Do some sports reporters have any common sense?

superweapon-yao · Jan 15, 2009

January 13, 2:55 PM
by David Hartnett, Houston Rockets Examiner

On most days, I read Sports Illustrated’s “Truth and Rumor” section. It’s interesting to read some silly trade rumors this time of the year.

However, on this day, I missed this particular story published in their NBA section. Thankfully the Houston Chronicle’s Anna-Megan Raley made mention of this rumor in her blog.

After clicking on the link in Riley's blog, this headline popped up from the T&R website, “McGrady backstabbing Yao?“ Intrigued I kept reading and the little snippet in the post read like this:

“This is the fifth season Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming have played together in Houston, so you'd think by now that everyone would be comfortable with their roles. Apparently not. McGrady has been privately complaining to friends in recent days about Yao taking too many shots and not being tough enough. Like McGrady has never been accused of either.”At the bottom of the page, a link presented itself to an article written by Mitch Lawrence.

On the New York Daily News website, towards the end of Lawrence’s column entitled, “Grizzlies finally do something right with pick of sensational rookie O.J. Mayo” (even though technically the Timberwolves drafted Mayo) there was the aforementioned McGrady-Yao alleged tiff. Now, I’m unfamiliar with Lawrence’s work, so I can’t comment on his character, or the quality of his work, but after reading that statement, I can’t believe this “riff” was actually published.

Getting past the gossipy feel to the article, and acknowledging that the whole basis for the statement is an alleged private conversation that more than likely occurred on the other side of the country — the story fails to pass the "smell test".

Let’s think about it logically for a moment. In this article, it alleges that Tracy McGrady — the oft-injured superstar of the Houston Rockets — is complaining that not only his teammate “soft”, but shoots far too much.

Being the intrepid “reporter” I am, I did a little research. Lawrence’s column was published Sunday, January 11. Assuming the “conversation(s)” T-Mac had with his friends were somewhat recent, I decided to look back at the box scores of the Rockets last seven games.

The group of games looked at started from the matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on New Year’s Eve, to the Rockets blowout of the New York Knicks the night prior to this publication.

What did I discover you ask? Of those previous seven games, only twice had Yao taken the most shots. One occurrence was when he went 9-of-18 against the Bucks (McGrady went 3-of-10), the other time was where Yao shot 5-of-12 against the Toronto Raptors. Mind you in the same game, McGrady made only two of nine shots.

While in the other two games both McGrady and Yao played, McGrady took more shots than Yao. In the game against the 76ers, Yao made four of nine shots, as McGrady made five of fifteen. While against the Oklahoma City Thunder, McGrady attempted twenty shots, to Yao’s ten.

Keep in mind, Yao is the team’s second-best shooter, as well as he averages the third-most shots attempted on the Rockets (13.1), trailing both Artest (14.1) and you guessed it, McGrady (13.3).

As for the soft part, well T-Mac might have said that. Yao hasn’t often been labeled as such by many. However, it’s still odd for me to comprehend why T-Mac would say that about Yao considering the Rockets’ center has only missed one game while McGrady has missed 11 so far, and likely to miss at least another six games . It’s as though Donald Trump is criticizing someone for being vain.

I’m not saying this was made up. If it turns out to be accurate, I’ll gladly acknowledge it as such, write a public apology to Mr. Lawrence, and subsequently publish a “Get the hell out of Houston” piece directed at T-Mac.

However, any journalist — who did a little bit of research — would acknowledge the highly skeptical nature of this alleged incident. Then subsequently dismiss the report as gossip and being the prudent individual they are — pass on publishing it.

It just cries of an effort to increase traffic to the NY Daily News website (which it most likely has), and focus on increased readership than necessarily the truth.

In the end, it comes down to one of two things, either T-Mac is one of the most unaware participants in the history of the NBA, or Mr. Lawrence needs to go back to college.
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Link:http://www.examiner.com/x-1154-Hous...o-some-sports-reporters-have-any-common-sense

ind0fo0 · Jan 15, 2009

That was an excellent piece of intellectual sports writer vs uneducated sports writer.

That first "article" was clearly fictitious- and Yao's response to Raheel's comments just solidify it.

DaDakota · Jan 15, 2009

ind0fo0 said:

That was an excellent piece of intellectual sports writer vs uneducated sports writer.

That first "article" was clearly fictitious- and Yao's response to Raheel's comments just solidify it.
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Tmac's absence from the bench, the locker room, and the team....speaks a lot louder than anything said directly to a question.

DD

ind0fo0 · Jan 15, 2009

DaDakota said:

Tmac's absence from the bench, the locker room, and the team....speaks a lot louder than anything said directly to a question.

DD
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You are suggesting there is a feud between Yao and TMac right now?
You really are a fan of controversy.

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