"There is nothing at all wrong with Tracy McGrady deciding that he's limping too much, feeling too much pain, not physically able to compete for the Rockets and taking himself out of the lineup for a week or so. Or even a month or so. Then McGrady could go about his business of rehabbing the left knee that had surgery last May and has been problematic from the first day he showed up for training camp. Then the Rockets could go about their business of doing whatever they have to do until their most potent big gun is healthy and ready to fire bullets again. In that case, it's on his teammates to close ranks, amp up their game and work to grind out wins, just the way the Rockets did for the back end of their 22-game winning streak last season without Yao Ming. In other words, nobody said life was fair, so deal with it. There is nothing at all wrong with Tracy McGrady deciding that he's not 100 percent physically but is still willing to go out onto the floor every night and make whatever contribution is possible — whether that's burying 3-pointers on the night when he feels in rhythm or playing the role of a decoy on others to draw defenses and open things up Yao, Ron Artest and the rest of the lineup. Then the Rockets would know that they can't build their entire game plan around McGrady's offense, can't count on him to carry the largest part of the load In that case, his teammates would know he is with them every night, ready to make a sacrifice, ready to compete. In other words, shut up and play. They are both legitimate choices and no one could argue with either one. What is wrong is McGrady stringing the team along and planning to let them know from day to day, night to night, whether he's up to pulling on his uniform and Adidas. When McGrady scratched himself from the lineup on Wednesday against the Pacers, he specifically said it was not because he was in and danger of doing further damage to the knee. He said he felt "a little sore." He said he just was not playing at the level he wanted. When he pulled himself out on Wednesday, McGrady said he would get back to everyone on Saturday and let the world know if he was going to play against the Spurs, then again on Sunday in Denver. And again and again after that, we can only presume, until the end of the season. It certainly adds a touch of high drama to every game day afternoon, waiting for puff of white smoke to come from the rooftop of the Toyota Center, announcing McGrady's status. That should not happen. That should not be allowed to happen. It's not fair to the rest of the Rockets. It's not fair to the coaching staff. It's not fair to the fans. It's not fair to McGrady himself. There are two right answers for T-Mac. It's time to choose one." Link For once, I actually agree with everything the chubster wrote.
The problem with that logic is that he probably has better communication with Adelman and Morey than Blinebury is suggesting. Its not like they don't hear from him until before game time. Its just the media doesn't hear from him till before game time.
not a huge fan of blinebury but he is 200% right on this one. its not fair at all to his teammates that he puts himself as day to day. If he wants out for an entire week then do so. if not then play. hopefully he does one of the two real soon
Neither am I, but he actually reined in his incessant need to make asinine comments and wrote something decent in his blog for once.
Can't remember the last time I agreed 100% with Blinebury. I've been the staunchest of T-Mac supporters since Day 1, but his crap has gotten old and tiresome. If you want to rest the knee, fine, but just shut up about it and do it properly.
I will never agree with blinebury or feigin...both are the biggest geeks in the world the chron needs new blood...those guys are stiff... and McGrady can do what he wants i dont care as long as we win.....
T-Mac and Morey have been expressing conflicting views. McGrady says he needs to shut it down and rest his knee. Morey claims the team doctors Ok-ed McGrady's knee and he just needs to slowly build up his minutes throughout the season. McGrady's admitted to not trying or giving up when he wasn't happy in the past. He could be lacking confidence and his pride hurt because he is being limited by his knee. If his knee is hurting so bad why would he want to handle the ball more which he has complained about?
I don't really want to argue any of these points because you have to keep in mind that all of this stuff has been said through the media. Morey and Tmac talk in private I'm sure, and I would bet you that there is more going on than what is being said to the media. So I have trouble roasting Tmac for wanting/not wanting to play based on media quotes.
dont get me started on this situation. who starts a season needing surgery? the guy will never get healthy again.
I really don't agree with Fran most of the time, but lately he is scaring me. There have been a couple articles I agreed with him and this is another straight up article. It's sad when you start agreeing with Blindbury in an everyday basis.
Blinesbury is generally right on this one. Too bad we don't know just how hurt McGrady is---only the man himself can tell. Maybe I just get a little on the suspicious side with McGrady because the Rockets are paying him $21,000,000 dollars this year and $23,000,000 next year to have a loser's mentality. We're just stuck like Chuck on this one. (No reference to Hayes.) If McGrady sniffs the Rockets are sick of him wasting their money and ready to send him to a Summer-of-Lebron-type team, he can just grab that leg. (Kinda like the rival diver Chad [I think] grabs his calf in "Back to School", saying, "I have a REALLY bad cramp," and the other character says deadpan, "Must be menstrual.") Then Tracy can stay home another week. Or another month. And if he's on the IR, he'll still get to make that drive to his house off of Sweetwater, rather than to some month-to-month lease condo in some other NBA locale. All so we can have cap space in the summer when Lebron and Bosh are probably going to sign with the Knicks anyway. I know I'm being unreasonable, but this B.S. is going to cost us another season, cost us Ron Artest, which means cost us two #1 draft picks...and all the while, we get to watch Yao make those painful "why-didn't-I-get-the-call" facial expressions and get doubled and tripled and, as a result, cough up the ball, when no other player steps up. I can sympathize. Watching Yao get hammered every night reminds me of a George Orwell essay, "Shooting an Elephant", when the (English) writer talks about having played football (soccer, of course) in British-ruled Burma, how he was the only Brit on the field and would get tripped up by a Burmese player, the crowd "would howl with laughter" and the referee, another Burmese, would look the other way. And Tracy, well, it's no fun being hurt, and he's clearly closer to chucking it all in and staying at home with the kids or taking the occasional humanitarian trips to the Sudan and such. But as a fan, it's getting tiresome as hell.
A very good write-up by Blinebury, whom I think is usually a terrible columnist and blogger. The Chronicle should have cut him loose a while ago. But this very rare time, I 100% agree with his viewpoint and the tone he used.
This happened last season. This exact same thing. Tmac was sucking, he rested for awhile. Then what happened... he came back and went back to the 25 ppg Tmac we all know and love.
I'm surprised Fran was able to write an article about McGrady without completely bashing him for once. And for once, I actually respect his opinion.
I think you're missing the point. As frustrating as it is, even if he is truly hurt, which he likely is, I'm ok with that and can understand. That's not the issue here. The issue is this half-ass 'I'm going to take some time off while they don't need me' bull****. Either he needs to play through it or shut it down, and either way he needs to just shut his mouth. I find myself literally cringing every single time Tracy McGrady opens his mouth.
