[ch 2 video] Yao discusses TMac feud rumors (1/15)

what makes you believe doc rocket has any connections with the rockets anymore?

 

When did this happen?

 

What makes you think he doesn't?

DD

 

His first year in LA. Kobe also didn't quit in the 4th quarter of that suns game he quit the entire second half. He would pass the ball every time he received it, and later said he was covered when he obviously was not. Problems happen all the time.

Houston has been so blessed these last few years that people seem to have forgotten that locker room feuds are pretty common place. In fact I'd be alarmed if this team didn't have any. It doesn't mean you deal the person as many here would suggest. It means the team cares, and are getting on top of the situation now so that its peaches and cream come playoffs.

 

Doc Rocket is SF3, right?

 

b/c the way he describes it, tracy and yao no longer can go back (hell he said it; they jumped the shark according to him).

from the way i've seen them on the court, that is not even remotely true.

nobody can deny the frustration in the locker room. who the hell doesn't when you can't even have a consistent lineup for 2 games in a row? and tracy has sucked this yr.

but if i was a casual fan and reading his posts, there is NO WAY tracy can no longer remain a rocket.

 

well yao refutes the rumor but you refuse to believe him and instead believe a member of cf.net (who hasn't shown to know too much about the current rockets' regime) over the horse's mouth. you also continue to put faith in a report from aldridge that even he didn't sound like he was ready to stand 100% behind when he was interviewed on 1560 after yao's 1st response when he said the rumor was untrue. then you try to insinuate that yao is covertly working on a deal with the team to get tracy traded. so it's pretty clear you are only going to listen to what you want to believe so i don't even know why i even brought it up now that i think about it.

 

Anything can be repaired between two men and teamates..it just takes effort.

Ok Robbie...you believe what you want, I will do the same....

DD

 

not the way doc rocket describes it. have you seen his posts? and he even proclaimed there's no going back between the 2.

 

I believe that some fans here would rather see team fail so there's someone to blame than for team to suceed.

And I believe all those "Yao wants TMac out" arguments failed. And DD.. you failed.

 

And I wonder why there was "TMac wants Yao out" news on nba.com in the morning our time (+1GMT).. ..and a couple of hours later it disappeard!

 

I meant "Yao wants TMac out" of course

 

Chron:Yao: "Things with T-Mac are just fine"

Yao: Things with T-Mac are just fine
By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 15, 2009, 4:11PM


Yao Ming, the center and centerpiece of the Rockets, did not claim these are grand times for the Rockets. Their three-game winning streak last week was not equated to the 22-game run last season. Their strong performance in a loss to the Lakers was not confused for actually winning.

He said, however, that a report of locker room discord to the point that he and Tracy McGrady do not speak and that he wants McGrady off the team is not true.

Yao spoke Thursday on topics ranging from from getting McGrady and Ron Artest back on the court to the sanctity of the locker room. But when there was doubt about where he stood, he made himself clear.

Responding to an NBA.com story that he and McGrady are not on speaking terms and that he wants McGrady out, Yao said the report is not accurate.

"I'm upset," he said, "(that) this news is fake."

That McGrady and Yao still talk, even beyond the conversations necessary as teammates, is not news. They can often be seen conversing on the practice court, in the locker room and on the road.

"We've been talking," Yao said. "The locker room is very good. In there, we're joking. I think it's been a tough time for us, for the Rockets, a lot of rumors, just like in the summer will come out.

"It's easy when a team is going the right way, going good, is winning. Everybody is good. This is a tough time for us. We need to stay together, stay tight, fight through it. That's how you show the teamwork, show how good you are.

"That (story) surprised me, really surprised me. That's the first time in my career I heard that. I heard other stories, but not about me. Now is the first time it happened to us. Whatever they say outside, I feel we need to keep inside that room, in close, and we fight like a team."

If Yao wanted the team to trade McGrady, he showed no signs of it. (McGrady was not available for comment on Thursday.)

Even before he was asked about the report that he hoped McGrady would be traded, Yao spoke of McGrady's return. He said he was worried about the Rockets making the playoffs and about their level of their play if they do get there.

And he described McGrady's and Artest's return as a solution.

"You know what: I worry about it," Yao said. "This team, last game we showed we have played very good, but you want to go deeper in the playoffs, you cannot play without Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest. Those two guys will make our team reach that level."

The Rockets had hoped that the decision to let McGrady take two weeks to work on his conditioning — along with the seven to 10 days Artest would need before the bone bruise in his right ankle would be re-evaluated — would allow them to concentrate solely on the 10 healthy players and the games to be played. Reports of discord, however, can be a distraction.

"It can ruin a team if you have a bunch of guys that read that stuff and believe it," Shane Battier said. "You don't listen to that. You know when you lose a few games, people are going to chirp. People are going to make innuendo and speak what they think the perception of the team is. We have a good team. We have a good locker room. All that stuff is good for the tabloids and good for the chat rooms, but doesn't have a place in our locker room.

"We really don't care and frankly have better things to think about and talk about."

There is no doubt that teammates have questioned McGrady's efforts in recent games and McGrady's and Artest's availability this season.

"It's going to come down to Mac getting healthy and then Mac's got to kind of be more of a dog," Artest said in Toronto.

In Boston, Artest said, "Sometimes Tracy thinks his talent is going to take him; he can just cruise his way."

After a better effort in Atlanta with Artest and McGrady out, Rafer Alston said of Artest and McGrady, "Two of our guys out, they watched and saw. They know the guys were battling their hearts out. The only thing they can do is come back and do the same."

Jokes have ranged from a player saying he would bring a note from home to be excused from games to another flipping a coin to decide whether he would play, even to kidding Artest about his "Tru Warier" moniker.

Rockets players have said the jokes are typical of locker rooms.

Before the game against Jazz — when Artest announced he could not play, McGrady said he would be out and then Artest changed his position and said he would play, eventually helping lead the Rockets to the double-overtime win — players were rolling off their locker room chairs in laughter.

"What happens in the locker room, we will not say," Yao said. "That's like a rule in there. What happens in there will stay in there, not (just) Vegas.

"Everybody keeps a secret. For teammates, it's like that. We stay there like a family. In a 82-game season, it's over a half-year. We would not let anything like that slip out. I don't know where they get news from."


I guess there isn't anything going on....

 

this ish wouldn't have ever happened had the team kept Steve Novak he was the utlimate glue guy and locker room prescence!

 

Not only that, once the media gets ahold of it, things can really deteriorate and it can become a distraction.

Yao's a wise man.

 

idk, DD doesn't believe yao though.

 

you mean that the media is not just spinning things out of control to generate viewers/readers?

dam, I swore that kind stuff never happens.

 

and to add, this seems like typical locker frustration when you have so many injuries and uncertainties. they'll be fine.

go rockets. good times will come soon.

 

I concur.

 

i mean if we struggled when yao went down last yr, i don't think our chemistry would be that good either.

winning cures all. we need a 5-6 game winning streak and we're going to talk about high hopes again.