**Official McGrady/Pistons 2010 Regular Season Thread**

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/vi...ie-villanueva-mcgrady-has-brought-leadership/

 

The season where Yao was out and we were winning 22 in a row, didn't McGrady have knee problems then?

We didn't have much chance of winning a championship, but we were making the playoffs. I remember he had a choice to sitting out and getting the knee fixed, or keeping playing but getting it drained every so often. If I recall correctly, he chose to keep playing, and as he progressed the same knee got worse and worse.

The organization managed his situation just as poorly as he himself managed it. So all in all, both parties walking away was the best option, and that's exactly what we did. Good move for both parties, we needed a change and he needed more chances.

 

He should have taken knee surgery mid season to get more time to recover.

 

Actually it is his weak side, at least now. I always tought that as a right handed player you always I mean ALWAYS try to go left. At least for me it is easier to for example shoot a pull up.

I don't know.

But we all know his right knee is his strong knee so he will continue going left.

 

That's true. He injured the knee at home again Dallas. I belive he bumped intp Josh Howard and that's how the injury happen.

 

No. Dirk fouled really hard on his drive to the rim and he felt hard on this knee. I still remember that game

 

he felt on knee with whole body weight. It was the last game for Steve Francis in Rockets uniform also

 

crap. fixed

 

Usually, right handed players drive to the right and jump off the LEFT foot.

Left handed players drive to the left and jump off the RIGHT foot.

 

exactly. all the t-mac haters say he had no heart but he was consistently playing hurt all the time. how is that not heart? he was hurt and still led us to make the playoffs in 2007 and 2008. t-mac haters fail to realize this and are quite unappreciative of t-mac.

 

this article was written by a Rockets fan

http://www.clutchfans.net/news/1545/the_day_t-mac_lost_houston/

The Day T-Mac Lost The City of Houston
After debacle in Toronto, Rockets star is going to have to win back Houston fans
MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2009 12:34 PM CST
By Clutch
Copyright 2009 ClutchFans.net
Tracy McGrady had diehard Rockets fans at "hello" when the team acquired him from the Orlando Magic in 2004, and by the summer of 2005 he could have run for public office in the city and won by a landslide.

The 6-foot-8 wing was loaded with natural scoring talent, but his high basketball IQ and innate passing ability brought together a ragtag group of teammates and won over the masses in the city.

13 points in 33 seconds. "The Dunk" over Shawn Bradley. We're talking true Superstarville. Bringing the entire package at just 25 years old and gracing the court alongside Yao Ming, McGrady looked poised to deliver on the "big things" he promised in Houston.

So how exactly, in the span of a Presidential term, have things gone so horribly wrong for McGrady in Houston?

After the Rockets 40-point loss in Dallas in Game 7 in 2005, McGrady said, “I’m 25 years old and I’ve got a lot more years in this league, and I will be back next year. I will be back next year.”

I believed him. We believed him. Only, he wasn’t back the next year. While McGrady sat out some games with a legitimate back injury, the 2005-06 lottery season saw him miss many others for mysterious reasons.

McGrady returned strong the next season and played very well for much of the first half of 2007-08, but he still managed to feed his critics by how he responded when there was an uphill battle to climb. There was that game against Golden State. There was that game in Philadelphia. There were several games he just decided not to play in the final hour. While naysayers mocked McGrady’s "It's On Me" declaration (followed by "It Wasn't Really On Me"), this was something far more concerning. There was a growing sentiment that McGrady, while gloriously talented, was not the guy you wanted next to you in the foxhole if things started to go south.

Yet, while this voice of frustration was starting to build in the city towards McGrady, his rare talent and critical importance to the team drowned it out. He still had the support of the majority of the fans.

Then Toronto happened.

January 2, 2009. The Rockets are in Toronto to face the Raptors. The team and McGrady had just established that T-Mac would only play one game of back-to-backs, and with Atlanta to follow the next night, Toronto was chosen as the game T-Mac would play.

Or so we thought. T-Mac was badly off, shooting 2-9 from the floor to go with a pair of assists and turnovers. His body language was bad. With the game slipping in the third quarter, it went from bad to downright terrible.

The Rockets were down 17 and had the ball with 1:30 left in the quarter. Carl Landry gets the ball in the post, turns to score and hits a wall of two defenders in his grill. Why does he have two guys on him? Because there’s a Rocket player not in the play… not even in a panned camera view.

McGrady is standing a few feet from the halfcourt line.

Landry tries to pass to the only open guy by throwing a risky 30-foot laser. Like a safety, Raptors forward Jamario Moon swoops in to intercept and is taking it to the house. McGrady, because he was out of the play to begin with, has a good 5+ feet on Moon almost the entire way back down, but as they get to the basket, T-Mac plays the matador, letting Moon go right by him for an easy dunk.

The next play was much more damning.

Rafer Alston, Ron Artest, Luis Scola and Landry are all running a play. They’re all hustling. They’re all trying to make something happen. However, it takes five, baby.

McGrady is not in the play. Again. He’s standing just inside the halfcourt line. Again. When Scola gets an offensive rebound, he gets the ball back up top to McGrady, who has no interest, playing hot potato with it immediately.

