I take him seriously because I know he loves the team, he usually makes very valid points, and he is active in the Basketball community. I just think he gets certain things stuck in his head and pushes them too far. I also think he has a tendency to come off as conceited sometimes and needs to be brought back to a more reasonable position.
do you know anything about the Rockets? especially this season? that dude didn't even show up for all the playoff games while KG was out too, he was with his team for the entire playoffs. he didn't sleep with anyone i know, but you seem to get excited about that thought.
All I am saying is give the guy a chance to come back, be healthy, and see if he can contribute. His contract's trade value peaks in February. It's June. Why does everyone one want to write the guy off so soon? Why not give him a chance? What is so hard about that?
Maybe you just don't get it that he rubbed the organization and the fans the wrong way. Johny Gill, this guy is not.
Good times! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VUvtlmlBbDg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VUvtlmlBbDg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Sure, he rubbed me the wrong way too. It happens in sports. But if you dump a guy everytime he screws up it's not going to get ya anywhere. T-mac's handling of his injury was terrible. But he didn't "throw his teammates under a bus". Let's at least be fair.
let's see for the 10000th time http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/02/27/weekly.countdown/index.html "I haven't been the guy who's been fortunate enough to play with Shaq, to play with Tim Duncan. I always seem to have average teams,'' he said. "You take me back in my Orlando days with Shaq? Come on, there are no questions. You take a healthy me and switch me out with Paul Pierce [on the current Celtics]? There's no question. There's definitely no question.'' ... and let's see telling Stephen A Smith FIRST instead of .. the ROCKETS about his surgery
if you were able to read the link i put there for u, you would see that kittles had to have the OATS procedure after the microfracture surgery because he couldnt play basketball after the microfracture surgery. a surgery is a failure if you have to have an entirely different procedure to fix the same problem the original surgery was intended for. u said it yourself, kittles came back after 16 months. if this is your example of how tmac can come back, in 16 months the next season will already be over and the rockets will not own his contract. so what is your point with kerry kittles relating to tmac? let's defend tmac and keep him on the team so he can not play the entire next season and the rockets wont even own his contract? also, harpring had 2 microfracture surgeries. after the 1st one he couldnt play in back-to-back games. so if this is another great example on your part, then you're hoping we will pay tmac 23 million to play in every other game?
now you are saying: the season after kerry kittles surgery, he played 0 games. do you not see where your argument is flawed? You continue to make stupid, illogical responses with no reasoning or explanation behind them. you repeat the same stupid stuff over and over again and it has no substance. I am naming you Stephen A. Smith from this point forward.
Here is the problem with your arguments. You and DD have both challenged people to name players over 30 who play better after microfracture surgery. You point out over and over that it is highly unlikely for Tmac to be any kind of effective player. You wonder why the Rox should hope at best to pay 23 million dollars to Tmac to play in every other game, and at worst pay him 23 million to not play at all or play ineffectively. However, despite all that you assume another team is willing to trade some decent players to the Rox whose salaries total 23 million for next year in order to get this aging, post surgery, lucky to play every other game player who makes 23 million. Yes there are economic issues, yes there are teams hoping for the 2010 free agent bonanza. But unless Tmac comes back and shows he can play somewhat healthy why would a team give up a talented player to land him? Look at Shawn Marion. Clearly he didnt fit in Miami. He was an expiring. He made almost 20 million bucks. He offered a lot more last year then an injured Tmac did. All he was able to land was Jermaine O'Neal. An injured, post surgery former All star with big bucks on his deal that didnt do much for Miami before getting injured again. That is the type of player we can expect in a trade for Tmac, not Danny Granger.
I've mentioned this before but from personal experience I can tell you that chronic pain can change you, in obvious physical ways of course, but it can change your personality as well. It my case I went from a easy going, laidback personality to a whiny, self-pitying, confrontational *******. And I wasn't a prima donna since grade school like a top level athlete. The effect of losing his 'prowess' on Tmac is huge; a blow his considerable ego, the guilt of not earning his salary, facing the daunting task of rehabilitation and we don't know the the stresses it might be causing in his personal life. I'm not offering this up as an excuse but a a ray of hope. Should Tmac overcome the micro-fracture and recapture even some of his physical abilities we might see a psychological revival as well. Sports fans are pretty quick to write off players without delving too deeply. In Houston we vilified Ralph Sampson pretty quickly and even The Dream in his last contract negotiation. Do I think Tracy will return as Tmac? No, not really. The reality is aging complicates the process and we are talking about the absolute peak of human performance that is required for competing in the NBA. I just don't like seeing us as fans burn our bridges before the process plays out. It's not like the team has any alternative but to hope a contribution from their $23 million dollar player in 2009-10.
Morey has openly admitted that he and Les are keeping a close eye on teams in difficult financial situations due to the economy as potential trade targets (not just for tmac, but in general). "yes there are economic issues" - then maybe a team will want 23 mil to come off their books next year instead of later based on the contracts they already own. more economic freedom sooner than later is appealing, no? "yes there are teams hoping for the 2010 free agent bonanza" - before the trade deadline, say you are a team in last place. wouldnt you want to trade your talented player(s) for a 23 mil expiring contract? at that point, it wouldnt matter if tmac didnt even play a single game for you, cuz all u want is the contract space to sign lebron, bosh, dwade, etc. you would be willing to give up your talented players cuz a) your talented players may be good but your team sucks and its apparent your season would be going nowhere b) a star 2010 free agent would be much better than your talented players
If you click the little back arrow button or the page number links, then you can read people's previous posts in this thread. that is how these message boards work. Practice this and go read DD's original parameters, then you will see how all the things you think are changed parameters are in the original question. he has changed nothing. You think the parameters have changed because all he has done is point out that people's answers did not fit the original parameters. I dare you to go back to DD's original post, copy and paste it into your next post, and explain how it is different from what you say above. welcome to message boarding 101 and the 1980's.
Obviously meant the season after his year off, but fair enough. You have corrected me. The second part of your post is offensive.
He's not saying that about the current team. But dude, up until this year, he's had to go to battle with a bunch of scrubs except for Yao. He and Yao have taken really crappy teams into competitive first round defeats. Do you know what the Rockets record was a few years ago without Yao or T-mac in the line-up - it was lottery team level. This is the first year where this team is good enough to play well without t-mac - THE FIRST. he finally has a good team to play on, he knows that. To say this is throwing his team under the bus is a bit of a stretch.
