With all due respect, I don't think you have any idea what would happen to a reporter if he were to fabricate a story like this. He'd lose his job in a heartbeat and be subject to a ridiculous amount of legal sanctions, and Yahoo! would instantly lose any credibility it had as an organization. Now, if you want to argue that maybe TMac's PR person wrote the email for him (using his email), that's fine. But if you're accusing the reporter of lying or fabrication, that's just absolute lunacy.
What's interesting. 1) He didn't wrote anything about the 18th of November in his blog. 2) He didn't even mention that date in his comments on Yahoo.
I'm going to assume you mean that the team acquiring t-mac would want the insurance coverage for some additional games as a sweetner. What you are missing is that any potential trade would require a physical and if T-Mac passed that, insurance would undoubtedly stop payments. I don't see this as a trade block scenario. I see this as the desparate act of a player who thought he could come in and be the savior for a crappy team, but now realizes that the team is good enough to win without him. Tracy see's dollar signs going down the drain and wants to hit the floor to stop the bleeding. The rockets are in a win-win situation with how the team is playing and are perfectly content to make McG sit until he gives them full effort. Especially with insurance paying the tab until at least the 23rd (is this a date set by the carrier for evaluation?). I would bet that once the tab stops being covered, the Rockets will be more inclined to get that man on the court.
If I were McGrady it wouldn't matter to me where I would play. Really. They guy has to come back and show that he is still worth few $$
People, People, People!! Let me use a more simple analogy for you! If you was trying to sell a car. It would behoove you to showcase the car, show them the car could run, let them see what they are buying, not park it in the garage with a cover over it. If the Rockets were trying to trade him, they would want something substanial in return, not just let a star player walk! So, it would make sense to put him on the court. Actually it benefits both parties; he gets to show case his talents and the Rockets get to maximize his value, if that was the case. Stop reading too much into this!!!!!!
you can trade a player that fails a physical as long as the team receiving that player acknowledges that it is willing to do the trade anyway. it would have no bearing on the insurance aspect of it, unless the insurance does not transfer to the new organization.
mcgrady isn't worth anything good. to continue your analogy, if you had a crappy hyundai, and it had a value of $23 million, and you had to trade it for something of the same value, its a very difficult situation. the only teams that want him, want him for cap relief, and the rockets would have to take back $23 million in salaries to make it happen. bad teams don't have a lot of contracts that the rockets would want in the first place, or they wouldnt be bad teams desperate for cap relief would they? unless the rockets are blown away by a trade opportunity, they should sit him for the year and let him expire.
my point wasn't in relation to him passing the physical, but in relation to his statement that he is ready. If he is ready now but the rockets hold him back, he still gets paid by insurance. Regardless of if he would pass a physical. However, if they trade him and the team getting him wants the insurance kicker a passed physical would negate that aspect. I see your point that the team can waive a physical, but Tracy wants the contract for next year. I don't think he would waive it.
he'll have to take a physical here too though. matter of fact he gets an MRI this month. he can have whatever tests he wants, but its still to the judgement of team doctors whether he is fit to play. look at Arenas as a recent parallel. he was "cleared" to play and got hurt again because he came back too quickly. the team has a lot of power in this situation, because if they dont want him to play, he really can't. its the opposite of the situation we usually see with tracy, where the team really wants him to play, but he has some mysterious injury.
Oh I agree with your point. I think you are missing mine. DD indicated that there were 'business' (his favorite fallback) points to the Rockets countering Tracy's claims and that Tracy may be trying to block a trade by saying he's healthy. The only legit business reason would be insurance. As far as the rockets are concerned for this team (specifically the rockets), tracy is on the tab of insurance until he is cleared by doctors, and the rockets have set the timeline to their liking (still two weeks into the future). Again, for insurance to play any part, the trade would have to go down before that deadline, as by all accounts, he will probably pass his physical on the 23rd and go back to regular payroll. However, if he's truly healthy now, a team would find that out in the physical and insurance would be negated. Long-short, tracy's comments shouldn't negatively impact any trade talks, if there are any.
cool. i was just trying to clarify the insurance thing. i also don't think tracy is trying to block anything with these comments. it doesnt make sense for him to block a trade if he isn't going to play in Houston, and needs to play to earn his next contract. i think he's just being tracy and meddling, being a diva, and throwing his weight around.
the problem with "showcasing" McGrady is that: He will want to score and score and shoot. this team is based on passing and finding the open man. Once the ball is in T-mac's hands, he will try to do something with it. (slow down the offense) this is more important with the first unit. I think the second unit could benefit having T-mac at the 2. second unit could run with Lowry T-mac Budinger Ariza Landry that would be a great second unit and would help T-mac get aclimated slowly, Bud could still play.
He probably doesn't want the Rockets to win more games and look like a good team without him. Then when he comes back and if we start losing, all the blame will be on him. Of course thats just what a conspiracist wold think.
Either you are being sacastic or you believe in Tmac more than you do the HOUSTON ROCKETS http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4640062 ESPN.com news services The Houston Rockets say there is no definite timetable for the return of Tracy McGrady, despite the star saying he's got a date in mind.
I think whenever he does come back, they'll gradually bring him off the bench. But I think he will greatly help us, especially in close late games when we need somebody to control the ball. He has great vision, a willing passer and handles the ball better than anyone that is not a point guard.
studogg: From what I understand most insurance for sports players require a minimum amount of consecutive games missed for insurance to kick in. (eg. insurance won't pay a cent if a player only misses 10 games in a row) An article detailing the insurance payouts for previous players has been posted in the GARM before. I don't know the specifics of Tmac's insurance policy, but it is possible that he hasn't met the minimum amount of games required for insurance to pay his salary yet, so the rockets in that scenario would benefit by keeping him out of the squad till he meets that mark.
I believe the insurance would consider the prior years games as consecutive games missed, but either way, the rockets control the process and not McG his comments have no bearing on anything trade or insurance related
i agree... but you cant blame us for reading too much into this, tmac is the only elite player on our team right now. after an entire off season of low expectations any news on mac is going to get alot of attention, despite how well we are playing. that said, even though i hate all the bs tracy pulls i would love to see him on the court!
Yes, last season's missed games are counted towards the consecutive games, but it's usually a very long number of consecutive games required and I don't think playoffs count towards that total. I think the example I read was half a season, 41 games. I'm not sure what that number is for McG's policy. Just offering a possible explanation for why the rockets could benefit from keeping McG out a little longer.
