I don't think it's going to happen, but I hope the Rockets win a 1st round playoff series WITHOUT McGrady. That would make this season worth the nonsense that's gone on.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if they did get past the 1st round without T-Mac. They would have no pressure.
I've generally been in McGrady's corner when Fran has gone after him. Maybe it was just the optimist in me hoping that, some how, McGrady would turn it around and lead the team to playoff success. But it looks like Fran was more right about him than I ever gave him credit for. Now McGrady is saying that his knee being apparently normal is "the problem". That reminds me of a child who wants to get out of school and is hoping, desperately, to miraculously contract a fever in the morning. Maybe McGrady just doesn't want to be out on the floor if he can't do the things he wants to do "easily", and he's looking for an excuse to get off it. Edit: Ok, I read the transcript of the interview in another thread ... apparently Fran took some of his comments out of context. He insists that his knee is not normal, it never has been normal since the surgery, and that why it is a problem that the MRI results are the same. He feels the knee is in the same place it was a year ago.
Some cats need a grown man in their life more than anything. It's quite obvious that there was a lack of grown men around Tmac. This dude flip flops like a female. Please just be quite for the rest of the year and say "no comment" when asked about anything.
If his knee is truly in the same place it was a year ago (and I'm not saying it isn't) then why have we had all this bluster, created by McGrady himself, around his return as "vintage" T-Mac and he'll "have the last laugh" so to speak. All of that smack he was talking runs contrary to him feeling the knee was the same post-surgery as it was pre-surgery. It's hard to take what the guys says at face value. To add to it all the "alleged" word (in another thread someone said Clutch mentioned it for whater that's worth) is that McGrady's camp leaked the MRI information to Channel 2. Why would they do this? What was their purpose? That goes contrary to whatever the best interests of the Rockets are at the moment. That makes me think McGrady and his camp don't care what's best for the Rockets as a whole. I still think there is more to all of this than meets the eye and we won't have any of the real details until the day T-Mac is no longer a Rocket.
this made my day... -------------------------------------- Are you sure it isn't his head that neeeds the MRI, instead of the knee? [You know the old line: They examined his head and found nothing. --Fran]
I'm not attacking him, just psychoanalyzing his pathological hate for a guy who has been one of the the best players if not the best player on the team for four seasons. Just because his criticism happens to be justified at the moment doesn't mean it was warranted over the past however many years he's been constantly spewing it. If some other writer, like say Feigen, criticizes T-Mac, I'll read what he has to say and take it to heart. He's got credibility by virtue of not being a constantly vindictive windbag over the years. Honestly, my guess is that T-Mac elicits hate from guys like Blinebury and Calvin Murphy because T-Mac probably snubbed them at some point. T-Mac seems to be aloof and it sometimes seems like he thinks he's above everybody else, like his feces don't stink. Maybe he refused to give Calvin a tribute blowjob like Steve Francis did lol (figuratively speaking, of course). So Fran gets somehow similarly snubbed and decides to take the personal vendetta public, onto his blog, and that's what we've been reading the past however many years.
I've felt this way for a long time. That said, I think it's very telling that all 3 of the Chronicle writers at least somewhat interjected a tone of suspicion in the wake of yesterday's events. Especially curious from Solomon who pushed the "if he says he's in pain, none of us can say he's lying" notion harder than anyone. Too much of what came out yesterday doesn't mesh at all with what we've been seeing and hearing for the past 9 months. Too much is borderline unbelievable. Too much is being driven by McGrady alone. And I'll also say this - that McGrady chose HALFTIME to hold his press conference is telling. I'd love to hear an explanation for why it didn't take place before the game, instead of taking all attention away from the game. Evan
Some of you should lay off of Blinebury. The guy was dead on the whole time about McGrady's work ethic and commitment to the game. You can whine about his pessimism and say he hates McGrady but it isn't true. Much like the grown up members on this forum, he has seen real superstars in a Rockets uniform so he knows a fake when he sees one. McGrady has repeatedly contradicted himself, exaggerated, taken the credit when things are good and deflected the blame when they went poorly. As Blinebury said, McGrady loves the attention but hates the responsibility.
Or maybe it's because me makes franchise money yet from all accounts has the worst work ethic and the least commitment to the team of any guy on on the Rockets. Naaah, that would make too much sense.
