[GRANTLAND] Bill Simmons: The Unfortunate Tale of T-Mac

yap....

 

Great piece on T-Mac. I hope people can just let their absurd obsession and hatred for T-Mac go. These self-proclaimed and so-called hardcore Rockets fans ignore all the good he ever did and go beyond crazy-stupid into the realm of full-r****d. And as you know, you never go full r****d people.

 

I'm surprised his comment about Yao wasn't mentioned here, I'm in the vast minority here but tend to agree.

 

http://nosebleedhooligans.tumblr.com/post/59445961446/nba-2k13-lifes-a-ball-with-tracy-mcgrady

 

Really enjoyed the article. Read every word.

Quick side note...I say this as someone who has been a huge fan of Simmons since his early days on Page 2, but his name dropping has gotten ridiculous. Notice in that piece how he casually mentioned that he texted Kobe? It's probably not all that uncommon for a big name writer or TV personality to have the number of player he has interviewed quite a bit, but you don't often see it brought up in that way.

 

Good read but not always accurate. You can tell Simmons was a McGrady-romanticizer who probably didn't watch many of his games back in the day. Here, he decides to use a few stats which back his point and dumps on all of his past teammates to drive it home.

His career wasn't black/white - he wasn't some tragic talent who was thrown into the worst of situations, there's a lot more grey area to it. There are a lot of things being glossed over by Simmons, with the leadership critique being the only real shot at his career.

 

Was this really necessary, Simmons? Of course, you've consistently hated Yao, so I guess yet another cheap shot is par for the course.

As an aside, why do fans of players like to pump up their own guy by flaming their teammates? T-Mac is the example here, but Jordan and Kobe are other examples of a similar effect.

 

I had little hope of being a tmac fan after the 2007 playoffs game 7 when we lost to utah on our home floor . What made me turn on tmac was the 2008 2009 season. We were supposed to atleast make the finals with that team.We traded for Ron Artest because he needed help and Yao was not enough. His injuries and the potential trade he stopped for an all star just did it for rocket fans. I wish him well though.

 

T-Mac's teammates more or less DID suck when you factor in health. When Morey took over and finally assembled a good roster around T-Mac and Yao, their health was basically shot at that point. The window was closed.

 

So, did Morey ask The Gorgeous to be more of a leader because The Goofy isn't wired that way either??

 

This.

Yao Ming got out of the first round because he managed to stay healthy for one year more than Tracy McGrady did. The 08-09 team had some serious talent even without McGrady-- Yao, Battier, Artest, Scola, Brooks, Carl Landry, Kyle Lowry, Hayes, Mutombo and even Von Wafer. The 09-10 team, which was basically the 08-09 team minus Yao and substituting Ariza for Artest (and later trading Landry for Kevin Martin), managed to be above .500 in the absence of its two max guys.

Another thing to consider is that the Rockets, in particular Yao Ming, had really bad injury luck going into the playoffs both times they played Utah. In 06-07, Yao Ming missed a stretch of games midseason with a foot injury and was not the same when he came back. Not that he wouldn't have struggled covering Boozer anyway but he definitely was slower. In 07-08, Yao missed the playoffs due to injury.

Would have loved to see Yao and McGrady stay healthy long enough to have a few runs with the talent that Morey could furnish around them-- I agree tha Morey had built a great supporting cast by 2008-09 and would have loved to see that team kept on building itself, but such is life. Morey has done a remarkable job recovering from the loss of his two stars.

 

Can we just ban tinman from posting in any thread with tmac or Tracy mcgrady in the title

 

Looks like Clarence Weatherspoon and Vin Baker should have played alot more...bad coaching

 

Just block him if he gets to your nerve.

Back to topic.

Great talent, still love him even with the way it ended, but I still got to say this, if only his heart/drive match his talent. We will be saying Kobe who?

 

I agree. One could refute the whole Yao-was-overrated argument in this context by simply giving our winning percentage when both Tmac and Yao played together, which was what, .600? Higher than that? The Yao mention should have been about injuries, not the fact that he was some overrated lane-clogger.

 

I normally don't let Simmons garbage get to me but wow. Hope he enjoys his 20-win Celtics.

 

Very nice article.

Simmons made a big mistake to go on TV. He is a passionate, but opinionated fan who writes very well. He should stick with his strength.

I think his Book of Basketball is an entertaining, excellent piece of work, especially for those who have been following basketball for decades.

 

Surprised he didn't mention the playoff game where only 3 others besides McGrady scored.

(NOTE: I didn't read the last few paragraphs - so apologise if it's brought up there

 

Hey Tinman, I'll take Bill Simmons and JVG's opinion on Tmac over yours.

What a troll

 

I just quoted Bill Simmons , so by default you hate him too