that's a "reasonable" way to look at it if you're a "reasonable" fan knowing we had zero chance to win a ring. but people would call tracy a quitter last year if he did that, guaranteed. but again, in tracy's mind, he might have thought we could have done things b/c he was so confident in his game and his team. and he got more confident as the winning streak got longer. and he was confident in the utah's series or else he would not have stepped up like he did. tracy's not a quitter. if he knows he can play his game and help the team, he will. but again to your point, tracy's making sure of that right now. he wants to get as healthy as he can so he won't miss this chance. and we're seeing this team can survive without him, esp. with an easy schedule. again, we need to make sure yao's game return to that great level b/c we need him at that level if we're going to win big in the playoffs. tracy will be tracy. we need yao to play like he did tonight. and with tracy being out (maybe like to end 05-06), it'll force yao to bring his game to another level.
yup, he should've consulted Miss Cleo and known exactly how much heal time is needed. plus, why not quit on year's chances?
And the media shouldn't be accusing Tmac of dogging it either. I thought we were Rockets fans here, do you want this guy distracted and hating Houston because the media continues to poke fun at him?
these are our big 2's stats in elimination games 04-05 v. dallas game 6 tracy - 36 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists (14-26 fg) yao - wasn't very good in this game (can't find his stats) 06-07 game 7 tracy - 29 points, 5 rebounds, 13 assists yao - 29 points, 6 rebounds 07-08 game 5 tracy - 29 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists game 6 tracy - 40 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists if we're complaining about those performances in big games from our 2 stars, i don't know what to say.
The problem is, he won't come back healthy. He will be playing at more like 50% instead of 25%. Three weeks. That's three more weeks he will get even further away from game shape. If he didn't strive to get into game shape over the summer when he was injured, what makes you think he will be trying now? Look at Battier. Even though he was out for an extended period of time, it took him only two games to really feel like he was at 100%.
He also sat out the first three weeks of the season after it was said that he would be back before the opener. I wonder what would've happened if their roles were switched. If Tmac had sat out the first three weeks while Battier struggled, then when Tmac came back almost 100% and Battier decided to sit it out... seriously doubt you guys would be dogging Battier. And its funny you accuse the guy of giving up, of not playing through injury, when thats exactly what he's been doing the first couple of weeks of the season.
this article stated the same opinion that i had in an early post about the topic. it's something i would expect from some bloggy fan site, but not from a source as prestigious as the chronicle. definitely a regression for the houston chronicle.
1) battier actually took all the time he needed before he came back. the team expected him to come back 3 weeks earlier, but he didn't. unlike tracy, he didn't come back early. 2) battier is a role player. he's not expected to make plays, go at 2-3 guys, and score. the rockets organization says tracy is rehabbing as hard as one can get right now, according to morey.
exactly. if battier was healthy, tracy would have sat out the first month. and he would be fully healthy right now. tracy sacrificed it and played b/c if he didn't, the team would have been in a hole.
Which reminds me: If Tmac was just giving up when he didn't have to, if the coaches or front office thought he was intentionally quitting on the team for whatever reason, Tmac would be in deep **** with the front office right now. Tmac is no longer the undisputed best player on our team as he was a few years ago. So you have to think if he was just sitting out to be lazy and it had nothing to do with say... him being in pain ever since the season has started... you would think the coach would be all over him.
there's a reason the organization is behind him. morey has not said a single word about tracy being lazy... morey said recently he had a talk with tracy and tracy is extremely frustrated that he can't play, and can't play at his level. there's a reason the team is not trading tracy despite trade offers. and you're right. with this year's team, we're not as dependent on tracy as we were in years past. if tracy steps out of line, obviously, the team will call him out. i still believe in shane was not injured, tracy would have not have played in the first month.
Injury ticker is just classless Whoever came up with this bright idea is not a rockets fan. I hope Tracy sees it and it lights a fire in his soul. Sometimes these things can have a personal effect. I hope Tracy sees it and says "Just wait till I get back."
Ron Artest is supposed to be resting his sprained right ankle during practices, sitting on the sidelines, putting his feet up, doing nothing. Ron Artest can't do nothing. "You should have seen him the past few days during practices," said Shane Battier. "He can't sit still. We're running up and down in 5-on-5 drills and all he's supposed to be doing is watching. "But there's Ron. He's got a ball in his hand and he's shooting jumpers at one end of the floor. He's moving around, running all over the place, putting up shots, chasing them down. "I tell him, 'Ron, you're supposed to resting that ankle. Rest means rest. It doesn't mean shooting.' Ron just looks at me like I'm crazy." So you try to imagine the doctors telling Artest what they told Battier with his sore left foot at the start of training camp: One month. Total rest. Doing nothing. "Oh," said Battier laughing. "They'd have to put him in whatever is the equivalent of a basketball player's chastity belt. You know, lock him up and throw away the key. That's the only way you'd get him to sit still." http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2008/12/love_hurts_rockets_131_warrior.html
ron's a warrior. he has a higher pain threshold. but it's also an ankle. and his game isn't about athleticism or explosiveness. tracy and artest are different styles of players. but by you bringing this up: are you also insinuating battier is weaksauce b/c he would not do any practicing for the longest time? even the lightest practice?
Its not really fair to compare Artests and Tmac's injuries and draw conclusions because you don't know the severity of both injuries. Maybe they are the same and we can conclude that Tmac is a pansy and Artest is a warrior, or Tmac's might be much worse. We don't know, we are just making assumptions based on quotes from the media. And this is the worst kind of bashing that Tmac could get. On this forum you have a bunch of nobodies on a site that the players probably never see. But with the Chron its professionals on the most popular newspaper the city has. Its just despicable. It would be one thing if the Chron could argue that they were helping Tmac out somehow, but I can't see how this could help him. And if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
The problem is that T-Mac is disregarding medical advice to play to strengthen his knee. Battier followed medical advice in keeping off his ankle. In his latest blog post Blinebury called T-Mac "Dr. McGrady" because T-Mac clearly feels comfortable about prescribing his own course of treatment for his knee, regardless of what the real doctors say. The Chronicle isn't interested in helping out T-Mac. The sports page editors there have clearly come to the conclusion that's he's wussying out--that's the whole point of the ticker. It's an editorial statement and it's there to call out T-Mac. I don't think they feel there's any need to call out Battier, or Yao, or Artest.
