Nobody said he was. But he could be. But he will never be if he continues his (apparent) pattern of behavior. I doubt that he is a surefire HOF player. If he retired today I don't think he'd make it. He has no college career to add to his legacy, and his pro career just isn't prolific enough at this point.
How is he supposed to attack the basket if he's trapped right after he crosses the half court line? He has NO SPACE
He's only 26 at this point, so no obviously he hasn't gotten to HOF numbers yet. However, one assumes that he will play at least through his current contract for another 7 years or so, and being a top-5 player in this league, he will likely have accomplished a thing or two by then as far as individual accomplishments and accolades, as well as (hopefully) a few nice runs in the playoffs, even if he never gets a championship (other greats haven't won a ring).
Dude, you should just start a whole new board ID and name, because no one, and I mean NO ONE, sees your name on a post and takes it seriously any more. With you, it's just 'second verse, same as the first'. Yawn.
I would like to see if all of these perfectionists posting in this thread could perform to the top of their ability in *their* jobs with the same sort of handicaps that McGrady is facing. Imagine if Keith, the fry cook, got some oil burns on his serving hand and was out of commission. Could you get those orders out to the customers fast enough to stay employee of the month at Jack in the Box? If your Dad failed to fix the busted lawnmower in time for Spring, could you cut the neighborhood lawns as efficiently as your, uh, clientele expect? Instead of ranting and raving like a bunch of mini Bobby Knight's, step back from the tree trunk and look at the forest sitting injured on the bench. We'll be fine.
well, I feel your thread start a little bit early. 2 games can not say much, so I will wait for another 4 games and see what happen. I feel DEKE absence made big impact on ROX D. Even CAMBY attacked our hoop so many times. Come on, CAMBY!!! He is freaking jump shooting guy ONLY! So far, I dont know it 's really fair to say TMAC lack effort or... he still in the pain. He is easily doubled or trippled because he was SLOWWWWWWWWWWW. He didnt show his SPEED to get away from double team
And you fiddle while Rome burns, ha. Seriously, if you can't see the logic in his post due to your hatred for the messenger, which tracks with what Van Gundy said immediately after the game then why don't you just put him on the ignore list and spare us the 35th dogpile post of this thread? You might not agree with his opinion, but there's no point in saying "yoo jusss hate the rockets yoo stoopid rocket h8er yooooo!" - it's a waste of everyone's time, even in regard to something meaningless like internet sports arguing.
If my Dad wasnt' trying hard to fix the lawnmower, and said "f-k it, it's just like that time I couldn't fix it before and I gave up", and he was getting 12 million or whatever to fix it - yeah I'd be pissed.
I've been skimming this thread since my last post here and there really seems to be a lot of animosity here. I think we can all agree now that the team is badly decimated with injuries and its very difficult for a team of a superstar and mediocre to sub par players to win in this league. That said T-Mac has been on record as admitting he quit on a team so there is some history here and its not like Pgabriel and others are just pulling their criticism of T-Mac out of thin air. Is T-Mac quitting on us now? I don't think any of that can say for sure but as a fan board dedicated to discussing the Rox this certainly is a matter of discussion. So why don't we lay aside the bashing and discuss it. There's a very strong argument to be made that T-Mac isn't quitting but that because the way defenses are now and latent injuries its keeping him from performing at a dominant level at the same time though T-Mac does have a history of quitting.
My 2 cents after reading very few posts in this thread: With Deke, Yao, DA, Rafer and JB out, this truncated 9 man team around Tracy right now is much worse than the 21 win team in Orlando. If we at least had Deke and either of DA or JB then we have something to work with. But we have players like Rybo, Graham, Stro & Baxter in the rotation who have little or no offensive skills. It's like 3 on 5. Tracy has little or no chance to be effective. And no, neither Magic nor MJ could will these guys to be effective. Yao's gonna be out a while. If we get Deke, DA & JB back and Tracy continues slumping then I will jump on the "Talk is Cheap" bandwagon with gusto. But right now, the rotation around Tracy is utter garbage. If PJ had known Yao wouldn't play, the Laker game would have been just like the last 2. Fortunately for us, he still wasn't smart enough to adjust their game plan in the 2nd half.
