LOL. Tinman you are on a roll with this post, and I can't say I disagree with it, especially the punch line - More is not "if he was healthy" Yeah, TMac could have been remembered as a hero, and it all has himself to blame. I am pretty sure, TMac was kind of remorseful, especially after he was welcomed with warm cheers.
I was at that game. I wanted to leave too, not because Tmac was sucking, but because as a team we were sucking. The Spurs were playing incredible defense. Tmac up to that point was our best player though. JVG speaks the truth. I also remember him disputing the notion that our playoff losses were "on him" though. He said something like "just because we couldn't finish the deal on the defensive end, doesn't mean the loss was on McGrady" or something like that.
I'm sure Tmac enjoyed being cheered as to being booed like in the Pistons and Hawks game here. The sad part is that the Tmac fans here don't even know that the greatest what if he was healthy Rocket, was NOT HIM. The funny thing is people think I might get some type of disappointment that he was cheered. Come on man, anyone who saw his stint as a Rocket would know what real disappointment means.
That's why I always loved JVG, coz he's just honest and open about his opinions. He's always open with his Rockets love. However, with the way he's questioning officiating and making fun of the commissioner at his ESPN commentating, I am afraid no team dares to hire him as a coach again, because his team will have 20 free throws disadvantage every single night.
It was a team loss yes. but he's the leader of team. I posted an article Mario Elie wrote about Hakeem's leadership, it was fantastic. You know why we got Ron Artest right? Not to compliment Yao, but to add attributes that McGrady didn't have. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y_yk4Egfqys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That's true. I was at that game 7, he looked like he was really trying to create out there. He seemed to be the only one that was able to handle the ball. That year we got Ron Artest was our year, man. I feel that even without Tmac, if Yao could have stayed healthy we had a chance to go deep. I'm not too upset about the shenanigans that Tracy pulled that year because when he was playing in the beginning of the year, he was a shell of his former self. He clearly was not fit to play. The injuries frustrated him, he couldn't handle it. Honestly a lot of times he was out there he was hurting the team, no quickness/explosiveness at all. No lateral movement. It was sad.
you know what fascinates me is that some posters (you can find them here) say they hate Kobe and love Tracy. In the Dish, they posted how Kobe is working out at 4am in the morning in the gym. You see what JVG says about Tracy's practice, and you see where both of these guys are today.. It pretty much says to me, that these fans, would rather be talented and not work hard then be talented and work hard. It's not difficult to figure out why Kobe is Kobe and Tracy is Tracy at this point in time.
Of course, tinman would be the last to post in here right when I log into the front page of the GARM.
Kobe certainly has a drive that Tracy didn't. But then again, it's tough to compare someone to Kobe, most players don't have the drive he does. I certainly hate Kobe when he plays the Rockets, lol! But he will go down as one of the greatest to play the game. There was a very brief window of a couple years when Tmac matched up pretty decently against Kobe, at least individually. I remember debates in school about who was better, hah.
if you blame t-mac for the loss, you're also giving him credit for the 22 game win streak since he was the leader of the team. simple logic.
1+, before the winning streak, Rockets were fallen apart, Tmac was playing very badly, then he his back injury took him out for 7-8 games. At the moment the team was out of the playoff picture. Then the team started to play like a team winning 6 out 7 games without Tmac. Later, Tmac joined the team, I remembered that Tmac said he would not mess the team's chemistry and try to play within the system. It was a great team effort, not that short lived 35 second fame for sure.
It wasn't in the playoffs when he quit. Only negative thing I have to say about him regarding the playoffs with the Rockets is when he said if we don't win, it was going to be on him, and then took no responsibility when we didn't end up winning against the Jazz. It was throwing the rest of team under the bus, even if it was true. What he did in his last season here was just embarrassing. I'll remember the good times like the 13 in 30 against the Spurs, the 22 game winning streak, and those great playoff series, especially in 2005. I'm also going to remember telling Stephen A. Smith about his knee surgery before the team, his pouting, and the Toronto game.