By now it was evident. This wasn’t an injury. This was showing apathy. This was pouting. This was quitting.

McGrady confessed after the game he was a "little frustrated", but his source wasn’t an injury -- "It's kind of hard to get in the groove when you're only touching the ball once every five minutes," said McGrady.

And there you go. The effort qualified as both the straw that broke the camel's back for many Houston fans and the smoking gun for his critics.

From there, McGrady and the team went in opposite directions.

T-Mac took two weeks off to get in shape, proclaimed that he was now back to his normal self, then two weeks later announced on his own through ESPN, without so much as a Post-It note to the Rockets organization, that he was shutting it down to undergo microfracture surgery. When McGrady did show up at the arena, he was booed regularly by the Houston faithful.

Meanwhile, the team won 22 of their final 30 games, broke the first round playoff curse, pushed the eventual champions to 7 games and endeared themselves to the city by establishing an identity as a fearless, hard-working squad that never surrenders.

Now, just 6 months later, this same franchise is supposed to trumpet the return of the anti-Cal Ripken, the embodiment of apathy, excess and entitlement, as their offensive leader -- a forced marriage that now seems a painfully awkward fit.

This shouldn't be about hate, love, payback, insurance or rehab. It's also not about his talent, which isn't in question. It's about being confronted with the reality of what last season confirmed. It's about having a clear knowledge now that McGrady is not a guy you can count on. We know this now – we’ve put it to the test.

I've been a diehard Rockets fan for as long as I can remember, and I've often said I would EBay my soul for a few extra 'W's. As fate would have it, that's exactly what it would feel like I'd be doing by welcoming back McGrady with open arms and pretending the Toronto game just never happened.

 

all i know is if tmac had no heart he wouldve gave up on the night when he scored 13 in 35 seconds!everytime tmac is on the court he brings a presence a presence that houston needs and is truly lacking they GAVE UP on him and didnt back the franchise player up when his career was in the balance.ya he was injured a lot but yao is injured just as much and he is getting special treatment.tmac tried to play hurt and thats what really set him back.i miss the tmac-van gundy era .ever since tmac left the rockets theres not that star factor that even an old mcgrady still brings every time he touches the court.he is already showing he was a steal for 1 million and he is only getting better.lets face it rick adelman didnt like tmac and well now you get what you deserve adelman!im a pistons fan because of tmac and tmac is pretty much the only postive watching the pistons. he will get the last laugh!

 

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Look I'm not suggesting that this is what we saw at all times from T-Mac here. But when you are supposed to the leader of the team, the franchise player, the highest paid player, playing with heart is expected. Why should we stand up and applaud when someone performs the duties that are expected from them when they signed on that dotted line? But you better be damn sure we are going to criticize you when you quit and put up a "performance" like that.

Rockets' fans don't hate T-Mac because he didn't bring us a championship. Cause let's face it, it wasn't all his fault that we didn't win during his time here. Rockets' fans hate him because of the Toronto game, the way he left, and trying to throw the organization under the bus. How many people here have had a relationship with a significant other end badly? Whether it be from unfaithfulness or for any other reason? Did you say well she did me wrong, but hey the 12 months before that was just gravy so how can I be mad at her? Why can't T-Mac fans get that?

 

that must mean you only watch like 20 minutes of basketball each game then cause t-mac ain't playing that much.

of course he got the last laugh, Tmac got 25 million bucks last year and didn't play half the season.

rick adelman,
mike d'antoni
the coach of the magic, raptors etc

of course! TOFs will only root for McDNP's current team. they have no allegiance or origin.

At least Kobe fans started off as Laker fans, Jordan fans started off as Bulls fans, Olajuwon fans were Houston fans.

Tmac fans? those are fans who didn't like Kobe and had to find an anti-hero.
Pretty much Kobe created you guys.

 

adelman really ruined everything.

I think we'd have been better off under JVG. There was less drama, and better defense, and imagine if you had combined Morey's ability to get talent with JVG's ability to get the most out of his players.

 

Because they aren't Rockets fans!

Rockets fans know the entire time line of Tmac in Houston, from the Francis trade to shipping him out to the Knicks.

what they do is totally ignore everything that the TEAM does, like the 22 game winning streak, that was TEAM, but they'll label it as Tmac's 22 game winning streak.

It's Yao's fault, it's Rick's fault.it's d'antoni' fault, the pistons need to play him more blah blah blah

Rockets fans know.

 

Yes, there are the delusional Tracy only fans. And then there are the equally delusional, rabid, and more aggressive "I hope Tracy dies" crowd that pulls reasons out of their asses to hate on him.

He's on a different team now folks, different division, different conference, and at this point it seems neither teams (Rockets and Pistons) have a shot at making the playoffs... So, why the hate?

If the guy sucks, then good for Rockets fans, that just means we get easy wins whenever we face the Pistons.

 

A yao only fan preaching others about fandom. Priceless.

 

Not you, i meant jo mama. Dudes a YOF and is preching othes about fandom. lol