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Florida Today: T-Mac earned these boos (Warning: Plenty of sour grapes)

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Faos, Jan 21, 2005.

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  1. Faos

    Faos Member

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    T-Mac earned these boos

    http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/columnstoryS0121KERASOTIS.htm

    BY PETER KERASOTIS
    FLORIDA TODAY

    ORLANDO -- TRACY MCGRADY WHERE'S OUR REFUND?

    It was just one of the many myriad signs that dotted the TD Waterhouse Centre, where Orlando Magic fans welcomed back their latest least favorite son.

    Shaquille O'Neal.

    Penny Hardaway.

    Tracy McGrady.

    The list of former Magic players that Orlando rolls out the unwelcome mat for continues to grow.

    It is McGrady, though, who has gotten himself under the fans' skin like a vein. Shaq's sin was his desire to leave Orlando for the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the Los Angeles Lakers. Penny's sin was complaining and ripping the city on his way out.

    But Me-Mac's sin was unforgivable.

    "I was slacking off," McGrady told Sports Illustrated of his play last season, his last of four years in Orlando before his offseason trade to the Houston Rockets, which was no real revelation for those who witnessed his play. Typical of Me-Mac, he also blamed such an egregious act of non-professionalism on others.

    "How can you play if you don't trust your teammates?" he also told SI in their January 10th edition. There were other self-incriminating comments in what will forever be an infamous interview.

    So the boos and the signs were out in full force.

    ROSE ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, T-MAC'S A WHINER, AND A QUITTER TOO

    Yeah, Tracy McGrady cheated himself when he didn't give his best, which is bad enough.

    Worse, though, is that he cheated the fans.

    It's the fans, of course, who ultimately are the ones who pay his enormous salary. Few sports stars ever really get that. Tracy McGrady probably never will.

    To him, it's always about him.

    Such was the case last night. It was all about him, but not in a very positive way, in his first regular-season return to the scene of the crime.

    And make no mistake, not giving your best is about the worst crime you can commit in sports.

    As another sign pointed out, it helps that the Magic are a better team without him, even if they did lose last night, 108-99.

    T-MAC 21-16, NEW TEAM 21-16

    And let's not overlook that the Magic entered the game with a better record than the Rockets: 21-16 to 20-19. How that'll shake out by the end of the season, we'll have to wait and see. But right now it is obvious that the Magic improved greatly by trading McGrady.

    As we know, in return the Magic received Steve Francis, Kelvin Cato, and Cuttino Mobley, whom they recently traded for defensive specialist Doug Christie. Ultimately, you could say the Magic got three starters for one. And just compare Francis' numbers last night to McGrady's.

    Francis -- 28 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists.

    McGrady -- 27 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists.

    No one would honestly argue that McGrady is a better talent than Francis. But what good is talent without heart, as one sign noted.

    TRACY WHEN YOU SIGNED WITH HOUSTON DID THEY GET QUITTERS INSURANCE?

    McGrady played hard last night, which you would expect. Before the game he tried to say that his return was no big deal. "It doesn't matter at all," he said of the expected fan reaction. "They're going to do what they're going to do. But regardless, I still have a game to play. It really doesn't matter to me."

    After the game, it was the same theme. "I can sit here and say they should forgive me," he said. "But my words aren't going to matter. I'm not going to change them. So really it's irrelevant."

    It is relevant, of course. And it does matter. Then again, maybe it doesn't. With Me-Mac you can never tell. Maybe he really couldn't care less.

    What we do know is that Tracy being Tracy, he'll turn it on and off depending on what his mood and psyche dictate. Whereas a guy like Steve Francis always has his motor running and his foot mashed against the gas pedal, Tracy is all too familiar with how to coast.

    And so, as another sign aptly questioned, we'll always wonder.

    ARE YOU REALLY PLAYING NOW?

    He was. He played harder last night than perhaps in any game he played for Orlando last year. Had he played last season like he did last night, he might still be here, enjoying adulation.

    Instead, every time his name was mentioned, every time he touched the ball, every chance the fans had, they booed him.

    Tracy McGrady earned those boos.

    It is, of course, the only thing he did earn.

    Contact Kerasotis at 242-3694 or HeyPeterK@aol.com. Listen to him Friday mornings from 8:30 to 9 on WMEL-AM 920.
     
    #1 Faos, Jan 21, 2005
  2. Nick

    Nick Member

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    waa....

    I hate reading sports articles from one-trick towns like Orlando, Sacramento, San Antonio, or Memphis... they get too personal about their team because that's all they have to cover.

    That being said... when the writer started comparing their STATS... I stopped reading. He basically mentioned the fact that T-mac won as an afterthought.
     
    #2 Nick, Jan 21, 2005
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2005
  3. Faos

    Faos Member

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    I couldn't resist. I had to email PeterK.

     
    #3 Faos, Jan 21, 2005
  4. Clutch

    Clutch Administrator
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    SO funny. SO SO SO funny. Anyone think if T-Mac dropped in 50, Francis 14 and the Magic won, they would have mocked "Me-Mac" for "getting his" and being stats-oriented, but that Francis is the team player who led his boys to victory?
     
