No, the ignore that fact because they like to be able to give Tracy ****. It makes them feel better about themselves. "My job isn't guaranteed money, but I still go to work when I'm sick." That quote is there attitude, eventhough I'm pretty sure they have taken plenty of sick days, and if they got hurt at work would be entitled to conpensation!
Agreed, sometimes people forget that these guys are actually human beings, and as such have all the shortcomings of humans. Like pain, emotion, etc etc.
i think it's the frustration that tracy misses games EVERY year, and our team usually sucks without him. i mean, if the team can survive without tracy like we can with yao, i think you would hear less about his absence. i mean if yao had to miss 10 games right now to rest, but we get tracy back healthy. i don't think you would hear much commotion about yao missing games b/c we prove we can win without him.
I think the problem is we have a lot of kids in this forum that don't work, they don't have that perspective, and other like me work with PCs in an office and don't realize this guys put their body to the extreme. That why many of them have tons of post career surgeries and have to leave sometime with some sort of soreness/pain for their rest of their life.
Son, I have been a fan probably longer than you have been alive, nice try though....why not whine a bit more about your perception of what a true fan is......or....maybe you can take a step back and realize that everyone is here because they are a Rockets fan..... Questioning fanhood is so 20th century. Aren't you in Australia? You should be rooting for Newley.... DD
Then there are others who work, have been playing basketball 3 or 4 days a week for more than 20 years, have had multiple surgeries because of that, and wake up every single day in pain, take a couple of aspirin and go to work, then play ball...... Look, I am no hater, but I am also a realist, Tmac has admitted he quit in Orlando.......not saying he is doing that here, but if history repeats itself...well...... DD
vince carter quit in toronto tracy quit in orlando kobe quit on the lakers in 05-06 so what? tracy has not quit on houston. just b/c he's injured doesn't mean he's a quitter. the man has sacrificed enough for houston and did enough last yr to tell you (the fans) where his heart is in terms of the houston rockets. you can say you're frustrated with tracy's continual/yearly absences, but dont' say he's a quitter or even hints at it.
I don't care how long you have been a 'so-called fan'. I know what a true fan is and there are alot of people here who are not. How can a group of people question the cahracter of a person who quit on one team, after 4 years of frustration with managment hiring bad coaches and bad trades. Then the continue to praise a guy like Ron Artest who asked for time off to promote a CD, got suspended for going into the stands and was the main reason for the collapse of the Indiana Pacers. A true fan can be critical of a person's play, or for not putting in enough hard work. However to say one of our players is making an excuse to not play so he can get paid for nothing is not a true fan. You are the worst. you act as if playing NBA quality Basketball games is the ONLY way to rehab his knee, when it is not. You still question his character when he played the start of the season untill Battier made his return. That is no coincidence. He took his 3 weeks off, when we had a light schedule. It is not his fault Artest is shooting like crap and Yao played like he did against Memphis. There is no reason to believe this man has quit. It is not like he has been scoring 30 a game and it is March and we are out of the play-off race. He struggled to get through games and wasn't moving freely. And what does my country of origin have to do with anything? If anything it shows how much of a true fan I am. I pay extra money for merchandise and it is a pain in the butt to try and be able to watch games. Sorry, it isn't a pain in the ass, because I am a true Rockets fan.
What's Artest done in Houston that's so terrible? There's no point in bringing up the past, especially given that I think there's plenty in T-Mac's history in Orlando which I would consider to be pretty damning.
dude, people here ALWAYS bring up tracy's past in their arguments. the point is, his agent came into play for this. that means he knows this is a contract year. he doe'snt want to "look" bad or injure anything further. that's a smart thing and i don't blame ron. let's be real, if ron has to get a new contract right now, he probably would get a $4-5 mil/year. obviously he knows that (shooting 35%) so he wants to get healthy. that'll help him AND us.
The issue with T-Mac is that the same problems that plagued him in Orlando are still with him in Houston--questionable dedication to the game, lack of intensity and desire. By contrast, what's Artest done in Houston that's so terrible? All indications are that he's turned the page and he's been acting like a real professional.
has anyone argued those points before, even from the biggest tracy supporters? NO everyone knows his effort level during the reg. season is vastly inconsistent -> his play is vastly inconsistent the past few years. what i have a problem with is when people call him a quitter, faking injuries, messing up team's chemistry, doesn't care about winning... those are outrageous claims that have no support since he's been here as a rocket. artest has done nothing wrong b/c he's only been here for 2 months and he's in a CONTRACT YEAR. i don't mind him sitting to take care of his health so his play can get better. he's playing for a contract after all (we all know that).
