Playing with heart is playing every possession as if there were 1 minute left in game 7 of the finals and you are down by 5. Absolute effort. Absolute focus. On the other hand, NOT playing with heart is: 1) Standing around 6 feet behind the arc "creating plays." (a high school player could get ten assists in the NBA if they just stood around outside the arc and the rest of the players funnelled the ball through him) 2) Not bothering to run or even jog because you think you can get the job done walking. 3) Sitting on the bench with a smug attitude and joking around with the other fellows when you should be focusing on the game you are losing. 4)Never bothering to play help defense. If you had not already guessed, these all apply mainly to one Tracy McGrady, but as is constantly said, he is our "leader" and the rest of the team is following the leader, the leader, the leader, following the leader, wherever he may go.
You don't think there's ever any correlation between early losses and future success? At all? I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Great post. I think we finally have the talent to be a legit contender and our best player (I love Yao and he is very important to the team but t-mac is crucial b/c of his versatility) has decided to go into the tank. If you want the perfect example of playing with "heart", look at KG. The dude plays every single game like it's game 7 of the NBA finals. He battles at both ends of the court. The howling and leadership he provides by getting on guys and keeping them motivated is just bonus. The most frustrating thing to everyone is that we mostly believe t-mac is sulking and not playing hard b/c he's upset about something. You don't go from posting a near triple double followed by a triple double in 3 qtrs to not being able to score more than 6 ppg. I hope he gets out of this mental drama he's going through and gets back to being what he's been in the past b/c his trade value is too low now and he's still the vital peace to the Rockets ultimate goal of winning it all.
I do, that's why I think they're great coaching tools. I think a team can learn a lot from tough losses where they played hard. But you can also learn from bad losses where you didn't compete or good wins or any other game in a season. But as a fan, I just enjoy watching my team win and i won't be satisfied with a moral victory.
Playing with heart constitutes making the team better in some way. You mentioned someone could be a turnover machine or hog the ball, but play with heart. Someone who has heart would recognize the lacking in those areas and find other ways to contribute to help the team win. I think you're right about the initial expectations about a team that sets the bar as to whether they have heart or not. But there's also the fact that the fans have seen games where they were flawless and so they know the true capabilities of the team. Once the team has fallen short of that bar, then either 1) Injuries/Family problems or 2) They've lost focus/Lacking "heart". It seems like such a vague term, but when you've seen what a team is capable of doing and they nose dive against junk teams, then you've seen that evidence. Hope that helps.
These guys are incredibly talented players first. Talent wins in this league. "Heart" or effort is a factor. But it is not THE factor. It is just A factor. The average fan wants to believe that it is THE factor, because they want to believe that no matter what they do, if they try really hard they can get to the top. This is simply not the case though. That's far too simplistic.
Almost every player in the NBA has surgery at some point in their career. Tracy battled through some things last year and played hard in the playoffs last year, but most fans will not allow themselves to see that. I know that it takes heart to get to the top, but questioning a guys heart when he is going through injuries or something else is not fair. Results matter. You can have a team that tries really hard and almost wins games, or you can have a team that is talented and plays calm and collected but wins games. I'll take the second team, you can have the first. I'm questioning Tmac's desire right now. He has looked awful the past few games, but I'm willing to wait and see what happens this season before I start thinking he is worthless.
I think there is some actual value for a sports franchise. The Rockets lost to Atlanta, but I would have paid to watch that game. The players put forth the effort, but they weren't successful. But that's ok...you can't win them all. Honestly, I'm shocked the game was so close. When a team is missing their top 3 big wings, the Hawks aren't really the team that you want to see.... On the other hand, who wouldn't be pissed if they paid to see that game against Toronto, where the effort wasn't there (especially from the star player)?
There is value, definantly. But the goal for the houston rockets is to win the championship. Heart is certainly one of the ingredients, but I think talent is more important. We played with more effort last night but we still got beat. We didn't have enough talent on the floor, period.
Last year after Yao went down, the 22 game winning streak was all heart. I mean that was what you saw on the floor for that stretch. It was magical, but what happened come playoff time. We were overmatched. We lacked talent. NO led by chris paul play with heart every night, but in the playoffs they just didnt have enough talent.
Last night's game proved that "playing with heart" is a pure B.S. concept. The Friday night was better. At least we knew where the team stood early. Watching that team last night give up tons of layups and wide open jumpers with "heart" was a lot of fun, wasn't it? It was the stuff that championships are made of. "Heart" and "effort" and all these happy-go-fun-day emotional buzzwords aren't going to get this team a championship. TALENT and EXECUTION are what gets you wins. Just when you thought this team finally had what it takes, we woke up this morning and found out that not only are they seriously talent deficient with all the injuries they're dealing with, they have also absolutely failed with respect to execution so far this season. They don't rotate properly on defense, there is no help, they give up layups like it's 2000 all over again. On nights when they do manage to put together a quarter and a half of decent defense, they sputter to a halt on the offensive end, standing around and dribbling the ball as if coach Adelman just started on the job last week. "Heart" and "Effort" and all these happy happy words that fans conjure up in an effort to describe why they hate Tracy McGrady aren't going to get this team anywhere. I'd say I miss JVG, because despite whatever faults he had, his teams never failed to execute on the court, regardless of how much talent they had. But this same team was executing last year under Adelman, and they came up with a 22 game winning streak as a result (and if not for an untimely injury to Rafer Alston, they could have had playoff success too). I don't know what reason it is why they can't just do the basic stuff right, but Adelman's got to find a way to fix it soon. Get Landry to stay disciplined for once on defense, and to stop looking like a dazed idiot when he gets the ball with a slower defender in front of him instead of attacking the rim. Get McGrady, Artest and Scola to stop dribbling and start running and passing. Get designated shooters to SHOOT the ball when they get it instead of fumbling it. Always have a help defender and timely rotation when there is a perimeter defensive break. Contest shots. Rebound. EXECUTE, dammit!
Totally agree, heart can be an everything or nothing deal. Just look at the Miami Dolphins right now. They played with alot of heart this season, changed personale and created new environment and made a near miraculous turnaround from 1 win to 11 wins. But, they're completely overmatched against the Ravens (and would be against every other AFC playoff team). They don't have the stout line, outstanding gamebreaking receivers, great QB (Pennington is good though) and a good enough defense to really make a threat to Baltimore. I'm not really that worried about the Rockets play at this point, last year, they were struggling much worse with a full roster. I'd say for this team just get to playoffs that is all that matters, even if we have to play the Lakers or Spurs in the first round. Because, anything can happened in playoffs, especially with a very talented team, just look at the Cardinals or Chargers from yesterday. Your regular season record is somewhat irrelevant, as long as you can play your best going into the playoffs.
What I find most particularly amusing is that to sports fans/this board, sucktitude (ie: missing shots, losing the game), is almost always without exception indicative of some "lack of heart." "Heart" is one of the most ridiculous, nonsensical pre-conceived notions in all of sports.