I would probably agree with pgabriel if TMac had not overworked himself into an injury this offseason Come on can you really question this guy right now. He is playing through pain, and it sucks to lose when you firmly beleived you were one of the best in your conference at the begenning of the season. We questioned Yao until we found out he was playing with that toe. Have you ever injured your back? Let alone play ball when it was injured? I dont think so otherwise we wouldnt be hearing this stupid bulls**t coming from you. If Tmac was completely healthy and had no other excuse then maybe, just maybe you could question his effort. But as far as things go now, I still beleive he is the hardest working rocket we have seen in the past 4 or 5 years. The only thing that he lacks right now is to become complete leader. We see it sometimes but he needs to be one everyday. Tell his teammates they will win and go out there and win.
Nowadays, people are just mroe interested in messengers than messages themselves. I was surprised to see the bashing on the thread starter, especially those immediate responses to the post. Noboday can read others' minds, although many ARE sure of themselves that they can. Why don't we just discuss actual posts instead of all kinds of conspiracies? Loving Steve is not a crime, that doesn't make his/her next post valid or invalid, his actual post does. I love Steve too, but that doesn't have anything to do with the fact I love TMac and Yao and the Rockets. I do agree some points of the original posts. Talk is indeed cheap, because it doesn't achieve anything. I am in the opinion that media is a biatch, so players and coaches should always be careful about what they say in public. I wasn't too comfortable about TMac's comments. It would by no means fire up his teammates, and yet, arguably, there is possibility to make them uncomfortable. Why would anyone, TMac or not, say something in the public, without any obvious benefit, but possible demage, even just a remote chance, not to mention in this kind of difficult time? Talking to the media is not leadership. Since last playoff, players including TMac, they have been talking way too much, about veteran leadership, about super star leadership, about how strong the team is. blah blah blah. How many talks does TD give? I don't know, maybe this is a NBA thing. If you don't talk, people will think you are not confident. I still remember LBJ talking about providing leadership in his first conference call after the draft, as a rookie without playing one single NBA game. My question is, are all those leadership talks necessary? what does that talk really serve? Not really directed at TMac, but at all those kind of talks from super stars, veterans, or any player.
If Dallas had any sense, they would have done what Toronto did against Tracy and that was double or even triple team him to throw the ball to the other guys. On top of that Kobe has Odom at least. Think about this, would Wesley, Bowen and even Howard be playing major minutes on a good team? I'm not knocking the cast, it is what it is, but I'm not even sure Anderson,Head, Swift, Barry,Sura or those other players would even play 20 mins on a good team. Swift was on Memphis and couldn't even push Wright out. Those last 2 games the Rox didn't look good, in the nba you have to match the other teams intensity level at least. The Rox played hard, but when you have 1 legit player on your team because of injuries, you'll have problems. I dont give anyone a free pass, but at least be fair. Where were the critics when he basically willed the Lakers victory? What about closing out games on that rd trip? Just think if He got to rest like Kobe used to with Shaq and never saw double teams. Dont Panic.
Francis was a stupid idiot - to put it mildly. Anyone who has been here long enough will know that you have been whining about Francis since forever - so please save us the grief. Putting silly little Francis in the same sentence with Mac is an insult to us sane fans. Please.
as far as the talking is concerned, I started this thread, not just because of the effort of the last couple of games, but the talking to the media that went along with it. The threads I have been most critical of T-Mac in since he has gotten to the Rockets, its been he constant talking in the media. I remember a thread about before last season started about how McGrady was saying JVG was teaching him new things and he was the best coach he ever played for, I made the point of us waiting for the season to get started and then see what this team will be saying about JVG. I was critical of McGrady talking about how much he had changed as a leader before the season got started. the guy talks to the media way to much about what he's gonna do, its time for him to let his play do the talking.
I would only think Tmac might be "quitting" if he thought this team had no chance at making the playoffs. I think he wants to win.
Want is great. But you are defined by your actions and Tmac has not been playing with passion the last few games. And, for those of you apologizing for him......get over it ! Tmac is not above criticism here, he is a great player, but at times, he drifts, and right now we need him out front leading....not drifting. DD
He needs a team to lead. Hakeem was once considered a selfish player becuase he knew the chances of him scoring were better than him passing the ball. His teamates sucked. This was before the zone of course. Was he a bad leader even though he put up sick numbers? Tmac is just screwed right now.
