http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5734895.html ----------------------------------- April 27, 2008, 11:49PM COMMENTARY He's willing to share blame now By RICHARD JUSTICE Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle It looks like our happy family could use a few days apart. Why else would Tracy McGrady publicly call out his head coach? You'd think a guy with as much baggage as McGrady would know better than to offer a public assessment of someone else's job performance. That's clueless for you. Rockets coach Rick Adelman might not be thrilled with his disappearing superstar, either. This might or might not be the case because Adelman never has uttered so much as a negative syllable about his frequently wounded diva. That's professionalism for you. Anyway, the Rockets had just lost to the Utah Jazz 86-82 on Saturday night when McGrady was asked how Mehmet Okur had been allowed to grab a key rebound on a missed free throw with around six seconds remaining and the Rockets down two. When the shot went up, Carl Landry and McGrady had inside position on Okur. First, McGrady critiqued Landry. "I hit the ball off the glass, and Carl just mistimed it," McGrady said. Nice, huh? If Landry were inclined to respond, he might point out that McGrady is shooting 39 percent for the series and is 3-for-16 in the fourth quarter of the four games. When McGrady lined up for a foul shot late in the game, Utah fans chanted: "Overrated! Overrated!" Anyway, back to McGrady and the postgame news conference. "Okur came over and got the rebound," McGrady said. "It was a big rebound we didn't get." He could have stopped right there. He should have stopped right there. He had absolutely no reason for saying another word. If he had to say something, it might be about how he didn't block out Okur, or how he should have grabbed the rebound. Instead, he pointed to Adelman. Where was Mutombo? "That was the point where Dikembe (Mutombo) and those guys should have been in the game, because we would have called a timeout had we gotten the rebound." Moments earlier, Adelman had second-guessed himself about not having Mutombo in the game. He said he had considered it, but that he decided to stick with his "two most athletic guys." Ironically, Adelman had used much of his news conference to defend McGrady. He had looked at the box score and seen the 9-for-25 shooting night. He probably knew McGrady had taken just one shot in the fourth quarter, and that the Jazz are going to win this series because they've neutralized McGrady. Instead of wondering why McGrady can't impose his will on a game the way a great player would, Adelman went after the refs. "We have to find a way where ... they call a little bit closer with the guys guarding Tracy," Adelman said. "Their whole game plan was to beat him up." The Jazz smothered McGrady with Andrei Kirilenko's long arms one moment and put Matt Harpring's strength against him the next. Harpring got into McGrady with his body and added an assortment of elbows, knees, etc. McGrady shoved Harpring a few times in the second quarter and complained to the refs. But he didn't do the one thing that would have turned the strategy on its ear. He didn't take over the game. He again settled for too many outside shoots. He's unwilling or unable to challenge the Jazz around the basket. Let's take a deep breath and consider how the Rockets dug themselves a 3-1 hole in this best-of-seven series. They don't have enough offense. They won Game 3 because Rafer Alston threw in 20 points and forced the Jazz to pay attention to someone other than McGrady. Jazz answer challenge Jazz coach Jerry Sloan challenged his point guard, Deron Williams, to do a better job on Alston. Williams obliged, and Alston was 6-for-18 from the field. Nor did the Rockets lose because Adelman failed to insert Mutombo into the game. The Rockets lost because the Jazz simply are better and because the Jazz responded to their coach after losing. To Sloan, it's not complicated. Basketball is about toughness and effort, about simply wanting to win more than the other guy. What disappointed him most about Game 3 was that his team had failed to do the basics. Rebound. Block out. Contest shots. He saw Landry and Chuck Hayes and Luis Scola working harder than his players. He saw missed free throws and open jumpers, but those things were less of a concern than the lapses at the defensive end. He challenged his players in the most basic ways. Be tougher. Don't back down. Match their effort and then some. Give the Rockets credit for not backing down. They answered every Utah punch with one of their own. Now it's almost over. The Rockets will be back home Tuesday for Game 5 hoping to keep their season alive. If it ends then, there will be plenty of time to analyze all that went wrong. Adelman's decision on Mutombo might be one of those things. McGrady certainly will be. richard.justice@chron.com ------------------------------------------- http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/nba McGrady calls out Adelman Posted: Monday April 28, 2008 07:21AM ET The Rockets had just lost to the Jazz 86-82 on Saturday night when Tracy McGrady publicly called out coach Rick Adelman. McGrady was asked how Mehmet Okur had been allowed to grab a key rebound on a missed free throw with around six seconds remaining and the Rockets down two. When the shot went up, Carl Landry and McGrady had inside position on Okur. First, McGrady critiqued Landry. "I hit the ball off the glass, and Carl just mistimed it," McGrady said. If he had to say something, it might be about how he didn't block out Okur, or how he should have grabbed the rebound. Instead, he pointed to Adelman. "That was the point where Dikembe (Mutombo) and those guys should have been in the game, because we would have called a timeout had we gotten the rebound." Moments earlier, Adelman had second-guessed himself about not having Mutombo in the game. He said he had considered it, but that he decided to stick with his "two most athletic guys." Ironically, Adelman had used much of his news conference to defend McGrady. ----------------------------------------- It's very disappointing to hear these comments from T-Mac. This kind of finger pointing is not what we need at this time and brings nothing but discord. He went from "It's on me", to "I can't do it on my own if my team doesn't back me up", and now to "Landry and Adelman didn't do their job". He should learn to take care of his own business before he passes judgment on the performance of others, as he has been far from perfect and faultless. Once again, T-Mac, just shut up and play hard.
