http://blogs.chron.com/nba/ September 27, 2006 TMac on line one Back in July, when Tracy McGrady finally returned to the court, I was pretty impressed. He wasn't. I sat on the second row of benches in the gym just off his kitchen and watched him dart around the floor and fire jumpers. He huffed and puffed a bit. He missed a few more shots than in the long shooting sessions we used to watch after practices. (And by the way, it is stunning to see how easily he can shoot from 10, 15 feet past the 3-point arc without straining his shooting form at all.) But for a first day back, it was remarkable. Moving ahead to Wednesday, however, he sounded much different. He was calling from New York. I didn't see him work out again. But while he made the usual optimistic statements he usually does this time of year, he sounded so much more sure of himself than he has in months. I could be fooled. It wouldn't be the first time. But he sounded far more boisterous and confident than Tracy McGrady usually sounds. When I asked him if he could be the sort of player that is so good he makes all those smaller details -- who plays two, is there enough rebounding at four -- irrelevant, McGrady immediately said, "That's what you're going to find out." He talked about Casey Jacobsen and Steve Novak reminding him of his season with Pat Garrity in Orlando and how much shooting range on the court will help him. He said Vassilis Spanoulis has "a tremendous upside." He repeated the praise for Yao he has offered since April 2 when he joined the Rockets on that last long road trip last season. Teammates say those sorts of things, though McGrady has often been incredibly frank. But it was the way he sounded that seemed different to me. He sounderd so sure of himself, last season finally seemed over.
