My facts come directly from chron.com articles quoting Alexander. It was said at the time we had no interest in trading T-Mac.
1) he criticized tracy HARD after tracy announced his season ending surgery to stephen A smith. he basically said that was unprofessional. you don't remember this? 2) and earlier this year before training camp, he basically said he doesn't want a repeat of last year, no more coming in and out of the lineup... come back when you are ready in regards to tracy. all these were public criticisms from adelman TO mcgrady. fortunately, he always praised tracy's "on-court" skills. so hopefully tracy can bring a level of professionalism that he lacked last year and contribute.
I don't (necessarily) believe a word of it. It's a smart thing for Alexander to publicly say under the circumstances.
Even Kobe and Lebron pace themselves until the 4th qtr. I see it with DRON as well. I've been paying attention since you have brought this up. So did MJ when you watch a lot of highlight games. Role players should definitely play 110%. But they don't play as many minutes. I am not sure a guy who plays 35 minutes can play at the same level for all 35 minutes. That's like sprinting for 35 minutes - you aint' going to have anything left at the end. Now t-mac has made numerous lapses though. I do see that at times. But it's not that often and certainly the benefit he brings is far greater than the negatives you have mentioned. Everything you are criticizing him for he has shown to be pretty good at. He's adjusted to play within adelman's system when he came back at the end of 2008. Since then he hasn't been healthy. So how can you say he doesn't play within the system? The last time he was healthy - he did an excellent job of it. I mean, the guy tried to push himself through one wheel last year. And he did it the wrong way - there's no doubt about it he handled his injury poorly. He deserves criticism for that for sure. But that doesn't make him a cancer. Since he's gotten surgery, he's done everything right. And I mean everything. Dada - you could not have asked for anything more - he's been the consummate professional. 1. He's attended and supported his team-mates 2. He's hired the best trainer possible and worked his butt off. Even Tim Grover has said so 3. He's been to the first 3 games and is continuing to work out. 4. He freakin works out before every game!!!! 5. He's said all the right things Now there isn't anything more he can do than that. Give some credit where credit is due. The guy has busted his butt and has done everything right - this is a very good sign. He deserves some respect for that.
les loves players who do things off the court too. i think he applauded mcgrady for his off court efforts earlier this year. and that was why he was also in love with deke. it shows what type of organization he runs.
I do agree that your first example was a criticism of McGrady. But during that time, McGrady was as unprofessional as any athlete has ever been, and in retrospect, Adelman was quite gentle with him. In your honest opinion, do you think Adelman's criticism (in respect to the surgery) changed anyone's opinion of McGrady? IMO, your second example is not a criticism. There's no judging or evaluation in there. It's a statement of fact. It's simply his way of telling McGrady not to come back until he's totally ready. It served the dual purpose of giving his new acquisitions a chance to play extended minutes and also ensured that when McGrady eventually does return, he'll be ready to play. Earlier, you made the comment that Adelman praised McGrady in response to a reporter's question that didn't involve McGrady. You then said that if Adelman wanted to make McGrady attractive to other teams, he wouldn't even wait for a question before complimenting him. Have you considered the idea that Adelman's answer (which praised McGrady) to a question that didn't involve McGrady is his way of making McGrady more attractive to other teams? After all, McGrady having a high bball IQ isn't a sentiment shared by everyone, and one way to make a player more appealing is to take a questionable characteristic and spin it in a positive light. If Adelman were to just openly praise McGrady without even being asked a question, everyone would recognize it as the lip service is it. But thats a recurring theme in all of your posts. You take every positive statement about McGrady at face value. I don't want to be mean, but that's why your posts come off as naive and shortsighted. It's like how you were adamant that Ariza only tries to go one on one 4-5 times a game b/c that's how many times tried it against Portland (according to Cabbage). You refused to listen even though its public knowledge that Ariza came to Houston to expand his offensive game. And in the following game against Utah, he went one on one 3 times in the first period alone. Or how you (or other McGrady apologists) don't believe McGrady didn't rehab properly after the arthroscopic surgeries. Keep in mind that McGrady played well against Utah in the 08 playoffs and had the arthro surgeries in the subsequent offseason. The worst case scenario (b/c it was a successful surgery) is that the arthro didn't fix the underlying problem. In this case, if McGrady did rehab properly, he should've come into the season close to the shape he was in during the 08 playoffs. However, if he didn't rehab properly, he would've come into the season out of shape and still having knee pain. You seem to really believe that Les wouldn't trade McGrady. If this were the case, there wouldn't have been constant trade rumors involving McGrady (Detroit, New Jersey). Forget what the owner says. Actions speak louder than words. You know a player is untouchable when there are no trade rumors at all. Why do you think we haven't heard any trade rumors involving Yao? Or Lebron? Dwight Howard? Duncan? Wade?
