http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6031221.html What happens with this season ’s Rockets — win it all or lose in the first round — will be on Tracy McGrady again. That is why, though the season has yet to begin, McGrady’s critics ought to be in midseason form. Who could blame them? They love taking shots at McGrady, and he willingly — often unknowingly and at times uncaringly (good for him) — supplies the ammunition. McGrady, gotta love him, showed up at Rockets Media Day at Toyota Center on Monday and said he was more excited about this team than any of the 11 others he has been on in his career. He was saying all the right things to excite the fans of a team that today begins training camp with grand dreams. First he declared the team should have a championship-or-bust mentality. Then he praised the newcomers to the team, bragged about the versatility of the talent around him, and expressed his admiration for the basketball genius of head coach Rick Adelman. All was going well until, six minutes into the news conference, someone asked McGrady the wrong question: “How’s your health?” In the world we live in, McGrady would be a horrible politician. He chose to go with the truth: His knee is about 75-80 percent healed from offseason surgery, and his shoulder, also surgically repaired in the offseason, is arthritic, needs another surgery and will be an issue he’ll have to deal with throughout the season. Should have spun it McGrady should have lied, withheld the truth, or at least offered his best coachspeak. (Children: Don’t try this at home, and if you do, don’t tell your parents where you got the idea.) Heck, he could have just pointed out that since his locker borders that of rarely injured Luther Head, he is now more than qualified to play 80 games in an NBA season and left it at that. The truth used to set you free. Yeah, and before the current financial crisis, greed used to be good. Sometimes the truth is bad. Truths in sports often sound like excuses, like whining. (The rumor that Doug and Wendy Whiner adopted a son and named him Tracy is just another of McGrady’s critics’ cheap shots.) McGrady doesn’t whine; he just too often tells what he knows or thinks to be the truth. The critics don’t want to hear it. McGrady has never been past the first round of the playoffs, and the Rockets haven’t gotten out of the first round since McGrady came into the league. Even his critics admit the latter isn’t all his fault — particularly considering he didn’t play for the team in the first seven years of its 11-season streak. But when McGrady said it was on him a couple seasons ago, he seemed to be the last one to realize (or admit) that was the case. Perhaps that was because when he looked around the huddle, or at the bench, he didn’t see enough players who could help him win big. That’s the truth. “Any player that really has to shoulder so much for so many years, and you don’t have what you really need coming of your bench, it’s tough,” McGrady said. “It’s tough because there is so much riding on your shoulders.” (We know — one shoulder is injured.) When he looks around this Rockets team, McGrady sees the pieces to a championship contender. “Hands down,” this is the best team he has been on, McGrady said. So do you think a knee that might not be 100 percent until the season starts or a shoulder that might hurt a little during the season will slow him down? The critics will tell you he is preparing his excuses. Open arms for Artest If you respect the truth and understand that McGrady tells too much of it, you shouldn’t be alarmed. He knows that whether it’s head, shoulders, knees or toes, few care what’s hurting on him. McGrady said after last season that the Rockets needed one more player to get over the hump. Hello, Ron Artest, whom McGrady described Monday as a godsend and a beast. “I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” McGrady said. “I know I get criticized a lot for not leading my team out of the playoffs, but it’s hard. When you don’t have those pieces you need to elevate you to the next level, it’s hard. I don’t care how good a player is; it’s really hard. “If you don’t have that, it’s tough. Now, I have that. We’ll see what happens.” Adelman says star players he has had — and stars like those the Boston Celtics put together for last year’s championship run — learned they can do less and get more credit when the team wins. That’s what McGrady is after this season. McGrady didn’t say it’s on him (and his injured shoulder and knee), but it has been on him since he became a superstar in Orlando. He hasn’t always liked it, but ... that’s the truth.
I smiled at the bit about Luther. But seriously, why is that a a guy like Head can seemingly always stay healthy when it's McGrady/Yao/Artest we need healthy!! Cruel world we live in.
Season long pounding on a NBA player is not easy to cope with, especially for stars like Tmac and Yao. They play 3-4 games a week not including the travel time they have put in to get around different cities.
A guy like Head can always stay healthy because he doesn't play 35+ minutes a night , and the team relies on him to create something on offense EVERY offensive possesion.
That's a nice article. I haven't heard of this Solomon guy for the Chron, but he sounds better than their usual crap.
WTF does he know about Wall St. It's people like these who pretend to know what they're talking about that are gonna put us in a real hole for the next few years. Wall St. owns Main St. always. Greed is good.
Great article. Tracy seriously needs a PR rep to speak for him or something. He's no good at interviews himself. He's way too honest.
