Open Court chat about T-Mac. Just some off-season content. Thoughts other might want to check it out, , keep those rox thoughts alive. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/LhYCyQrfevo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Kerr was money. He played with Michael Jordan , is he going to be impressed by a superstar who can't get past the first round? No Kenny was money too. He played with the greatest Rocket of all time, the distance between Hakeem and Tmac is a billion light years, you can't get the star ship enterprise to go that far. You realize it says 'what could have' which also translates to 'he never did' Kerr played with MJ who did. Don't fault him for knowing the difference between steak and chicken.
LeBron would probably be the best player in the league right now if he had only gone to college. Wait a minute...
Grant and Thomas were the only two who knew what they were talking about. You put Michael Jordan on the same teams that T-Mac had and his career would be every bit as disappointing. T-Mac played with some of the worst players in the league, and his superstar sidekicks were constantly shelved due to injury. Eventually the wear and tear took a toll on him and he ended up breaking down too soon. End of story.
Could easily be one of the very best albeit on a 2nd tier from the true greats of the game. As IMHO, he does not have the competitive streak of say, Jordan, Bird, Magic or heck, Kobe.
he had the talent to be better than kobe. sucks that his career ended with injuries and its a daam shame he was lazy.
It's surprising to me how often Kenny Smith says dumb things. I don't know why I even expect something insightful to come out of his mouth anymore. Saying that McGrady did not have 100% proper fundamentals and using that as the difference between him being considered great and good? Are you kidding me? Thankfully Kerr stepped in and ended the idiocy. Kerr was spot on. The objective analysis of McGrady is that he lacked (1) “Tier 1 Competitiveness” and (2) luck. If he had more Tier 1 Competitiveness, then he wouldn’t have had to depend on as much luck. If he had more luck, he wouldn’t have needed Tier 1 Competitiveness. But unfortunately he suffered from lacking both. Tier 1 Competitiveness does not mean you are competitive when the game starts – instead it starts at practices, at trips in between games, at pre-game meetings. It is an aura that encompasses the way you approach basketball and affects the rest of your team. A McGrady with Tier 1 Competitiveness would never have let Dallas tie the playoff series 2-2 after winning the first 2 games in Dallas, even despite questionable calls against the Rockets in key situations. A McGrady with Tier 1 Competitiveness would never let Dallas destroy his team in Game 7 of that same series. Sometimes - all of the above can be made up for by luck. Basketball is a game of luck. Sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it rims out. Sometimes the ref misses a call that ends up hurting you (see Michael Finley being out of bounds). Sometimes, you end up with a team that is a bad matchup against (see Utah Jazz). Or sometimes you end up with a bad team when you are in your prime (see Ryan Bowen playing significant minutes for us in playoffs). Or sometimes you are injured. The list goes on. I think there are many great, hall-of-fame players who lacked Tier 1 Competitiveness but still had a lot more playoff success. Look at Shaq. Look at Barkley. Not everyone needs to have a Jordan / Kobe / Bird level of competitiveness. Unfortunately for McGrady, somehow his career came together to where luck never made up for his lack of Tier 1 Competitiveness.
I wish Brent Barry (I think that's him on the far left) spoke up, at least he was on the same team as McGrady at one point.
McGrady, in my opinion, was truly one of the all time greats to have ever played the game. Unfortunately he was also one of the most star-crossed. People can remember him for the Toronto game, or how he never won big, but they'd be wise to recall his unusual history of tough breaks. The elephant in the room for Tracy has always been his playoff failures. Mac was 23 when his 8th seeded Orlando Magic nearly upset the 1st seeded and would be Two Time Champion Pistons in 7 games. A feat even more unlikely considering Hill was injured, and Darrell Armstrong was the next best player by a mile. People can point to Mike Miller, but he had yet to find his confidence at this young stage in his career. The man almost single-handedly defeated a championship caliber team by his lonesome (that is literally unheard of), but all history will remember is how the Pistons came roaring back from down 3-1. We all know what happened next. T-Mac to Houston! I only wish we were getting this guy now! McGrady would go on to play his accustomed insane amount of minutes and was forced to score a lot of points despite our grind it out offense (aka nothing easy and needing 13 in 31 to close out games). Everyone remembers how tough those games were to watch right? I loved JVG's defense, but one drools thinking of Tracy coming to Houston given our current tempo and style of play. A pace which would only serve to make such an athletically gifted scoring mastermind all the more deadly. Our ill-fated Rockets squads during the Yao/Mac era could not have been more talentless or jinxed. If Morey were there we'd have been drafting Monta Ellis over Luther Head and lighting the league on fire. Unfortunately the stars never quite did align. I'll forever recall this tough luck time for cruel fated injuries, a bogged down offense, and an utter lack of talent. I'll also remember Yao being a complete monster on the court all while being the kindest consummate professional I've ever seen. So too I'll remember the 22 game winning streak and McGrady's video game mode playoff outings. Make no mistake about it folks: Yao and Mac were both championship caliber players through and through, but two stars do not a championship make. People need to think about such things, and not what Steve "I've never met or talked to Tracy McGrady, but can tell you firsthand what's in his heart" Kerr is saying. Glorified Tim Legler that he is (although bravo on drafting Goran while in PHX). T-Mac's tale is a valuable lesson in what could have been, and one Morey surely has on his mind while finishing the Rockets' hat now and finally completing his masterstroke. As for Tracy McGrady, I just feel bad for the young kids that never saw T-Mac in his prime. It was ungodly. And for those questioning his "heart, they should keep in mind that McGrady still soared to near stratospheric heights in face of losing a close family member each year during his entire league. But there's no sympathy for the grieving young star that needs to make more demonstrative faces. Remember the preternatural scoring champion, with the deft passing touch. Remember the man that was never afraid to lose despite never winning big. Remember the 18 year old Tracy McGrady and basketball's newest sensation that walked into a terminal cancer ward to tell a women he'd never met that she had nothing to fear for he would look after her son and his step-brother for all of his years.