I don't think heart is to be measured. It's something that is expressed. It's an expression of a will to succeed, to win and to fight hard to excel. It is a physical and mental expression hence, if you have the "heart" but looked nervy or lost your nerve, you cannot express your "heart" well. Some people express it and demonstrate their feeling of satisfaction when their expression of heart successfully by shouting, dancing, fist pumping, biting their jaw, flipping over, or even the three finger expression by Sura if you can remember. If you remember Ryan Bowen, he worked hard but he hardly can expressed any heart as he could not score, rebound and block. Heart is linked to individual so it's a personal expression. That's why when Mutombo block a guy, a wag his finger and his heart or his will is block anyone who try to enter his paint. As for Ryan, he could express his satisfaction if everytime Nowitski misses his shot with his hand on his face.
I suppose if you read between the lines, you can tell that I'm wondering what people define as having heart and how this applies, accurately or not, to the person that is often regarded to as heartless or having no heart on this team. It *IS* afterall a BBS for the Rockets. So...knowing that, I am trying to determine whether or not, according to everyone's opinions on heart, whether it's fair or not to label McGrady that way, regardless if you like him or not. And I've tried to be very fair in his assessment. Noting that he does have downsides, but I don't believe he is heartless. And as been said a few times now, having heart or not doesn't translate to winning. But that's not what this thread is about. I'm only posting a lot because I have a slower day at work. What does that have to do with anything? Yes, yes, the title of the thread asks the question, but as I just noted, if you read my original post, there's more to it. Have I annoyed you or something for you to call me childish? I've tried to speak to everyone with respect. I expect the same in return.
I do see the different levels of intensity and different personalities. If you mean to say simply TMac has no heart, and the list does, then I respectfully disagree. If you mean to say they show their will to win more openly on their sleeves more of the time than T-Mac. I'm with ya. But just because I don't express my will to do good work everyday at work, doesn't mean I have any less will than my coworkers. On the flip side, it could mean that. I suppose those that say he's heartless usually just say, if you don't see it, you never will. Those that state examples of those that exhibit heart, I offer examples of when Tracy does the same sort of thing. I just wonder why he seems to be held in a different regard. Is it simply b/c he's on our team, and this board is so ready to hate on it's own roster and coaching staff? That definitely seems to be the deal. Grass is always greener on the other side definitely fits the bill as far as this BBS is concerned. Always looking for what you don't have instead of worrying about what you do have.
I think T-Mac has the commitment to win most of the time. Definitely not 100% of the time. Or do you think he never wants to win?
Elie's career is defined by a clutch shot he took and his reaction to making that shot. When else have you heard anything about his career? Besides getting hit in the face when Danny Ainge threw the ball at him when we celebrated a win on their floor? Don't get me wrong, no blasphemy here...I hold our championship teams in high regards. Let's take KG for an example. We arguably consider the guy to be the epitomy of having heart. I wonder what people in Minnesota thought of him? Or if he was on our team all those years, would we be saying the same KG is heartless. I actually think this BBS would be saying that if KG were a Rocket vs. being on another team.
You are the first person to say winning is the/an indicator to having heart. If that's your way of discerning heart or not, then you are right. Mac would be heartless as he has yet to win a playoff series. I guess on the same token, Kobe is heartless recently, as he has yet to accomplish that "feat" recently.
Yeah I know you can't measure it as far as quantify it. I know either you have it or you don't. But there has to be indications of whether a person has heart or doesn't, right?
I'm sure everyone else has provided enough definitions of heart that mine is in there somewhere. I just want to say: we've got all these people who love the Rockets, watch them, think about them a HUGE amount, and after all this time we've got a large number of people questioning "heart." It's possible that after a star has been on a team four years, no one would be questioning his heart (KG, MJ, Bird ). So I look at it as a baromoter. Take the percentage of people on this board who say "he has heart" and that's not a bad measure of how much heart the guy has. This is not a mathematical equation. I'm just saying that collectively, all the posters on this board have some accuracy. If everyone thinks a guy is good, he probably is; if everyone thinks he sucks, he probably does. If everyone is 50-50 about someone, he probably does have room for improvement. The mere fact that this debate is going on after four years and countless viewings (by us) of Rockets games says to me that T-Mac does lack something in the heart department.
