Did it just take you three paragraphs to basically write "No, my opinions are based on a body of work, not just this quote. You have a senseless view of McGrady"...? You must be an English major, or a poet. Well my overly descriptive friend, I find your views of McGrady exagerated and I disagree with them. I think you are frustrated with our team's shortcomings and are looking for a scapegoat, which I can understand. But, most of you, simply disregard what he has done for this team. Btw, the Orlando comment was simply a jab at the constant reminder of how we can't talk about how well he played in Orlando, but we can talk about his attitude. A double standard, in my opinion. And no, I have no kinship with McGrady, other than a general appreciativeness of his body of work in Houston. Most, as you do, seem to base your criticisms off of this year, which I agree holds merit, but I will not go out of my way to look for some fault in every quote and every game. The majority of this stuff is overblown and out of proportion. A mob mentality looking for a witch to burn. I am not a McGrady apologist, I don't care if he is traded, I just want the team in the best possible position. But trading McGrady for Wally Z, Stephon Marbury, Corey Maggette, a bag of peanuts, or Larry Hughes, as has been suggested, is just plain stupid. Having McGrady, if just for the second half of the year and the playoffs is better for the Rockets than any of these trades. So when accused of deflecting his "well founded" criticisms, yes I will ignore the exagerated, overblown falsehoods parlayed as fact on this board by the mob. I am capable of forming my own opinions and do not need others to form them for me. I watched the games, I listened to the interviews, and I read the quotes. I probably spend a third of my day doing something Rockets related.
We should get rid of yao and tmac since they can't do their only job, play basketball. yao is out every year and so is tmac. lets get players that can stay healthy.
"Our jobs are being Houston Rockets fans"? I ain't gettin paid for this... But I agree. The only bad year T-Mac had here was last year. Is that just a coincidence or the nature of his injury? And before anyone tries to tell me anything about playing hurt, I had microfracture surgery twice and it is no joke. He will have a tough road back but it appears that he has surrounded himself with people to help him get back. But no one will know including him until he tries to make that first basketball move and trust me he will be thinking about it... Just my opinion...
I think we should keep a list of T-Mac haters here so if he comes back next year and plays well we can name and shame. You guys are making the guy sound like Judas for wanting to get back to playing earlier? If he hobbled out the season he would have contributed nothing and missed ALL of next season too. At least this way he may come back and contribute to this years playoff run. I can't believe how quickly you guys turn on your own.
Man are people irrational when it comes to T-Mac. This is not baseball, where you can sit out for a year and a half with Tommy John surgery, do nothing but drink beer and walk the dog, and then rev up your arm over the course of 6 weeks (while slapping some roids on perhaps) and then go out and play at a professional level while looking like David Wells. Everyone that plays in the NBA has to maintain a ridiculous level of fitness, and if you sit out for even two months like Monta Ellis did you've basically lost your potential to play at your normal level for that whole year. T-Mac will be sitting out effectively one year + the chump change experience he had slouching up and down the court last year. I tend to find in my experience those who are all too eager to blame McGrady's failure last season on his knee are the same people that don't watch the games. Anyone who watched a good chunk of the whole season last year knows that McGrady had good moments where he was happy and looking like a physically capable wing and bad moments where he was pouting and jogging back and forth all over the place. Then the Toronto game happened. You couldn't spot McGrady on TV if you had a magnifying glass, because on offense he was 6 feet beyond the 3pt line and on defense he was trailing the play like Yao Ming with metal boots on. He wouldn't cross halfcourt at times until the other team passed the ball into the post. He quit. I backed him until I watched that crap, and now I don't support him as a Rocket on this team. No human being with self-respect would act the way he did that night. Toronto was a bad team last year, one of the worst. And from the opening whistle on he took a dump on the hardwood and for some godforsaken reason would not allow himself to be taken off of it. The Rockets could slap a jersey on any of you Clutchfans out there, and assuming you played as many minutes as McGrady did that night, we would probably lose by 40-50 points, but you know what? You would feel an obligation to that jersey to bust your ass off, no matter what the score was. That's what's missing in T-Mac, as a ballplayer and as a person. Whatever happens to him now is at the discretion of management, to maximize the value he can bring us in a deal. But rest assured he will not see a single minute on the floor as a Rocket again. I bet my membership on it.
