McGrady is better than Baron Davis. He's consistantly put up the numbers and carried the Magic on his back to prove that. Just about every statement TMac's ever made has come to fruition - except for the statement about the Magic winning game 4 of the Charlotte series, though it wasn't for a lack of trying. Baron Davis just proved in that series to be much better than Darrell Armstrong and Troy Hudson, Orlando's point guards. Not to take anything away from Davis, no, but Armstrong and Hudson aren't among the league's elite point guards. It's called confidence. If your star player and your team doesn't have it, you aren't going to go anywhere. McGrady chooses to air his out publicly, while Kobe has gradually learned to keep it to himself, as I imagine Tracy will do over time as well.
IMO Penny in his prime was the equal of McGrady and Kobe of today. He, not Shaq, hit the shots to get Orlando in the NBA championship (late in the game you couldn't go to Shaq because of his 50% FT and the fact he was still learning where to kick the ball) and he also had some phenomenal performances against the Bulls in conference champsionships. He was just as scary to me as Shaq was going into the finals against them, good thing for those bricks by Nick, clutch shots by Kenny, and big mo that carried the Rockets for another 3 games. That series easily could have been much tougher with just a couple different bounces of the ball, though I think inevitably the Rockets would have won in 6 or 7 because the Rockets were more balanced with more well-rounded and clutch players throughout their top 8. In fact of the 3 (Kobe, McGrady & Penny)--McGrady has the least impressive team accomplishments. Now it surely has much to do with McGrady's supporting cast, but it could also have a lot to do with his team leadership (time will tell). Of course while Penny's talents steadily diminished his leadership qualities seem to have exponentially diminished--go figure. But that doesn't take away what he could do his first few years.
I agree Desert. Penny was just as complete a player as Kobe or Tmac of today, if anything he might have even been more polished. Penny could post, had a nice touch to the three point line, and had excellent vision. I am sure he could have scored 30-35 when he wanted, but he had other scorers on his team such as Shaq, Grant, DScott, NickA, and he still managed to get everyone involved while scoring his 20ppg. Yeah Penny isn't the same player, but his first few years were as good overall as any years Kobe and Tmac had IMO.