dude, mcgrady IS INJURED. i think EVERY gm knows how good mcgrady is when he's healthy. what adelman has said is NOTHING NEW. adelman repeats the same things JVG has preached for years in regards to mcgrady (great bball IQ, great playmaking, make plays most players cant'...). we've heard that for years from JVG. are you saying adelman repeating those things suddenly make mcgrady a better player than he is? that's ridiculous. PS - mcgrady having a high bball iq is shared by more people than you think. JVG, adelman, and morey have all publicly stated those things. adelman claimed those things before the season started in 07-08. george karl, popovich, jerry sloan, and avery johnson have been on record saying the same things. secondly, i saw the end of the 2nd quarter and the 2nd half of the utah game, i still saw very little 1-on-1 from ariza. he may have had 3 in the first quarter alone, but did you see the whole game? if you saw a brief period of the 2nd quarter, chuck hayes had 2 straight isos for him in the post. what are you going to assume? WATCH THE WHOLE GAME. we run more isos for carl landry than we do for ariza. hell, chuck hayes nearly got as much as isos in that utah game than ariza. so i'm not adamant about that in regards to ariza. it's the truth. the point is: we RARELY run an ISOLATION play for ariza. RARELY DO. arthroscopic? ask gilbert arenas. dude played 13 games in 2 whole years on the same surgery. and he needed TWO more surgeries. different people react to the same surgeries differently. i'm sure tracy did rehab (how much, i don't know). there were no videos like there were this year. the point is he was STILL LIMPING and should NOT have played to start the year. there were trade rumors 2 years ago, the same year mcgrady got all-nba 3rd team and top 8 in MVP voting. remember that detroit rumor? i NEVER said mcgrady is untouchable. i think the team WILL trade him if there is a GREAT deal. the team is not going to let him go for just any offers. it has to be a deal that the team can't resist, and we have to get a potential or established all star in return. i just disagree with people who claim the organization doesn't think highly of tmac and is just ready to ship him off for a bag of chips, which many have claimed. FINAL STATEMENT on this since you throw around the word "apologist" too much. 1) i do think tracy mcgrady was highly unprofessional last year. him going into and out of the lineup messed up the rotation and team chemistry. i would have no problems if the team told him to sit out the whole year or until he proves he can go back to back. what he did last year in regards to that was unacceptable 2) him not letting the team know first about his surgery was also unprofessional. 3) tracy is very weak minded when he does face adversities. last year, he let the frustrations of the injury got to him and how he approached and handled the game. and there are also other faults (big mouth...) ultimately, i know i have a "brighter" view of mcgrady more than most, but i also understand what he has contributed to this team BEFORE last year. most may only care about what he has done lately and it's not much. but i judge a player on their entire stay. despite not getting out of the first round, tracy has done a lot for this team.
Yeah, I'm aware of this. I don't know why I'm compelled to always respond to him....I guess it's b/c he's the first guy I've ever encountered whose been wrong 100% of the time. I just want to keep that streak alive.
you got 96% on the logic test, and you think you know everything. why am i not surprised? i'm sure you wanted them to regrade the 4% you missed too right?
i know i shouldn't, but he spews things when he doesn't know what he's talking about. he claims certain things he says are facts, and yet he admits not to watching full games. this is a guy who claims preseason will determine how a team/player players for the rest of the season. i guess i should put him on ignore again.
If you recall, I said that Ariza signed with the Rockets to expand his offensive game, and that his games (both preseason and regular season) reflected this mindset. Go ahead and ignore me if you like...it's clear that you're reading what you want to read regardless of what I actually write (like above).
But in fairness to both he and Yao, when have they had legitimate third or fourth options? Scola, Landry and Brooks are just now coming into their own as offensive threats. Again, before last year he was more active with and without the ball. Of course in crunch time he usually initiated the play for himself, sometimes Yao and/or the others. I do hope that some of the things that you have described don't happen but I honestly believe when he comes back that won't an issue. Only time will tell. Go Rockets!!!
LOL don't you get tired of debating whether or not Tmac was a good player or not? I know I am. Why don't we all agree that everyone wants him to come back strong and help this team? Anyone who wants him to fail isn't a Rockets fan, because if Tmac returns to elite status, then its a no brainer our team will be stronger for it (whether it be due to his performance, or via trade as many here are suggesting). Ergo, wouldn't it make sense to quit spraying the haterade and support the man even if you hate Tmac's guts? Whatever our intentions may be, let's just get behind Tmac and hope he makes a complete recovery. Trying to belittle him now when he's injured and trying to get back is like a company trying to sabotage its own stock price in the market, it makes no sense.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/joYqP7bYarU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/joYqP7bYarU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uW5Q_v08TDU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uW5Q_v08TDU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> of a fan who went to the laker-rocket game. he looks good. just need some intense practices for a good 2-3 weeks.
