In T-Mac's Defense - Perfecting the Upset's current article

I'd have to say he started losing interest after his second loss to Utah. I think that's when he gave up on this team, until Artest came along and he decided to have one last go. Then he gave up.

Before that, Tracy did fine. Although every year after the 04-05 season his intensity certainly did die off.

 

Toronto only hated McGrady because he didn't re-sign with them.

Orlando hated him mainly because demanded a trade from their.

The hate from the Houston fanbase is different from the other two especially Toronto.

 

The hate from Houston started when he got into a fight with the front office over his injury - when he started talking to his own doctors, etc. What people seem to forget is that he was right. He said he wasn't healthy; the Rockets said he was. It turned out he needed microfracture surgery. He wasn't being lazy - he literally couldn't play. And then after that, he had burned a lot of bridges with the Rockets, so of course the fans will take the side of their team rather than the injured player.

 

Basically, a knee injury in 2007 caused the hate of the fans in Houston.

I'm disappointed in McGrady too.

Remember when T-Mac injured his knee mid season 2007-2008 season? When Yao was diagnosed with a injury that would keep him out for the entire season?

Dude continued to play on his knee injury, which probably made it even worse then it really was. At the time, it was a good idea because it was in the middle of the 22 win streak, so he played hard even without Yao.

If we shut him down mid season with Yao, McGrady most likely does NOT need knee surgery and potentially today, he is still a Rocket.

McGrady's biggest mistake: Playing on his knee injury through the entire season even through the playoffs.

He had to drain his knee in the playoffs too multiple times which in my opinion, led to his decline.

Listen at the 1:35 mark through 2:00 -

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I know I'm just saying the fact that Toronto fans hate him doesn't really mean much because they didn't hate him until he signed with Orlando.

 

He didn't need knee surgery. He had arthroscopic surgery on his knee. It's elective, routine, and maintenance. Remember how fat he was at the start of the 08-09 season? That would indicate that he didn't rehab properly afterwards.

 

The only "hate" towards Tracy that has somewhat reason behind it is Houston because of how he acted towards the end of his tenure here. The other two teams are bitter and should be "hating" their front office at that time.

Hate and despise are strong words, let's save those for Casey Anthony, Osama and Scottie Pippen.

 

Orlando fans hated Shaq.
A lot of Laker fans still hate Shaq.

He played in his absolute prime in those 2 cities, and brought Orlando to the Finals and the Lakers 3 rings. I don't think there's anything seriously wrong with Shaq.

Orlando fans still wanted McGrady to re-sign with the team after 03-04, so the only hate from them was that he demanded a trade and dissed their organization afterward.

He did us wrong, but that was primarily b/c he didn't know how to handle his injuries appropriately.

Thanks for that clip. Tmac could have shut himself down that season when Yao went down, but he manned up and played hard. People didn't realize but he got his knee drained after every damn playoff game. The guy wasn't soft, but he was mentally soft when he was limited by his injuries.

Which brings us to next year in 08-09. It was his fault for coming into camp not fully recovered and in game shape. But the coaching staff and organization should have known when you have a guy limping like a mofo, he should have shut it down until you know he's able to play again (ala how Adelman handled McGrady the NEXT year).

But they let him limped his way in and out of games, and let him control all the decisions. The organization should have stepped in. But they stepped in a year too late.

Both sides were at fault, but the whole thing started when TMac came in still limping. It was a procedural knee surgery that a lot of players have. No excuses for him coming in still limping.

 

Apparently to some people, one "TORONTO" game, makes the whole of T-Mac's career illegitimate.

Talk about cherry-picking evidence...

And no, even the "TORONTO" game, is debatable. Kobe, LeBron, basically every superstar have had those kind of moments. T-Mac (may [or may not]) have done it against the Toronto Raptors, and LeBron did it against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals against the Mavericks.

So I guess, LeBron's "DALLAS" game, now invalidates anything and everything he will have done and will do for the rest of his career.

Hmm. I bet.

 

TMac did have "quit" in that game as he stayed primarily around the 3pt line for the entire game. I think it was primarily frustration with his suckiness for most of the year, and his inability to get healthy. He couldn't grasp how badly he has been sucking, esp. for a player when healthy is a top 5-7 player in the world.

And it's understandable for Rocket fans to go at him, b/c there is no excuse for quitting in the game.

But you're right. Other stars have had games like that, where they wilt when things don't go their way. Kobe did in the playoffs in fact. Some argue Lebron did too.

TMac's problem was that he was mentally weak, and thus he wasn't able to mentally cope with his injuries. That was his demise.

I don't think he ever meant the Rockets any ill will, b/c he still says that the 08-09 team was his best chance at a ring. The way he handled things that year lacked the professionalism that a great player like him should have shown.

But times have passed. I don't know why the OP still brings up McGrady. The guy is now irrrelevant.

 

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Remember earlier in the 07/08 season, dude was on top of the MVP list for the first month... He actually looked more like the 04/05 version of McGrady.

A knee injury can seriously derail a player so easily, really sad..

Anyways, McGrady really has bad luck. The year they changed the first round series to 7 games, McGrady and the Magic had 3 games won against the Pistons. A year before that rule, they would be in the 2nd round, lol..

 

Horrible use of the "tin man" analogy, at least the tinman helped lead his team to the wizard. Tmac wouldn't make it past the wicked witch.

I think this article was written by a Tracy fan. I prefer the Kelly Dwyer articles on Yahoo, less biased and more credible.

 

I'm a McGrady fan, and there was bad luck involved. But if he was mentally stronger, he could have easily overcome the knee injuries, which weren't a big problem at first. He overcame the back injuries, and it took him a long ass while to do that too.

Kobe Bryant has battled knee injuries for several years now, and you can see him decline in his play. But his work ethic and strong will allow him to "delay" that decline by working hard, and adding small things to his game.

TMac could have had that "slow" decline, if he had worked hard.

TMac's legacy is what could have been. I truly have great regrets for him b/c he easily could have gone down as one of the top 15-20 players to ever play the game if he fulfilled just 80% of his potential. He was that good.

EDIT: again, make no mistake, I think TMac will still be considered a great player by most b/c he did have 8 great years where he was a top 10 player in this league. But the injuries and his lack of playoff success will overshadow his individual greatness, when he was healthy, especially by the general NBA fans.

 

It didn't turn out that way at all. Several doctors said he didn't need surgery. He kept asking around until he found a doc that he agreed with. Even then I think the prognosis was micro was "a last resort".

You also leave out the part about all this happening right around the trade deadline, when he conveniently decided his season was over.

 

So do the 2005 role players include McGrady? Wouldn't that mean they had better role players?

 

Question - out of the entire team, which guys complained afterwards that they weren't getting enough touches? Which guys said that the reason they were disinterested was that they weren't touching the ball enough? I don't seem to recall the ENTIRE TEAM coming out and saying that. Am I wrong?

 

I remember that toronto game, artest was doing his regular routine of overdribbling and taking bad shots... if you notice he continued to throw him the ball out of frustration to make it obvious.

 

Once and for all can you provide us some real proof that there was no rehabilitation going on besides saying subjective things like he was fat?

I also remember he had surgery on his shoulder the same off season and I never see that mentioned

Im just saying, some of you guys have a jaded view on this guy, right wrong or indifferent,when you inject things like this without showing concrete proof and it looks bad.

 

The real proof is the fat. Think about it.

 

wait, T-Mac played vs LA that season? No.