[ProBasketballNews] McGrady hopeful, yet back pain will always linger

well, i'm hoping that the whole back thing of last season was overblown. if i remember correctly, wasn't TMac's first injury of the season severe tendinitis of the knees? that is what i might be more concerned about because once TMac favors a knee or two, that's when the real stress hits his back.

TMac was never an ironman and i think that the Rockets may eventually have to monitor him the way Orlando finally did for Grant Hill. by that i mean, if TMac is feeling any severe pain in his body that noticeably effects the way he plays, he needs to sit until it abates because no one ever gets better by playing through injuries. unless, it's the conference finals or beyond, the risk is too great.

as for TMac becoming more of jump shooter, i'm not too concerned about that. he is still along with Yao one of the top 5 most gifted offensive players in the league even without a consistent interior game. he simply doesn't need to play like Iverson to put up big numbers. anyone remember a player named Michael Jordan? the last 3 titles he won, he relied on his turnaround fadeway for the vast majority of his shots. yet he still scored close to 30 ppg on around .500% fg shooting and still got to the line at a high rate. now TMac has no where near the mental game that Jordan had, but remember that Jordan didn't win his first title until he was 28 years old. so i refuse to believe that TMac is over the hill until i see it. and finally, as far as the unbeataBulls were concerned, there was no inside presence that Jordan or Pippen could defer to. that was a team that simply couldn't play inside-out.
yet the 95-96 as well as the 96-97 Bulls are considered by many to be two of the top 10 strongest teams of all time.