Did you help preform the surgery on T-Mac? I think the smart thing to do is wait and see how his knee respond after he come back. At worst, you have 23 mil coming off the books in 2010.
why is there another tread on this? I dont think he will be the same Tmac like the past but he can still play a role on the team. The reason why i think we should trade him is because i dont think he wants or is capable of playing the smaller role. He needs to be involved the whole game. He needs to play the point/foward position all game to be effective. The rockets dont want him to be that person anymore. If all we can get is that crap some of been posting then it would be better to just keep him. Plus it is his contract year so if he isnt motivated now than his career is over.
I have faith in this team and I have faith in him to make a comeback and be half or near the man he once was when they traded for him. Also it kills me how you guys can be so called fans die hard fans at that and single out one guy. Ok the man had a bad season. So because he had a bad season guys are giving up on him?? Wow. Some Fans you are. How many Bad seasons has Yao had since he is the next star on this team? How many bad seasons have we gotten from our pg?? Chuck Hayes has had bad seasons before. Landry season wasn't so good. Why aren't you guys bashing them? McGrady was hurt so therefore he is going to have a bad season. Its funny how everyone wants to bash him but that leads me to think they don't play sports and understand what its like to move your body when your seriously hurt. They don't understand the things you can do and can't do.
This is what really kills the players that miss games from injuries; they are working so hard to regain their strength and conditioning whereas the rest of the league is getting in better form and pretty much able to defend them when these injured guys get back. Even a pain free McGrady is going to find that the league has caught up with him, not to mention his natual decline ...
The way I see is that he wasn't disrespectful to Yao/Scola/Shane/any previous Rocket as he was talking using hypotheticals. If I was on that team with this player, I would have won. That's just an opinion, no one knows if he would or wouldn't have. This is similar to his comment about the Lakers winning it all. First off, he was right. As much as I didn't want to believe the Lakers winning the 'ship, they were a good team regardless of our ups and downs in our series. No team challenged them outside of us. They were a balanced team when focused and didn't have to worry about the injury bug this time around (Ariza). I don't label either Barkley/T-mac great players, they were good players. A good player fills up the stat sheet and puts people in the stands. A great player does that and wins the 'ship in the process.
I can kind of understand the first one but the second part is just ridiculous. You dont pick against your team. It doesnt matter if they are better, you dont go against your team. There is a huge difference between Barkley and Tmac. Barkley is considered top 50 greatest. Not winning a championship should not put them on the same level. There are a lot of better players than tmac that didnt win a ring.
I'll always respect McGrady mainly because he was a big part of two of my favorite memories as a Rockets' fan. 1. 13 in 31 seconds- He coulda easily quit in that game, but he made so many ridiculous plays to beat the Spurs. He showed alot of heart and skill. 2. 22 game winning streak- The team is playing great ball. They win 12 games in a row then Yao unexpetedly goes down for the season due to injury. Everyone procedes to give up on the Rockets as a contender. Playing through an assortment of his own injuries, McGrady procedes to put the team on his back and lead them to 10 wins in a row to accomplish something truly historic. During those ten games after Yao went down, McGrady averaged 24 points/5.6 rebounds/5.3 assists. I know Mcgrady gets the quitter label, but i don't think quitters are capable of those kinds of performances.
everybody loves tmac but that doesn't mean i want him in this team. this goes the same way with your wife and mine, we don't want them on the roster.
