I totally agree. T-mac was fun to watch. I think Morey and Adelman is just as guilty as Tracy about how bad the last season went for him in a Rocket's Jersey. Great Talent. 13 points in 33 seconds still gives me goose bumps.
08-09 season. Artest, Scola, Battier, Yao, Brooks, Lowry, Mutombo, Landry, and Hayes. Prior to the start of the season, we had an amazing team on paper and were expected to go deep into the playoffs.
Most definitely agree that season was supposed to be the year. Once again though when T-Mac was healthy, that year was not one of those years.
And why was he not healthy that season? He was fine in the 07-08 playoffs against the Jazz. Then he had routine arthroscopic surgery on his knee and came into the 08-09 season out of shape. The most logical answer is that he slacked on his rehab.
I definitely miss seeing that talent on the rockets. That first season he was here I definitely wish we had better talent surrounding him. Just seeing how well yao and tmac did that year with the guys we had is just a shocker. I miss those days.. sigh... just another woulda shoulda coulda. Time to move on... I am definitely hoping to get a stud big man. We need another Hakeem and yao to build around.
I think over here the vocal minority will say T-Mac is the devil personified. Most posters will say otherwise. We are all disappointed in T-Mac and the things he did wrong but that doesn't mean he deserves to be booed everytime he is in town. While with us we had good times. Let your hatred go people, T-Mac is of no consequence nowadays.
You know what as a T-Mac fan I never looked at it like that. I always felt that was just misfortune to make him work more diligent than he had before. But looking at it that way puts the onus on him which it should be from the beginning. He consistently relied on his talents & talent only gets you as far as it got you. To make it to the next plateau you need determination, drive, will power the intangible things that separate good from great. Thanks!
I loved this guy. I loved watching him play. I was about still a kid when he first came here but once he came I fell in love with his game instantly. He was smooth, he made scoring look effortless and watching him progress with Yao was a beauty to watch. -I still remember the game where he scored like 20 points in a row against Detroit (when they still had Billups and Rip) single handedly and his first game back from an injury. -The 13 in 35 nuff said -The 05 Dallas series where we stole the first 2 games and we clearly got cheated that series -His deep 4 point play on the Knicks (some of which I can remember) but it hurt more to watch him come back and "try" to play. He just wasn't the same and it was frustrating to watch. And then came the Toronto game..... I know I posted this story at one point on this forum. I was in Toronto for Christmas break and The Rockets were in town so me and my cousins went to watch the game and I was reppin my Rockets gear cause I knew we would win this, we should have won that.... Once T-mac came in... he gave up on that game in an instant. He didn't do ****. They passed him the ball, he passed it back and they passed it back to him and he passed it back. He didn't try to make a play and I hated Adelman's "let the player play through it" philosophy at the time cause he clearly wasn't doing anything productive. Me and my brother were just in awe that our franchise player, our superstar was just.... tanking. He didn't want to be in the game and it seemed he didn't want to play anymore. We got blown out by 20 or so points and never in my life did I feel like such an idiot. In the end, Ill never forget what T-mac did for us. He gave us some pretty dam good years. I could understand why some Rockets fan are bitter about him. When he was finally healthy he wanted to play but we didn't want to watch him **** up what's left of his leg (correct me if im wrong). It was very exciting to watch him but also equally frustrating. I love the guy and hope he does well. You can only imagine what could have been.
Yeah because you were there training/rehabbing with T-mac through the whole process. Yeah because you have had arthroscopic surgery on your knee too.
Two questions for you. 1. Are you saying that being out of shape at the start of the season indicates proper offseason training? 2. Are you Charles Barkley?
Yeah because you were there training/rehabbing with T-mac through the whole process. Yeah because you have had arthroscopic surgery on your knee too.
You really don't have any common sense, do you? When you go from being in-shape to being out-of-shape, its clear you weren't training properly. And as for arthroscopic surgery, players get them all the time. Can you think of anyone else who missed as much time as McGrady did?
TMac showed up out of shape, never took rehab seriously, had to be motivated by JVG for the reg season, those are facts. He was unhappy with the 8 minutes he was getting here, even though he performed well in them, and quit on the team. He then got his wish and played more minutes. The next day, uh oh, my knee hurts Spoiler But why can we not post highlights of his time as a rocket in the GARM? How many years have to pass before we can post those videos? I watched hundreds of games he played in. Some epic games, some incredible playoff performances.
I've hated on Tmac at times, but this just isn't true. He had problems with his knee and shoulder throughout the playoffs. IIRC, he was wearing extra padding compression on both. It was also reported that he would be having surgery on both after the season, which he eventually did in May. He didn't have it sooner because they managed to make the playoffs. The report stated the full recovery would take 3 months. That means he would be ready for normal workouts in August. From May to august he would be going through rehab, not trying to condition himself for basketball. The most logical answer, therefore, is the surgeries pushed him back to square one and he had to start over from scratch in almost mid-august, which is around the time training camp begins. That's why he came into camp out of shape.
I remember watching that game, good times, we haven't had a player as good as that t-mac was since. No, Yao was never better than 04 tmac. After that, he started to decline health-wise. Yes, t-mac turned it on in the Playoffs and don't let the lack of success fool you. He was a beast against the Jazz but just didn't have enough to carry the rest of the guys.
Man what a game, i remember this, Dirk and Mac went back and forward... just sad to see the supporting casts TMac had when he was healthy, the only starting material player on that team was Clarence Witherspoon