    #4 Clutch, Jan 21, 2005
  5. MrRolo

    MrRolo Member

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    Orlando media = trash. I laugh everytime I see them refer to T-mac as Me-Mac.
     
    #5 MrRolo, Jan 21, 2005
  6. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    If they did do it, it would have been rightfully so. The guy quitted on the team last year, again I ask, what if he quits on us this year? Their reasons for sour grapes with Mac is well deserved
     
    #6 hotballa, Jan 21, 2005
  7. Coach AI

    Coach AI Member

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    The overexaggerated 'quitting' angle will be the last gasp for folks like the guy who wrote this article; their last chance to believe they have some higher ground, until the fact that McGrady is gone, Francis is there, and both teams are moving on finally settles in.
     
    #7 Coach AI, Jan 21, 2005
  8. lancet

    lancet Contributing Member

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    Every word came out of any Orlando magic tastes SOUR. If the situation wasn't bad in Orlando, nobody would ever trade T-Mac for Francis. The trade was completely one-sided for Houston, if building a championship is your goal.
     
    #8 lancet, Jan 21, 2005
  9. KeepKenny

    KeepKenny Member

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    Christ, you quit one time in your life and you're forever branded a quitter. You think number one picks just happen? You think we got Yao by "trying hard"? How bout Dream or Ralph? Bad teams quit. It happens. Welcome to professional sports. These Orlando fans think they're too good to have a team quit on em? Boo frikkin hoo.
     
    #9 KeepKenny, Jan 21, 2005
  10. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    Right, let's just see how you feel when the Rox are in the same position.
     
    #10 hotballa, Jan 21, 2005
  11. Doctor Robert

    Doctor Robert Member

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    I can't believe that they feel like they have a right to complain. They got 3 starters in the trade and got better. Rockets got T-mac and got better.

    And he complains losing McGrady was worse than losing Shaq when the other incident sent their entire franchise into the dumper for 8 years?

    On the other hand, Houston has a reason to whine with an incident like Griffin in our recent history. We trade 3 first round picks and get an incurable, depressed, alchoholic, female abusing man-child in return that sets our franchise back 2 or 3 years.

    BTW, they hated McGrady way before the SI article. It is absurd to think that article revealed anything they didn't already know. Just another reason to whine.
     
    #11 Doctor Robert, Jan 21, 2005
  12. Davidoff

    Davidoff Member

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    I hope to god our media doesnt rip Carlos Beltran like Orlando does for Tracy... It's just sad
     
    #12 Davidoff, Jan 21, 2005
  13. KeepKenny

    KeepKenny Member

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    See, the Rox won't be in that position because they don't have dumbasses trading away all of Tmac's help.

    The other day i was trying to think of the best players tmac ever played with in Orlando. Refresh my memory if i miss someone:

    1. Mike Miller
    2. Armstrong
    3. Gooden
    4. Kemp?

    The list isn't very impressive. To make matters worse, they let Armstrong go so they can sign Lue, and then they sign Howard to a behemoth contract when they have an almost identical player in Gooden (who they traded Mike Miller for). So then the team sucks, and Tmac shoulders all the blame. So, yes, I wouldnt be surprised if he quit on us if we put him in that crappy situation.
     
    #13 KeepKenny, Jan 21, 2005
  14. Friday

    Friday Member

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    The beauty of rhetoric is that it's all rhetorical.
     
    #14 Friday, Jan 21, 2005
  15. pickymen

    pickymen Member

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    Wow. With this kind of standard, this article still get published?! They built a CBA-like team around him and made him a scapegoat. And it's not like they got a bad deal out of the trade. Get over it.
     
    #15 pickymen, Jan 21, 2005
  16. JBIIRockets

    JBIIRockets Member

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    I haven't had a take yet on T-Mac admittingly "slacking off" until now.

    So what if he slacked off. Magic fans are looking for something to complain about because they once again lost a superstar player. The only reason why he did slackoff was because his team last year was full of crap. He only slacked off in the 2nd half of the year when the Magic's playoff fate had already been sealed.

    You see, it's human nature for a star player (who has had playoff experience in the past) to not be as motivated for each and every NBA game in the 2nd half of a season if the team's playoff chances have been realistically eliminated, and this is what T-Mac means when he says he slacked off last season. But T-Mac haters and Magic fans are too stupid to figure this out.
     
    #16 JBIIRockets, Jan 21, 2005
  17. JBIIRockets

    JBIIRockets Member

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    Replace Kemp with Bo Outlaw
     
    #17 JBIIRockets, Jan 21, 2005
  18. Faos

    Faos Member

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    Damn, balla...you are one bitter dude. Don't your fingers get tired from defending Francis in every thread?
     
    #18 Faos, Jan 21, 2005
  19. JBIIRockets

    JBIIRockets Member

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    You really think Les Alexander is that stupid?
     
    #19 JBIIRockets, Jan 21, 2005
  20. BigM

    BigM Member

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    i love how in these articles it's convenient to leave out a couple people, grant hill and dwight howard. something tells me that the the magic would have been loads better then last season with or without the trade. it seems like both teams got what they wanted so why do they feel the need to dump on tracy so much?
     
    #20 BigM, Jan 21, 2005
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