for the love of god guys, don't give me any of that "leadership" cliched BS that you heard once on ESPN and you thought it was cool to go around repeating it as the main characteristic for a great player.. call him a nut job, soft, has an attitude problem, doesn't put in enough effort, settles for mediocrity etc.. but don't pull a Kenny Smith smarta$$ analyst B.S and start talking about "Leadership" was Kareem a "leader"? was Hakeem a "leader"? was Robertson a "leader"? was Clyde a "leader"? was Moses a "leader"? NO, not your conventional dirty talking domineering obnoxious player who granted is a great player, but behaves like a jackass and yells at his teammates when they miss a shot (see: Bird, Larry and Jordan, Michael).. and no, MJ is not the best player the game has ever seen, he's great, but probably the most overrated player ever compared to the likes of Baylor, Roberston, Hakeem etc.. (yes, Hakeem > MJ anyday of the week) so quit the leadership bs, get a brain moran (for the lolz), and start b****ing about his injuries/softness, which are both the real reason why he's been doomed to sucktitude for so long..
Did you ever watch these players? They were all unbelievably fierce competitors. Dream was ALWAYS getting into scuffles and was probably the most intimidating, intense defender of all time. Clyde was beyond intense and was so especially with the Blazers............And they were all much bigger trash talkers then you might think, and certainly more commandeering than Tracy. Lets play a game, whose personality does not fit........... Hakeem Olajuwon Moses Malone Clyde Drexler Tracy Mcgrady Oscar Robertson Kareem Abdul Jabbar ....
They couldn't build anything until they got out of Grant Hill's contract. Tmac's contract was not the problem. I can't believe people here are actually siding with Weisbrod nowadays. Four years ago he was public enemy #1 in this BBS, now he's a prophet? The guy was slinging mud in order to save his own face. He was a poor GM who did not know crap about how to run a basketball team.
I don't think he cares about his stats in a selfish way.......common misinterpretation....... Tracy is not selfish, but he is too..............."cute with it". If you see what I'm saying. I guess you'll say it is the injuries or something. Maybe, maybe not....
I won't deny that Weisbrod was an ******* lol, because he was. He completely killed off Steve when he traded Cuttino for DOUG FREAKIN CHRISTIE..............
you should take a closer look at Kareem's playoff success when he wasn't paired with either Oscar or Magic: 1974-75--missed the playoffs 1975-76--missed the playoffs (playing w/Gail Goodrich, Lucius Allen, Cazzie Russell) 1976-77--swept in the 2nd round thoroughly outplayed by Bill Walton 1977-78--first round fodder 1978-79--lost 1-4 in 2nd round outplayed by Jack Sikma His playoff record in the prime of his career with some HOFers, but not Magic or Oscar was two yrs missing the playoffs and 8-14.
Oh yeah when he averaged 30-15 and 4. But both of those teams were around 40 wins a year.......And you are vastly overrating the 75-76 Lakers squad. No chemistry, and Kareem was the only true constant on defense......... Did Bill Walton not say he thought Kareem was the greatest player he had ever played against? And he was not outplayed by Bill Walton, He was outplayed by the Portland Trailblazers............. Anyway that is why Hakeem is the GOAT of centers..... He did it without a great guard, which is very, very rare, almost unheard of. But most normal Bigs need someone to control the perimeter while they lockdown the paint...........
During that five year stretch, Kareem was considered to be soft, whiny, and not a leader...getting headaches, etc. Don't use no chemistry with the Lakers as an excuse. If he is such a great leader, it wouldn't matter. You can't give Kareem excuses then say TMac gets none.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y54eZ6WVkzo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y54eZ6WVkzo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I think the owners statements on T-mac not making his team-mates better makes me laugh in the jvg era, he was the focal point of our offense, either he dishes it to Yao, shoots a jumper, drives in for a foul, or dish it out for an open 3......when he went out I have never seen a team struggle so much without the option of open shots. He may have played immaturely on the Magic but he made our Houston team better, the problem on our team is not T-mac, its Yao Ming, he slows down our tempo, clogs the paint, is a liability on defense, and as long as he remains on the Rockets roster we may never make it out of the first round. T-mac's passing ability is so essential to the the sucess of our team; We all know if we were an eastern conference team, we would rape the East aside from maybe Boston/Detroit. There is just too many good teams in the West for us to face especially when Yao chokes in the playoffs every year. Dallas was stacked the year we played them , Utah has been deadly these last couple years, and Boozer abused Yao 2 years ago, we have successfully won 50+ games with JVG, and RA as our head coach, if T-mac gets traded I guarantee we would be worse off then to keep him.
The Orlando Tragic sympathizers fail to revisit history and learn the facts about the real situation. 1) They burned over a $200 million in the summer of 2000 on signing two guys who play the same position. 2) Drafted a good solid rookie of the year - Mike Miller then traded him within 3 years to Memphis for mediocre prospects. 3) Surrounded the team with the talents of Shawn Kemp, Horace Grant, Pat Garrity and others McGrady was the least of their problems and his stock in the NBA was so high because of his own merit. When they signed him from Toronto, The Tragic had no idea this guy could be top 3 player type scoring champ. McGrady proved everyone wrong and that he was superior to his cousin Vince. All the thing being said about McGrady right now were said about guys like Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett. Not every superstar in this league can become a one man show like Kobe or MJ the measuring stick for that matter. Some will be great player and soon McGrady will be vindicated and his haters proven wrong. Till that day hold you chin up and enjoy the game fellas!
They got out of McGrady's contract and added Lewis contract, which is worse in a cost : value ratio sort of way. Orlando did not improve any by trading away McGrady, they already had Howard in the bag either way. I think Howard and McGrady in the east would have been a nice tandem, but of course the injuries would have got in the way regardless.
so is that some kind of definition of "leader". Why didn't you include that before. This really says little, and you shouldn't get in a stat argument with me while flat out ignoring that the league considered Kareem a wimp in his prime in the mid-late 70s. In Hakeem's first 11 yrs...he missed 87 games. In McGrayd 11 yrrs...he missed 110 games. Subtracting the 9 DNP-CDs in Novermber of his 1st yr as an 18 yr old...that's down to 101. Subtracting the 9 games at the end of '04 when ORL sat TMac to go into tank mode,...he's down to 92. So, discounting November rookie DNPs as an 18yr old and ORL mgmt forcing him to sit so they could tank for Howard...TMac is a mere 5 game difference from Hakeem. does that mean anything? I'm not saying Hakeem's not a leader because he missed as many games as TMac. I'm just saying Kareem missing few games does not make him a leader.
i watched most of the vid but i had to cut it off when the Magic GM said "we got a solid backcourt and the first LEGITIMATE big we've had in some time".....he was talking about kelvin " i had more blocks in that preseason game against the cavs than i did in the rest of my life" Cato.....thats all you need to know about that gm, he thought kelvin cato,a shoot hungry pg in sf, and cuttino "black hole" mobley were equal to what could've been the greatest wing of all time, he is damn lucky tmac didnt live up to the hype bc it wouldve been one of the most lopsided deals in history
