheless, pumped himself up infront of his opponents to get them out of their normal pregame rhythm by thinking about him, instead of themselves.
Way off topic but I've read a lot about Ali/Clay and think his histrionics with himself and Bundini Brown were at least 50% or more for himself rather than for the competition. I mean I believe he even worked himself up into a rage and played games when he was in private (well, not in private but with Mailer and Plimpton and the other coterie which followed him around for a time- but who were writing books, not wire service stories) Just a random guess, of course.
You answered you own question. Kobe has all the personal drive and individual talent in the world, yet he has not won a playoff series without Shaq. McGrady has the second hghest ppg average in the playoffs in NBA history, yet people question his drive and call him a loser.... There is only so much one person can do, as Kobe is proving now and Jordan proved before Pippen joined him. Hell, Wilt Chamberlin, the most dominant scorer ever only won 2 titles because he lost to better teams.
The guy had one season where he supposedly slacked off. he was man enough to ownup to it. however, people are still judgeing him on that season alone. thats unfair.
That's because basketball is not tennis, it's never all about one player or even two players. Even Jordan had to eventually realize that before he won anything. Again, perception always trumps reality. Fans see what they want, not always what's actually there.
He has slacked off considerably since Yao came back from injury, and he got benched in the GS game for not hustling. Did he own up to that? Tmac deserves what he gets....if he played hard every night, there would not be these questions about him. DD
I have to agree with Will that this is still an issue. However, Yao has the heart. If we only had a point guard with heart like a Sam Cassell it would not matter if T Mac was a bit deficient in that area, given his extraordinary talent.
Him having the 2nd highest scoring average in playoff history, if true, is of note. I think everybody is right and everybody is wrong about T-Mac. All in all, the jury is still out on him. Anyone who can completely brush off claims that he is heartless is in self denial - it's not that he has absolutely no heart, it's just that we wish he has a little bit more. Or maybe a lot more. Those in self denial will have to admit there have been some games where you go "Can you penetrate? Can you not look half asleep? Can you stop chucking up fadeaway 20 footers in the 4th when we're trying to make a comeback?" He doesn't do this all the time, but he's done it enough to lend his critics ammunition. Is it unfair of us to want him to have that laser-focus of Wade, Kobe and KG? They're obviously in the minority in the NBA, but someone of Tracy's talents, when you really look at it, is almost unparalleled in league history. We got a guy that is in reality Olajuwon's height doing what he does; it's really special. It'd only be natural for us to want McGrady to match Wade, Kobe, and KG in intensity and ferocity to be the player we've seen in stretches of his career... I still think he has time though, tricky back notwithstanding. Maybe he'll be a Garnett and get out of the first round one year, have one great playoff run, and fade back into oblivion. Hopefully not, but it would just take that to happen once for him to shake off the dubious 'best player to not get out of the first round' distinction. He'd still be forever thought of as 'lazy and unmotivated' really, I think, because of his sleepy eyes and ability to make everything look so easy when he scores. He's a victim of his own superiority. Only way he will truly ever silence everyone is to win it all. Not get to the NBA finals, but win it all. Everyone has seen what he can do and to not ever reach that pinnacle, however unfair...he will forever be thought of as an underachiever.
haha. again, when u lose, they find ALL KINDS of excuses. lebron - can't close out games. KG - disappear in the 4th tmac - lazy/selfish/no defense/no leadershiip/no passion while guys like: kobe - best closer when ever since shaq left, has had the worst fg% of everyone w/ 2 mins left in the game according to 82games.com wade - shown w/o shaq can't lead a team to more than .500 (in the east) iverson - after larry brown left, iverson can't even lead his team to the playoffs in the east despite decent talent why some of them get a pass? they won before w/ MORE MORE help. so when u don't help your team win, they nitpick. they have to. i mean how else can they explain team failure?
lol T-Mac never looks like he's trying. That's what makes his game so cool. But also, it's even cooler when he DOES look like he's trying. ALA Dallas series 2 years ago. I did not realize Kobe has had the worst FG% of anybody with 2 minutes left in the game. 82games.com says so huh? Word. It makes sense, when they win it's because he's doing well in the clutch or they are so far ahead they don't need his clutch performances. But when they lose, it's probably because he's chucking up random crap and it doesn't drop. Or they are so far behind his clutch performance that night doesn't matter.
Clutch is defined as the last 5 minutes of a game, and Kobe's clutch stats have been awful since Shaq left LA. Funny how people overlook that stuff. Truth of the matter is Lebron was far more clutch than he was last year.
and jordan never had the top defensive assignment, that always went to pippen to save him. And even with that, sometimes when the "2nd" guy that he was guarding caused him to expend too much energy, phil would switch him onto another player. i remember a hawks playoff series where pippen was guarding steve smith and jordan was guarding mookie, but mookie was putting in work and tiring out jordan so in order to save him for the offensive end phil put him on tyron corbin instead. shane battier is suppose to guard the opposition team's best perimeter player most of the time because that's his only purpose. it's not like he can run the offense like t-mac, who on the team can. so why would you want to waste your guy on a job like that when an inferior player could do the same thing. now in the clutch you want your best shutdown defender on the opposition's best player, but over the course of a game why waste him like that. if we're playing dallas i know who i want to see guarding dirk down the stretch.
