Another funny and insightful article by Simmons: ESPN Page 2 Here's what he has to say about TMac: 4. Tracy McGrady The lost MVP candidate this year. Lemme know if any of these tidbits interest you: A. The Rockets were 50-21 when he played this season and 2-8 without him. B. When Yao went down for 32 games with a fractured kneecap, T-Mac carried them to a 20-12 record and boosted his stats to a 29-6-6 for that stretch. C. Other than Yao, his best teammates were Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard and Dikembe Mutombo D. On a personal note, I don't trust basketball stats beyond a certain level because they can't interpret somebody's general impact on a game. Tim Duncan averages a 20-10 every night with two blocks ... does that measure everything he does for the Spurs? Of course not. Along those same lines, T-Mac and his cousin finished this season with almost identical numbers (a 25-5-6 for T-Mac, a 25-6-5 for V.C.), but unless you watched the games, you wouldn't know that Vince happens to be a streaky offensive player, a moody teammate and a defensive liability, and T-Mac happens to be a great teammate and superb all-around player who only goes for his numbers when absolutely necessary (like when he recently bumped his numbers to push Houston into the fourth seed). If you asked 100 NBA players who they'd rather play with between Kobe, Vince, Arenas or T-Mac ... T-Mac would win the vote in a landslide. You win with Tracy McGrady. Wasn't always the case, but it's the case now. He's a true superstar. Now he needs to prove this in the playoffs. Please. Sorry if this has been posted.
really, if tmac proves he can win in the playoffs, he'll be fore sure be top 5 in everyone's books. ppl can look at stats and say oh man, it aint as good as it was in orlando, but man look at WHEN he puts up his best stats (when yao was out and right now when we need a push for HC). other than that, he's been on cruise control and let yao take over. that's a great teammate stepping up when he needs to. the world is finally recognizing he's more than a scorer. again, like bill simmons said, PLEASE TMAC WIN IN THE PLAYOFFS.
He doesnt have to do anything else, he will, but he doesnt have to. He is no doubt either 2 or 3 in the race, forget about the top 5.
T-Mac and Yao ming in our mind are our MVP and Jeff is our Coach of the Year. Who cares if anyone think. The main thing that Jeff and both super star will bring the champioship back to H town this year.
i'm not talking about MVP. i'm talking about his legend in the game. i'm talking about next yr and so on. he needs to win NOW.
Other than forgetting Battman... that was a thoroughly entertaining read! I would like to thank the people that made this award possible, my mom for always being the biggest fan, my dad for encouraging me to fight for everything I wanted and the little people who I can't remember the names of right now, but they know who they are
Benvolio actually mis-copied it. Simmon's C reason should actually look like this (as per the article on espn.com): C. Other than Yao, his best teammates were Shane Battier, Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard, Dikembe Mutombo and Yugoslavian gunner Turdo Sandowicz. Taothit
Odd that Simmons left out Battier, especially since he was the first one to praise the Gay Trade. Probably just an oversight. As always with Simmons, great read.
Simmons must have updated the article to include Battier (because it's there now....all I did was cut-n-paste)....maybe he reads this BBS?!?! Anyway, it's funnier w/o Battier on the list.
TMAC is a top 3 already. Who else can do these things as perfectly as TMAC? 1: Scoring machine. 2: play maker. 3: lock down defense.
LOL...the best player on the Rockets after those guys is a turd sandwich. Compair that to the Mavs where the turd sandwich is replaced by Greg Buckner or Austin Croshere...oh wait what am I saying...ok, I will stand behind that statement, those guys would get some PT on the Rockets.
tmac knows his body. these posters don't. obviously they're invested in the team, but tmac is the main part of the team. imagine tmac playing all out like this EVERY game. u dont think his back would give out sometime. though i think he won't miss a lot of time b/c that waco guy cured him on the SAME day where his back was still very stiff. but still, he wants to be healthy going into the playoffs. now he'll go all out b/c u have a days rest in b/t and 2 days rest b/t traveling days.
