[ClutchFans] The Day T-Mac Lost the City of Houston

this is like when NFL defensive linemen get a sack and then have to celebrate it. THAT'S THEIR JOB. all of these things you think Tracy should be praised for, THAT'S HIS JOB. He gets paid to do all that, better than everyone, lead the team, play hard, etc. We should expect him to do that long-term, not just in short flashes.

You bring up Kobe, and sure, Kobe has had periods where he quit too. But he didnt take that quit, load it in his head, and use it as an excuse to slack off on everything that makes him good. he didn't take that quit and ruin his career with it. Tracy did.

So, if you're going to come to me with some "tracy deserves praise for doing all that stuff" well yeah, he was appreciated like hell at the time for it too. he was appreciated like hell for doing his freaking job, for $15-23 million freaking dollars, to be the superstar he told everyone he was. Is it wrong that we expect someone who looks like a superstar, talks like a superstar, gets freaking paid like a superstar, who you just traded half your team for, to play in more than 65% of the games your team will play in the next 5 years? to man up and lead his team when the chips are down? to do something as simple as NOT FREAKING QUIT??

he's more interested in being a superstar celebrity than a basketball player. he always has been. and now he's a has been.

 

He isn't Kobe. He isn't even on Kobe's planet. As you said, the difference is mental strength. You don't think being mentally strong is absolutely essential for a deep playoff run?

We didn't judge him on his weakest point. I've said it well over a dozen times but I'll say it again. He has been judged based on a career of quitting, complaining and deflecting blame. There are literally dozens of examples.

It's who he is.

 

And what will we get if McGrady comes in and is the All-Star you think he is? We're not winning a championship anyways, so why bother messing with things and emphasize the chemistry and young development for the people who will be around next year, unlike T-Mac.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

Oh, please shut up with that garbage. I am tired of simple minded fools defining who a "true Rockets fan" is on this board.

 

Funny, I don't remember you speaking up when it was the other way around.

 

Man this is a new low..

for Ralph Sampson!!

Don't forget that Sampson got hurt by an HARD FOUL against BOSTON and the compensation for that injury caused more injuries.

Tmac was always brittle. It's not he was playing hard against a championship calibur Celtics team with Larry Bird and got hurt.

Ralph was our center in the 4th quarter when Dream got ejected and he took the Rockets to the Finals and shocked the world.


<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i7rsqsNf4SE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i7rsqsNf4SE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

 

Sadly that is what most people on the BBS do. Quick to forget how he played in the playoffs they'd like to remember him as a quitter in the regular season.

Ronny and Blink I agree with just about everything you guys have said.

 

All of sports world have short memories unless it deals with something great (winning a championship) or something not-so-great (take your pick of bad things).

No one can take away McGrady's heroics from the 13 in 35 but people would dismiss that he shot 12 for 29 in that game (which, of course, would have been worse if not for the 13 points).

No one can take away McGrady's two game heroics against the Mavericks either.

But those two things, those two memorable moments have only left a small footprint on the bigger picture. What's the bigger picture? The moment when McGrady quit on this team. That has more of a lasting effect on the team and the future of this team because it snowballs into scenarios where McGrady and Houston can no longer, it seems like, coexist.

For a while, it was only tmac taking heat checks after shooting 2 for 9, the only person that went to the basket to just try and draw a foul and not finish the play, and generally the only person that didn't fit into this collective effort known as a team. I remember a tmac that, for many games, was the sole reason why we lost because he shot us out of the game because rather than going to his bread and butter game, he decided the 3 point arc was going to be his sanctuary.

People bought into all of McGrady's rhetoric when he arrived in Houston and, unfortunately, some are still buying into what he says. Fact of the matter is, talk is cheap and I don't care if he was "excited to play with Artest" because he also promised me and the rest of the Houston Rockets fandom an All-Star Stromile Swift.

You answered your own question. Kobe might be a b**** but he is relentless in his work ethic. He study film games, he seeks out HOFers to refine his game. Has McGrady done as much with his own game? Going to Tim Grover on his own dime is admirable but Tim Grover isn't going to fix something overnight that has been embedded into McGrady's head over the years and that is the premise that McGrady can just sit back and rely on his God-given talent and don't have to worry about refining it.

 

Its a culmination of events that you probably weren't aware of where you live. Maybe that is why one moment/snapshot in the T-mac era isn't that big a deal because it doesn't tell the whole story.. It was a slow erosion of trust, loyalty, effort that became massive when you weren't paying attention..

 

Thank you, as Charles said, I didn't realize Scotty couldn't play until I played with him...

 

http://www.clutchfans.net/news/1545/the_day_t-mac_lost_houston/

Clutch
Since: Feb 1999
Member: #1

"I've been a diehard Rockets fan for as long as I can remember"

 

True Tinman, however, Tmac scored 13 in 35 seconds against the Spurs. Ralph couldn't do that in a gym all alone.

 

Come on. This post is a good one. It's not something about injury. It's about Tmac's attitude. Tmac was tanking the game. He didn't play for team victory occasionally for some reasons. This Toronto game was one of them. I don't know what reasons. He just tanked it. Maybe he bet the game. Maybe he felt disgust when coach told him Scola and Landry as the first scoring point. But not because of injury. Look at Kobe. Look at Yao. Look at Ginobili. They often play through injury but they fight till they can't. But not Tmac.

 

Hey douchenugget,

 

I was pissed at that game also.

 

And Ralph did that to a legendary Laker team with Magic Johnson, Kareem, Cooper, Worthy all drenched on him...

IN THE PLAYOFFS

IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS


We'd be blown out by 50 points by that team if Tmac was the leader.

 

you tell me, because maybe i forgot, but what games matter? not the ones in january, that's for damn sure. it's the games you play in the playoffs. correct me if im wrong, but there wasnt one playoff series where tmac wasnt earning his paycheck, playing like a superstar, or carrying more than his fair share of the load. Not only putting up the points, but getting rebounds, dishing out assists, and making his way to the freethrow line. did everyone just suddenly forget the outcry after playoff losses where people were complaining about role players not finishing a play that tmac created? or just not finishing a play in general?

He didnt just, by himself, decide to play non back-to-back games or rest for X amount of days. Those were Rockets' backed decisions. The only straight up "Man, Tmac is being a little btch and quitter" scenarios that I can recall are a few games here and there, where he didnt plausible reason, such as his injury. Again, correct me if im wrong here.

 

people who defend tracy have very, very low standards for their superstars.

it's all about what they could potentially do, when motivated, and not hurt, and mentally ready, and surrounded by the right people, etc.

it's never about what they've stepped up and done when it mattered most, regardless of the circumstances.

 

Haha, I thought it was a direct quote from one of the bbs posters.