Sorry if this should be consolidated into another T-Mac thread but I found the following interesting: http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2009/01/wouldnt_it_be_nice_hawks_103_r.html Fran, Do you think T-Mac will face any long term ramifications for quitting on his team? Will he need to prove himself to his coach and team mates, or will everyone just pretend it never happened? KB [He's been confronted by a number of his teammates and been sat down and spoken to several times by Adelman and Morey. --Fran] Fran Could you provide some information on what was said and which rockets players confronted him? [He's been told he needs to get his act together and play harder by more than a couple of teammates. --Fran] Thanks It seems pretty clear to me that the public statements by Alston and Artest are just the tip of the iceberg.
Good, somebody just needs to wup his ass......I swear, his ego is too damn big. The more more I hear, the more I don't want him here...
Definitely Rafer. Perhaps Brent Barry or Artest as well. Maybe Battier, in his typical diplomatic way. I can't see anyone else on this team seriously confronting him.
You've got to figure Rafer, definitely. One, he's one of the team's leaders. Two, he's come out publicly and basically blasted T-Mac. Not directly, but you can read between the lines. I don't see any of the rookies or younger players doing it, but any of the vets are a definite possibility. Barry, Artest, maybe Battier or even Yao. Mutumbo too, although I think Deke would do it in a very diplomatic fashion given his friendship with McGrady.
I'm sure Mutombo has been on the phone with him. But more to help him, and give him guidance, which is probably better than just confronting and telling him he's a coward.
Has everyone written off the fact that T-mac is still semi-injured? I'm sure his lack of effort wouldn't be an issue if he could just play on a healthy body. I think it's one of those situations where a lingering injury not only deprives him of quickness and decisiveness, but also hurts his motivation to a certain extent (why go for a low reward, high-risk block when you might mess up your knee doing it?). It would be one thing if our team was lousy and T-mac quit like he did in Orlando. But this season our team had more hope than ever with the addition of Artest. I don't think this is such a black and white situation as many posters on this board are alluding. If you've ever tried to play ball with a lingering injury, it can really sap you of the energy you give out on the floor. I think he should just take a month off and rehab his knee really hard.
If it was really just an injury why would his own teammates be confronting him and telling him to "get his act together"?
If T-Mac's teammates have to tell him to get his act together then the Rockets don't have a solid locker room, by definition. Or at least it's a locker room with very questionable components.
Right now something wrong is going on. Maybe they have to make a meeting... But damn, last year's our chemistry WAS THE BEST in the NBA
Don’t you think that Rick Adelman, with all his years in the league would have taken that into consideration? Don’t you think that the players would have had meetings with the other injured Rockets too? No, Tracy is shutting it down for other reasons and it is apparent to everyone except Tracy fans. When you stand at half court while your team is playing 4 on 5, you are quitting. It would be different if he was limping or hoping on one foot when that happened.
Seriously....I'm having the hardest time believing this is something different than VC getting himself out of Toronto. Evan
Any of us that know the first thing about orthopedics knew full well the past 2-3 months that McGrady wasn't injured, semi-injured, quasi-injured, or otherwise. The knee is structurally tip-top. It was structurally fine in September. Fine in June. Nothing structural had to get fixed in May. He blew off rehab, didn't get himself back into playing shape like most stars have the sense to do (Yao, Kobe, Roy, etc). Showed up to camp and blew it off cause he wasn't in great shape. Discovered in Nov that the strength & conditioning fairy hadn't swung by overnight, got embarrassed by his own play and declared that the knee must not be fixed. Our doctors told him it was fine. His second opinion told him it was fine. He decided they were all wrong and he just needed to NOT do anything and give the strength & conditioning fairy a few more weeks to come by. Still nothing? Well shoot. So now he's caught in a web of excuses (and piling new ones in - sure he's 2-9 shooting.....but if he had more chances he could TOTALLY improve that to 6-17!). Reasons I wonder about with his dogging it: 1. Less embarrassing to play bad from lack of effort than to play bad when you were giving it your all. 2. Honestly wants out of town for undisclosed reasons.
The McGrady situation is troublesome and weird. I honestly think there must be something really wrong in his life, which sucks cause I trully like the guy.
