Check the link I provided. The story I read did not include any clarification...just the quote I posted.
Tracy has accquired new energy over the past month or so and really he has removed whatever bad luck or curse that he has had on his career in terms of being fragile having post season success and not being recongnized as one of our great players by the media. When tracy said he sucked after one of our road games he took repsonsibility for many of his blame shifting actions. By taking repsonsibility I think T-mac has changed his games 10 fold and as of right now he will be blessed with more and more success for the future.
Sigh. I wish people would just get tired of this constant game of 'Gotcha!' that they love to play with professional athletes. On the one hand, we expect, nay, we DEMAND, that the players on our teams perform at a high level, we expect them to be 'better than the other guy', and we require that they both reflect and feed our own desires for winning above all. In fact, we criticize and mock our players if we perceive them to be lacking in this bravado, this confidence, this belief in themselves. Who among us would not be galled if one of our own players were to publicly say, 'This team we are about to play, they are very good, probably better than us, and I doubt we will be able to win.' Just imagine it - it would be Armageddon-like. And yet, we lie in ambush, we goad, we spur them on, we do everything we can to entice them into saying the very thing we demand that they give us: a belief that they will win. We wait for them to say anything at all which can be even vaguely interpreted as a 'guarantee', all so we can leap up from our hiding place and yell 'Gotcha!'.. it's really kind of pathetic, and the 'journalists' who jump on these quotes in hysterical consternation, hoping to stir up the fans' ire at such controversial remarks, are an embarrassment. All fans should expect this belief from their own teams' players all the time regardless, but the Rockets, especially now with this ongoing rarefied winning streak, should be expected to feel this way even more than any other team at the moment. And to criticize them for it is ridiculous. It's a catch-22, it's hackneyed, it's tired, and it's utterly meaningless to anyone who understands the competitive nature of sports.
This should be framed. Best post I have read in a long time. Kudos to you for your thoughtful remarks. However, there is something to be said about Tmac not being able to handle success or failure well. It seems he is naturally inclined to accept a step above mediocrity. Too much success or failure makes him unable to deal with it. Tim Duncan never says anything like this. The moment you think you can't be beat is the moment you will lose. Why place unnecessary and undue pressure on yourself or your teammates. I thought he said be humble and work hard.
I don't think Atlanta will be much of a problem. Sure they have some good defensive players for ex: Josh Smith but the Rockets moving the ball great is not gonna be enough for them to contain.
Hawks might be a tough one for us, especially when their PG Mike Bibby knows about Adelman's system inside out..
ESPN is running with this saying TMAC is guaranteeing a victory. notice how they only take things out of context to make it sound controversial.
Yeah, read Nero's post (on this page, a few posts above) for a good synopsis of this guarantee phenomenon. The media bashes you if you tune them out and give them the same old cliches (Barry Bonds) and then they bash you when you give them too much (Chad Johnson).
