[Justice]Maybe McGrady, Artest should sit down, talk things out

There has to be some level of truth to this. This is like the 10th time we've heard about locker room issues... Doc Rocket, Feigan, Adelman, Blinebury, Aldridge have all reported varying degrees of locker room conflicts this year.

These guys are more plugged in than most of us will ever be. They have access to players, team personnel, etc. which we don't have.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss these articles. There are some definite problems in the locker room.

 

There is a big problem between McGrady and Ron and it is not gonna be fixed.

Obviously, it has been a shaky season for McGrady (but after commingback he is playing better and better). I can't say that about Ron. He is playing HORRIBLE.

Ok, he said that about McGrady's defense. I agree. TMac has to STEP UP on both ends. But how on the Earth Artest can say those things.

HE IS MUCH WORSE THAN T-Mac. T-Mac is becoming to play better, Ron sucks on both ends. As Justice said, sometimes it looks like he is not a part of the team.

HE HAS TO GO!

 

I bet if you stood next to Ron you'd hear a tick tick tick, which is why I'd prefer the Rockets trade him, because the minute they sign him to a long term contract, they're putting the entire franchise in his hands, and that's a frightening thought. A very frightening thought.

 

The feud between Mac and Artest are overblown.

On every team there are players who don't like each other. This team just needs to start winning and you won't hear about chemistry issues.

 

You can have one jerk on a team, but not two. They'll breed.

I forgot who said that, but it's dead on in describing the Rockets right now. I thought Artest might have done well in coming to Houston because he was coming in a mature, professional locker room and that would have kept him on the straight and narrow.

But in his own way Tracy is just as flaky as Artest. Now you've got two flakes in the Rockets causing headaches.

 

You won't start winning when 2 of your 3 key players are not together and call out each other.

 

i think tracy feels disrespected a guy playing worse than he is has the nerves to talk.

if that was yao or scola yapping to the media, i doubt he could say anything b/c those 2 guys have been consistent players for the team.

but ron artest? the entire organization is disappointed with him and he's yapping?

there is tension in the locker room. but it's a few wins from being no tension.

 

Kobe and Shaq disagrees.

You can get through it. The problem is T-mac and Artest haven't been healthy this year. These reports about them feuding is way overblown.

 

Don't forget the posts Doc Rocket made about how Battier hates T-Mac's guts, or the reports about friction between Yao and T-Mac.

There's problems in the locker room. The Chronicle finally ran a story about tension in the team. That means things have finally reached the point where even the Chronicle can't ignore them.

 

I've never read anything on this board saying that Battier hates T-mac's guts.

And all these things reported about the locker room is common sense type stuff that I could makeup.

 

i don't see it. tracy is the only one looking for yao consistently the past few games. tracy remains the only one consistently searching for shane on the corner. they all cheer for one another when one does well.

as long as on the court they show comraderie, it's all good.

their frustration comes from tracy's inconsistency, being in and out of the lineup and those things are solved now with tracy coming back, playing well, and playing better.

 

Check out Doc Rocket's posts.

And my point is that the Chronicle will cover stuff up unless it's forced to deal with controversy.

 

I don't feel like looking up all his post, I'll just take your word for it even though I would think if he said Battier hates T-mac guts it would of been a thread about it.


Our locker room problem is no different from any team that had huge expectations but has had disappointment in the 1st half of the season.

Overblown is what it is.

 

I bet what happened is there was one lockerroom argument and people made it out to be like it happens year round. Until people start calling each other out through the media, I'm not going to believe it. You say these guys are more plugged in to the players, but they also want to sell papers so a rumor like this that can't be proven one way or the other is the perfect thing.

 

just because you have disagreed with his take on things in the past does not have any impact on the veracity of the information in this story, whatsoever.

justice is a sportswriter. typically they write two kinds of pieces 1) editorials to express an opinion and 2) informative pieces to share information with the reading public. if you cannot differentiate between the two, then that is a failing on your part, not his. all sportswriters do what he does, but they all have their own style, and rjs is a little more sensational, that's all.

so basically, you dislike richard justice, fine. as long as you are aware that your distaste for him and his work is causing you to portray yourself as a consciously ignorant fan, then go ahead and discredit him. when another five stories are published saying this exact same thing, in different words, lets see you stand by your words like you expect rj to.

in short. you say rj has no credibility because he writes articles based on no facts. and yet you are disagreeing with his article, and you have no facts. good work.

 

No... thats the exact OPPOSITE thing a sports newspaper would want to do. If two players are fighting in the lockerroom, thats the exact type of thing that sells papers. No one wants to read an "Everythings fine Rockets fans" article.

 

Battier is politically correct, he is way smarter than Ron or Tracy,...and would never say anything publicly.

Now Tmac and Ron though....Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are a completely different story.

DD

 

And when another 5 stories that say the same thing come out (and that don't just reference RJs article), then it will be more believable. That hasn't happened yet. It's always one random guy who says he has a source in the Rockets that knows these things.

I mean, I'm not saying it definately isn't true, because the Rockets could be trying to keep this sort of thing for the media. But we can't just assume that the media isn't going to try and create rumors for the sake of selling papers, or maybe there is partial truth to this but its greatly overeggagerated.

 

there are already a bunch of stories about this. there have been stories about this for months now. there are also recent quotes by ron, yao, tracy, rafer, rick, morey, etc that validate the fact that the rockets locker room is not united. there was an editorial by blinebury that was widely panned here. there were many posts by doc rocket validating this. there's a team that's vastly underperforming its talent level because they won't play together. there are a bunch of bad losses and finger pointing. and now, here's another article . . .

i mean, what else will it take?

 

If there's anything to this, it's probably Ron pushing T Mac to man up and lead by example, instead of words, and I highly doubt buttercup would appreciate being called out in the locker room about his lack of toughness.