T-Mac really needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut. It's not a huge deal when he's babbling about random nonsense but when he starts dissing teammates like Landry and the coach he's playing with fire.
That's exactly the point. "It's on me" was last year, when he couldn't back up his word. This year, he changed his tune to "It's NOT on me". The most striking thing to me was how Adelman went out of his way to defend T-Mac. Too bad the reverse is not true. So much for loyalty.
Yes, I thought he should say "It's on me" this year. Because without Yao, he is the only superstar of our team need to step up. Even if we loss, we would say"Tmac is the man". But he feared, he was afraid of being blamed.
Lol so if It's on me isn't ok and It's on us isn't ok either. And the guy is interviewed all the time. Whats next, its on Yao? This guy fears its on me because if he says it and we lose the fans will mock him, even our own fans.....
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K1fx02MANo8&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K1fx02MANo8&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> Dedicated to T-Max Rocket River
article is exactly what ive been thinking since the beginning when i seen him smile during practice and during games. but we're in too deep with him now. so ill stick it out w him and yao. if you told me 4 years ago what we'd be getting i wouldve said wait for another oppurtunity...but now 4 yrs have passed and i just want this combo to work...theres a connection there
The title says one thing, while the entire article presents nothing but facts supporting the exact opposite. Justice is either trying to be funny, sarcastic, or maybe he's trying the media version of the Jedi mind trick on T-Mac, hoping he'll actually read it.
Last year? When he put on a remarkable game 7 only to have Yao get pwned up and down by Okur in single coverage. Do you watch the games or just run your mouth?
Don't bring Yao into this. He has nothing to do with what T-Mac says and does. You should join those filthy politicians in Washington the way you're trying to completely change the topic and redirect the blame, just like your hero T-Mac. Just blame somebody else, right? T-Mac said "It's on me" last year, and they lost. So it was either on him as he said or he was too arrogant and self-aggrandizing to realize that it's a team game before the series. It's hypocritical that his Adidas commercial claimed the opposite. This year, he's changed his tune completely, and it's NOT on him anymore. Last year, he may have gotten a free pass from some people because he still played decently. This year, his only redeeming quality, his play, is equally as imcompetent and pathetic as his inner maker-up. We're seeing disloyalty and hypocrisy rolled into one.
Yeah right. If T-Mac said "It's on me" again, he would get bashed so hard. "Oh, he's just saying that to make himself look good blah blah blah this is a TEAM game." Lose lose situation for T-Mac. From now on, T-Mac should just refuse to say anything to anybody. Of course, then fans would take that as him being a quitter, a softie, horrible humanitarian and not caring about the game anymore.
Boozer and Okur didn't treat Yao like a prison biatch in game 7? Yao had 6 freakin rebounds to Boozer's 14 and Okur's 11. Not to mention a few 8 turnover games in the series. Yeah, it's all on T-Mac. Game 7 T-Mac: 29 pts 13 ast 5 reb 3 blk 2 to Game 7 Yao 29 pts 0 ast 6 reb 2 blk 4 to Correct me if I'm misinterpreting this... and then tell me how it was T-Mac's fault we lost game 7.
No! You can't say it was neither, Tray or Yao's fault. It was not. Can you say Yao played bad? NO, maybe he could have rebounded more balls, MAYBE Can you say Tracy played bad? NO. Maybe he should have shot the ball better. MAYBE It is tough because they killed us on the boards and not only on the boards. This year Boozer is stuggling as hell, even with Yao on him he wouldn't have been better. And as you know last year it was all because we lost (Carlos Boozer), we couldn't defend him at all.
Juan, you are certainly misinterpretating the point of this thread. Just the fact that you are bringing Yao into the discussion shows that you've completely missed the point. This is not about who's fault it is or was. Last year, T-Mac proclaimed himself the captain and savior of the glorious ship before it sank. This year, T-Mac is jumping ship to save himself and blaming his captain and crewmate when the ship is sinking once again. He's cracking under pressure on and off the court. It's adversity that brings out a person's true character, and his is not pretty at all. He's failing the character test miserably.