Again, my point is that T-Mac's current behavior is pretty much what the Orlando fans had to sit through. By contrast Artest looks to have turned over a new leaf. That's why some fans will bring up Tracy's history in Orlando (he's doing the same thing all over again). Artest on the other hand, for whatever reason, is acting like a real professional.
orlando fans only sat through that in his LAST YEAR. he played 77, 76, 75 games in his first 3 years in orlando (which is basically 90% of the season). tracy more than did his part in the first 3 seasons. the last season was a disaster and he did quit. tracy, unfortunately, can't stop getting injuries: back, to knee, to shoulder... if he was healthy, i have no doubt he would be playing 75+ games. injuries really have messed up his career. for whatever reason, UMM HE'S PLAYING FOR A BIGGER CONTRACT. i think that's a huge incentive no? he wants $10 mil+/year
I'm not talking about injuries--I'm talking about questionable intensity/desire on T-Mac's part and that's something that was an issue throughout his career at Orlando. It's still an issue in Houston. As for Artest I don't really care what his reason are for going out and playing hard. I'm just impressed by the fact that he goes out there and he plays hard.
like i said before, i agree with you on the intensity/effort part. that's a bad habit tracy has developed. and i've always stated, if he played the reg. season like it's the playoffs, he'd still be a top 5 player. but he doesn't so yes, it's frustrating. but again, my problems with his critics on this board are when he says tracy is a "quitter," a guy who fakes injuries to get time off, a guy who messes up the team's chemistry, a guy who refuses to listens to the coaches... those claims have no validity. all of these are myths since he's been a rocket. that's where my beef lies with people who bash tracy. playing with inconsistent intensity and those claims are vastly different. the former simply claims tmac needs to focus more and play harder. the latter claim basically says he's a cancer. i have a problem with the latter (and most people on this boards use the latter claim in their arguments).
Unfortunately there is some basis for all of those "myths" you cited. This three week time frame for his knee is just something McGrady made up out of thin air. Go look at emjohn's post in the other thread about McGrady taking vacations in the middle of the season. As for chemistry, Woody Paige on "Around the Horn" last year talked about how, when he was covering the college bowl games, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle told him that the other Rockets were unhappy with McGrady because he was a ball hog. I wonder who at the Chronicle covered the college bowl games. That was before the 22 game win streak, so who knows if it still applies. The last issue is McGrady and Adelman's offense. Even into this year Feigen and Blinebury at the Chronicle were writing about how McGrady still hasn't bought into the system.
Because a fan who has been paying attention to Tmac his whole career can see through the facade into the truth of the matter. And it looks like he may be doing something similar here in Houston......sometimes it is not management but the player himself who is the issue. Just 2 years ago, the guy lied about his back when he was actually dealing with a woman he got pregnant in Orlando......do you see a pattern here? Agreed, Artest doesn't get a pass...his history is still in play. Guaranteed contracts shift the power from the employer to the employee, saying that the motivation for a player to play is missing because of this is just true.....but I never said he was doing nothing just to collect his money or take a vacation, I believe he hurts and needs to rehab because he didn't do it over the summer like he should have... What is our record since TMac voluntarily sat out to rest against doctors orders? There are no EASY games in the NBA, they all count towards your record in the playoffs....do you not understand how important it is to advance in the playoffs? YOU NEED HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE...every game counts. It is all a matter of expectations, this team has championship talent, but they need to put in the HARD work to get there, and if the DOCTORS say....play through it, strengthen your knee, then the player should listen...period.....did you see where the Chronicle writers asked him why he wasn't going to play? Tmac basically said he wasn't playing well, so he wanted to sit. You know why? Because he failed to rehab his knee over the summer....the same type of surgery that Brandon Roy had in AUGUST and is playing with.....Tmac had it in May.... I will say it..TMAC is a wuss, a baby, a prima donna.....a guy who has been coddled his entire life, and has not been held accountable enough. Does he want to win? SURE....but is he willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be a true leader, a true winner....well 11 years in, and he hasn't done it yet. Yes, because he was LAZY and didn't do the rehab to get in shape for the season. I am not questioning your fanhood, I was questioning you trying to dictate to others how much of a fan they are... Everyone here is a fan...that is my point.....and if you are not blind you can see that Tmac has not been doing everything he could to get ready for the season, and that lowering expectations BECAUSE OF HIS LAZINESS...FLAT OUT SUCKS !!!! DD