I wouldn't feel sorry for anyone when you are really expressing your appreciation. The fact is Mcgrady is the one for the most potent all around players in Rox and Magic playoff history... "Holds career postseason averages of 28.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.31 steals and 1.16 blocks in 32 postseason games (32 starts) with Toronto, Orlando and Houston … stands as the all-time leader in postseason scoring average for both Orlando (32.0) and Houston (28.0) … owns 13 career 30-point performances in the playoffs and nine postseason double-doubles." http://www.nba.com/playerfile/tracy_mcgrady/bio.html However, Mcgrady has faced warranted criticism for his on and off court actions, behavior, and expressions or sometimes lack thereof... all of which make him appear as if he doesn't care or have passion or intensity... Larsv8 makes a valid point. In an ideal setting Mcgrady could have exerted more effort to appear more intense and passionate while playing but in all likelihood he was utilizing all of his energy into playing his best despite his physical pain and limitations... An argument can be made that TMAC should and could have expressed more passion and intensity while playing on the court, because as a fan or a teammate watching the game, one may think that his actions mean he doesn't care all that much and is bringing the spirits of others down... From an overall perspective, I think T-MAC is one of the most passionate players I have ever seen (if he was just about making $$$ he could of shut it down early in the year for good, seek sound medical advice, and eventually surgery, proper rest, and rehab) Yet he knew how important every game was for our post season success that in many ways he forced himself to play while hurt to help the Rox in the regular season... Maybe not the smartest decision he could of made since he may have aggravated his injuries yet at the same time it didn't help to have such mixed opinions from doctors and medical staff about saying he's good to go and needs to play more to gain strength when the truth was, he had injuries which needed surgery ex. knee and shoulder I don't think anyone would get surgery unless they absolutely needed to... Furthermore, Mcgrady's trade blocking fiasco with the media was certainly unprofessional, however I laugh, every time I think about it... because I think he did it because He loves the Rockets and wants to win the title so bad that he didn't want to be traded to another team, even though he would of gotten the same $$$ elsewhere... I Believe that T-MAC as a Rocket will have the best season of his career performance wise next season for several reasons (all of which may be equally important to him): a) To regain and grow his confidence, emotional, mental, physical, social well being, and his desire to be the best player he can, be part of the Best team, and ultimately win a Ring... He has yet to advance past the first round while playing on the court. He made a promise to himself and his fans that he would help Rox advance whereas last year was not necessarily the case... b) Window of opportunity is closing for a Championship The stage is set, he has 1 very important year as a Rocket to turn the tables... Rox organization has constructed a Very Strong Contender and is continuing to build on it. There are very few teams in the league that have as much will power, talent, depth, versatility, and desire to win BIG as the Rockets. He had expressed his desire to win the title prior to last season especially with the acquisition of Artest, growth of teammates, and he felt that the Rox had the best chance to do it last season assuming health. He knows the Rockets are now much better without him and he knows how good they will be with him (healthy and playing) particularly in the Post Season... How Challenging is it and how Fortunate do you have to be to win a championship? I'm sure Mutombo has made that very clear to Tracy... Deke, a pre Hall of Famer, has been playing in the NBA with 6 different teams for almost 2 decades (18 years!) and is an 8 time all star and 4 time defensive player of the year advancing to Finals twice, but has never won an NBA Championship. An argument can be made that the Rockets could have advanced past the NBA Champs Lakers had Deke been healthy and contributing. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dikembe_mutombo/bio.html Yao and Artest are in their Prime and arguably TMAC (assuming Good Health) thus Mcgrady has a chance to win multiple championships with these stars, solid teammates, and coaching staff. Which would ensure Hall of Fame status and being one of the Greatest players in the NBA of All Time... I think for TMAC as a Former Multiple Scoring Champion, he certainly cares about being a Hall of Famer and currently he is a Marginal one at best (even with the consideration that he was a main reason the Rox made history with the 22 Game Win Streak) By the way I just noticed that Deke wears a size 22 shoe Could Yao with the Rockets accomplished that feat without Tracy? Maybe not... c) For his Family and Financial Benefit He is in his contract year. Any player who wants to make the most $$$ possible and extend their career will give their best effort... He may really enjoy living in Houston, especially with his kids going to school there, and an extended contract would ensure they he stays in H-TOWN. Worst Case scenerio, if a healthy TMAC cannot play at 50% of his abilities (which is still better than 50%+ of NBA players abilities today) we can trade him by the trade deadline for better players especially since his contract is highly desirable to other teams. As an even worst case scenerio, if he returns to play after the tradeline, Rox will have $20+ million to work with for 2010 Free Agency. Am I disappointed that TMac and Yao have not been able to stay healthy and play in more post season games? Absolutely However, I would allow TMAC final chance to redeem himself and hopefully return by beginning of the season to rewrite Rox history for the Better...
Yes they can. If you're the highest paid player by far on a team of scrubs (which aptly describes the Rockets following Yao's injury), you get the green light to take 60% of the team's shots, grab the garbage rebounds, and create assists for yourself. Kind of like how you would play your favorite player on NBA 2k9, you know? Put Kobe or Melo on the Rockets during that 10W streak after Yao's injury and they would put the utterly unimpressive line of 24/5.6/5.3 to shame.
