The action's the same though. I don't care about the ramifications, look at the intent. Let's assume for a minute that the Pistons offered Wallace, Wallace and Hamilton for T-Mac, but only if he signed a long-term deal with them, which, if you believe the reports, he wouldn't do. Now, that's screwing the Magic out of a much better trade than what we're offering. Both players want to go where they want to go and I have absolutely no problem with that. It just so happens that one of them wants to go here and his name's not Steve Francis, so most of you are blind to the fact. Can't discuss anything about Steve with Steve haters, though. I'm wasting my fingers.
come on RM...that's not fair. i'm not a steve-hater at all. i'm just seeing a sharp contrast that you're not.
The bashing of Steve hasn't been fair in my eyes either. Hell, if he wouldn't have said anything, people would be b****ing that he doesn't care about Houston and his time here so screw 'em. I feel for McGrady if he doesn't put up 30ppg and lead us to the Finals next year. Yao too...his honeymoon's about over.
This is not what I said - I said that his argument that he does not want to be in a rebuilding situation does not make sense. If he really believes that a core of Francis, Mobley, Cato and a #1 pick, plus potentially Grant Hill as starters in the East does not have a shot, one logical explanation that would follow out of that position would have to be that something must make a huge difference then from what he perceives in Houston and Orlando.
You should care about the ramifications. FA is a right that McGrady has. Steve doesn't. McGrady has every right to say that he won't sign a long term deal with Detroit if he doesn't want to be there. Orlando could lose McGrady for nothing, because he can be a FA. How can he be screwing them by letting them get at least SOMETHING by proclaiming his intentions???
No, I'm using past evidence of everyone bashing Steve here to form a hypothesis. Not a far-fetched one either.
Because they could get a better deal if he wouldn't say anything. He's potentially screwing the Magic by allegedly saying that he will only sign a long-term deal with the Rockets. Sure, they could lose him for nothing, but there's always the potential of a better deal if he doesn't say where he'd sign.
You guys really aren't seeing the point. McGrady isn't screwing Orlando out of a better deal because in reality, any deal is better then him walking. The fact that he came out saying he wanted to be traded, then kept his mouth shut to let Orlando find the best deal is already being VERY kind to the orlando organization (granted, he did give some preference). The day that T-mac himself comes out and says, "its houston or no deal b/c I won't sign anywhere else", then Houston could really turn and lowball Orlando, thus screwing them like what francis is doing to us. To this very day, that has not happened yet. Steve has no right and you people are blind to think they are in comparable situations.
Seriously, with the exception of DaDakota's "good riddance" (what else would you expect from him) and a select few others, my opinion has been that most on this board were wishing him the best and many said they would root for him wherever he went (me included). http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79088
Would they have to be? I wish him the best, never hated on him...but I think the way he is acting now is wrong, and it is NOT the same thing as what McGrady is doing, in this case. I am not saying one or the other is the better person, but I think Jebus and others clearly showed the difference between the two situations.
And when are you gonna realize the reason for that? When a guy thinks of nothing and noone but himself first, excuse me for not wanting to be his fan.
RM95 -- seriously...do you not expect fans to be upset with Steve? i mean...throw out all the logical arguments. throw out my tortious interference analogy. do you honestly expect houston fans to embrace him after this, if this deal doesn't go through?? should you expect that? think they would in boston?? la?? orlando??? anywhere else??? the guy has clearly had a career that has been disappointing from a team persepective. despite high hopes, we have exactly one playoff appearance and one playoff win in his tenure. this in a sport where more teams make the playoffs than don't. it's not working. i don't hate steve. i don't hate him at all. i have a problem with what he's doing here. when you sign a deal, you live to it. saying you won't play unless shaq is there is childish when you're under a max dollar contract...and an affirmation of every criticism we've ever heard of francis from the moment he lobbed the bird at the grizzlies right through the super bowl fiasco. everytime you want to believe he's more...he turns out to be less. this is just another case of that.
But he could have screwed them worse by just leaving and leaving them nothing. while we're talking about screwing, what's worse, trying to help out your team a little while you still get what you want, or trying to totally screw your team because they hurt your feeling and tried to trade you? Now this, I agree with. But again, it comes down to degrees of screwing. (I can't believe I typed that). Partial screw job (TMac to the Magic) or total screw job (Francis to the Rockets). What you still haven't addressed is this:
