Gosh, I hated, hated John Weisbrod. This forum made lots of fun of him after the trade and I was a willing participant... However, I just ran into this old article and must say, it sure rings true now...
Excellent find Aussie, i remembered reading something like this ages ago and i thought he was just being a ballbag..... never thought that would actually come ture...
Man the team looks likes that each and everytime Tmac was on the floor esp. during playoffs. When Tmac was like THIS IS ON ME, the team made sure it was on him and just hung back and let him do his thing, which explains why even with all his points the role players werent able to do anything to help. This new Rockets team, has basically a bunch of role players. Say what you will about Artest/Yao but both players are very good and IMO not superstars, which in a way just makes them one of the role players, which is great if they play like detroit of the past (with Billups) (Hopely more rings and not just conference finals ).
Great find! So true. The bottom line is that after all this time watching Tracy it just seems as if he is never willing to take on the level of responsibility it takes to lead a team. All the talent in the world but he lacks work ethic among many other leadership qualities.
Obviously, this doesn't mean trading Steve for Tracy was a bad move. It just means we waited too long to dump him, and we have another wrecked season because of it.
Well, I don't think people were necessarily hammering Weisbrod at the time because they thought he didn't know anything about teams or the concept of a winning attitude. Stuff like that transcends sports. But he clearly didn't do his homework on players that WEREN'T on his team because if anyone truly thought Steve Francis was the answer to any of their problems at that point in his career, then they deserve to be ridiculed. And this coming from someone that LOVED Steve for many years before and when he was a Rocket.
Leadership, competitive nature, and personal responsibility are very important, as important as athletically gifted. Tmac, has one of those 4. DD
Dunno the team was doing pretty good until Weisbrod did a little TOO much tinkering He pulled one trade to many and torpedoed that team [CAT for CHRISTIE . .and Christie played less that 6 games total for that team] Rocket River but . . i guess that was all on SF3
The hockey guy certainly has a right approach on trying to build a team mentality. But what he lacked is simple common basketball sense. The doug christie and drew gooden trade really hurt the team at the time.
I remember so many, including myself, believing Weisbrod was a moron. Turns out he was right about Mcgrady.
I agree with Tracy lacking leadership and a real competitive drive, but Ill never understand the constant bashing of his lack of "personal responsibility." In the playoffs he tries to take personal responsibility for the team's performance saying "it's all on me," and he gets ripped to shreds, then when he tries to defer to the team he gets torn apart for not admitting the team playing poorly is all his fault. He's in a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation there. I know you've gotta find a happy medium in there somewhere, but Ive never really taken from him that he takes no blame for what's happened here and in Orlando, if anything he just gets overly defensive at times in the media, which is understandable with all the critism(not wrongly) that he gets.
Geaux, Listen to what Tracy says....it is NEVER "I need to play better" it is always "We, need to play better"......but when the team wins, it is always "I imposed my will"..... He likes to take the credit, just not the blame...... DD
Good trade at the time but he was right about him. I apologize Hockey guy. Someone get a interview with him
As far as trading McGrady, he wasn't clairvoyant. McGrady forced himself out, with the team trying to mend fences and convince him to stay. Weisbrod didn't start talking tough until AFTER he traded McGrady. Not to say that Weisbrod wasn't speaking the truth, but if McGrady had said he was willing to give things a shot with Howard, he wouldn't have been moved that summer.
I hear ya on what his quotes always say and stuff, but I don't think it's because he doesn't want to take any blame. Like the Orlando GM said in the original quote, in Orlando, TMac would always be content to get his and the role players would be content with doing nothing. Sounds to me like Weisbrod was getting on McGrady for not being a leader and making his teammates step up. Then he gets here and gets ripped for saying that it's all on him. It just seems to me that his quotes like saying the team needs to play better are more in response to those people that say he only plays for himself and doesn't care about the team. But I can't really say for sure why the hell TMac says what he says, he's got a mind of his own that doesn't seem to work exactly like everyone elses.
I agree. Although Weisbrod understood the problem that T-Mac can bring to a team due to his personality, Weisbrod is still a basketball idiot who doesn't understand how to put together a good team. Although at least he didn't mess up the all-important #1 pick for the Magic that year, so he wasn't too bad.
Agreed on that, I just think he is an enigma, and maybe that grates on his teamates too. I think his time has come and gone in Houston, and he needs a fresh start, maybe as a role player somewhere else. DD
IF Hockey Guy was making after the trade sense AND we couldn't verify Grady would remain healthy indefinately...why again did we go after a pot-of-glue in the Lottery?
It doesn't change the fact that it was still a good trade for us. What are Cat, Cato, and the guy who built TC doing these days btw? The only thing the Magic got out of those 3 that stuck is Darko.