KG was too scared to take shots in the playoffs. Only when Sam showed up did that team start doing anything past the 1st round. Mario Elie played some tough defense, always ran down the court on transition. Always got the technical foul (if maxwell didn't get it first) for helping out his teammate vs another team's player.
Yeah, I don't know. He's come back from going to the locker room before. He also hasn't. So it's tough to say, based on that, whether he's heartless or not. Although...he is known to sort of tuck his tail in between his legs if the team gets whooped badly. At the same time, if the final buzzer hasn't sounded and there's a feasible chance at still winning a game, he seems to still try and win the game.
Steve used to get a lot, I mean a LOT of hate in Houston before he got traded. But you are spot on with Rudy. And by those words, yeah, I think T-Mac is the type to punk out once you are down 30 points...in the regular season. Now, if it's a playoff game, I don't think he's on the bench laughing. I think he's pissed, and probably feeling sorry for himself. Although I don't think winning constitutes heart, I seriously believe that if T-Mac has actually won at least one playoff series, he wouldn't be regarded as heartless.
I think you make a very good post. Although if this board were a barometer for things, things would be very bad around here. Only the most frustrated tend to post here. So that's the majority of what you "hear." Many thought JVG sucked, and are flip flopping wishing he were back. Many thought Francis and James were the answers and why we still have Rafer and why did we draft a severly undersized guards, didn't we have enough. We see how that's working out for now. The trade Tmac threads. I mean really. Most of us know if you trade him, you simply won't be better. Ideally, what you say is very true. It just doesn't apply around here too accurately
Hi, man. I agree that T-mac does commitment. From my understanding, LCII said Heart = commitment to win, which is refering to 100% or even 120% commitment to win and doing 100% of your best. Is T-mac gifted to fulfil his job better? yes, he is. But did he hustle enough on the court? Did he do his 100% in terms of free throws? Did he lead or inspire the team 100%? ... Every move, every look , emotion boost and even a glance is able to show you whether he has done his 100% and whether he has played with heart. Suppose that we were playing basketball, we always could feel who is playing with heart, cant we? We could always feel the tense in the air. I dont recall any one ever said he did not commit to the game. But I think that is just less than 100%. If you know he is far more able to be playing better with heart, and there is still no progress on the foot, that must be something really hard left to swallow.
I think Rudy-T said it best on one of the Clutch City videos. He said, and I'm paraphrasing. "You're going to have a time that you're going to be cornered (Phoenix Series down 2-0, 3-1). You can either punk out and give up (or laugh and joke about getting your ass beat by 30), or you can come out swinging and fighting. (Winning both series 4-3) IMO, that is where heart comes in. LOL that's Ben Wallace and T-Mac.
KG: I hear ya. So was he being called heartless? I mean being scared to take shots sounds like it to me. Yet, he's typically one of the top players mentioned when speaking of heart. Elie: On the flip side, Tracy runs the offense, still manages to lead the team in points and assists before he got hurt (not sure if he still leads those categories), takes care of the ball, talks and advises his teammates while hurt on the bench during timeouts, stands and cheers for his team from the bench. Everyone seems to emphasize when he's taking a bad loss lightly, and just disregarding that he brings so much more to the table.
You can't throw out stupid excuses. This latest travesty about depth perception in the Toyota Center is just the latest example.
Clutch City heroes have performed miracles post Rockets. Elie took a heartless and soft San Antonio team to the finals and won another ring. You know what Horry did. Sam took franchises that stunk and made them contenders and playoff teams. That's the Rocket heroes that this team has to live up too. For some of us old Rocket fans, our standards are very high. Just like the Laker fans who watched Magic win all those rings. We're still waiting for our second wave of heroes.
Heart = Lebron james carry cleveland in game 6 over pistons and later to finals Heart = allan iverson playing with multiple injuries and fighting against the supreme lakers in the final Heart = Kobe bryant's killer instinct and superstar mentality in the fourth quarter Heart = MVP/4 time champion TimDuncan lowering salary for the interest of his team in signing better players for the best chance to win No Heart = Up 3-1 get complacent "it feels good to be in the second round" but its ok tmac, we all know you have a heart, which is used to pump blood throughout your body.
You'll have to show me where I called you childish. I could have sworn I said the way you are handling the thread is childish, which it is. You're basically asking for opinions and then trying to disprove them, which is impossible. It makes little sense. It has nothing to do with whether you happen to be annoying or not.
