I understand the frustration with McGrady in particular, but it seems to be a more general problem. From what I've seen, the intensity level of play can vary greatly from game to game, especially in the middle of the season. It's not that the players don't care and are going through the motions. But fatigue, injury and lack of focus seem to play too great a factor in many of the games. Although I don't get to go to the games in person, I still try to watch or listen to them whenever I can. But if I invested a lot of money and time to go see the game live, I'd could see being understandably underwhelmed by some of the effort.
Ok forget about the silly job comparisons. The fact remains that Tracy is not giving the fans their money's worth. Maybe you're not a season ticket holder so you can't relate. We don't want to give up our good hard earned money for season tickets to see our "star" player shutting himself down. Forgive us if we feel a little cheated out of our money.
Wow, great post, well said and great use of perspective. Something you'd think T-Mac would have plenty of having recently visited Darfur...
I just want to tell you newbs that when Barkley took a massive pay cut to get Pippen here, he played his butt off and never quit on the team. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/1999.html Rk Player Salary 1 Hakeem Olajuwon $12,943,000 2 Scottie Pippen $11,000,000 3 Brent Price $2,240,000 4 Eddie Johnson *$1,000,000 5 Charles Barkley $1,000,000 6 Antoine Carr *$1,000,000 7 Michael Dickerson $949,600 8 Bryce Drew $857,000 9 Matt Bullard *$662,500 10 Rodrick Rhodes $639,300 Compare that to this T-Quack. Would T-Quack ever do this? No. You know why Barkley did that? He wants to win. I don't think T-Quack cares about winning. (last years salary, but we know tmac makes the most here) http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2008.html Rk Player Salary 1 Tracy McGrady $19,014,187 2 Yao Ming $13,762,775 3 Shane Battier $5,883,600 4 Bobby Jackson $5,670,000 5 Mike James $5,632,200 6 Rafer Alston $4,550,000 7 Bob Sura $3,840,000 8 Luis Scola $2,910,000 9 Steve Francis $2,430,000
I think you are taking basketball ridiculously too serious when you start comparing T-mac to something as serious as the financial crisis. Its just a basketball game. Nothing more than a form of entertainment. Nobody is forcing you to spend money on the Rockets during this state of the economy. Maybe you need to get your priorities straight if you think of T-Mac when speaking of the financial crisis. I mean, why stop there? Lets ridicule guys like Francis and Marbury who get paid millions and millions to basically stay away from a team. Or celebs who get paid millions for making crappy movie while we pay $10 to see it. Folks just need to stop treating basketball as more than just a sporting event.
I get pissed when Hollywood suckers me into going to another lousy blockbuster. How many times have we seen Nicholas Cage mail-in a performance? I pay for the actors salary. I go to the movies. or when some bands show up in Houston and just don't care to give their best vs when they play at Red Rocks or other great venues. And don't get me started about some of the horses I've bet on who clearly aren't running with heart, just because they don't feel it that day.
players salaries and effort have no correlation with how much the fans spend on season tickets. how much we spend on tickets doesn't mean we deserve a winning team on the floor. look at the season ticket buyers for teams like oklahoma, the Clippers, memphis, etc... let's not start comparing how much we, as individuals, spend on season tickets...
Another thing is: Since the lower bowl corporate types and the luxury boxes pay for a vast majority of the player's salary, and since they aren't good fans to show up enough; then if we are going to make a comparison to joe the plumber where he pays the salaries making players accountable to him, then in reality, the boss (the corporate tickets and luxury boxes) pays the players a lot but don't really care to pay attention to the employee performance. What does that mean?
thats all good and fair, but to the OP and all the other suffering season ticket holders- if you are disgusted enough- ill take the tixs off ur hands any day of the week
What I am trying to say is that its one thing to have a bad season. But its another thing to quit on your team, the fans, and the organization after they all have tried to make you successful. I respect Grady, but its not right that he give up on the fans after we all have been loyal to him for the past years. Its an honor to play basketball for a living, so why give up?
you're missing the point. I understand that simply buying season tickets doesn't automatically equal wins or means we deserve to win. When people spend hard earned money on tickets we expect to see the players play hard and compete every game. Season tickets or single game tickets are not cheap. So when you see the franchise max out player not giving his all out on the court possibly "quitting" on his team it's a little frustrating. I just feel it's the players responsibility to play hard while on the court otherwise they are disrespecting the game, organization, and fans.
matac3, I am sorry and I feel ya. Please continue to support rockets because I konw you are just a heart broken true fan and rockets need us more than ever. One person quit on us but look at the bright side we still have the other 15 hard working players who we can continue to cheer for.
