article link Is McGrady Jinxed? Contributed by Dick Scanlon - Posted: May 3, 2008 5:01:58 PM It almost seems as if Auburndale's Tracy McGrady is jinxed, having played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association without tasting the second round of the playoffs. McGrady's Houston Rockets were eliminated by the Utah Jazz late Friday night in spite of 40 points by McGrady. While acknowledged as one of the NBA's biggest stars, the 29-year-old McGrady is almost as famous for being part of failures in the playoffs. He has played three seasons in Toronto, four in Orlando and four in Houston. He has been in the playoffs seven times, losing in the first round each time. It's a shame McGrady will have to answer for that this year because he had an excellent season. McGrady's leadership was at its best on the Rockets' 22-game winning streak, the high point of the NBA's regular season. They lost All-Star center Yao Ming in the middle of that streak, severely denting their chances of going anywhere in the post-season. Five active NBA players have played longer than McGrady without ever playing in the second round of the playoffs. Here is the complete list of players who have played 10 years or more seasons without advancing: Eric Piatkowski 14 Grant Hill 13 Lorenzen Wright 12 Shareef Abdur-Rahim 12 Stephon Marbury 12 Brevin Knight 11 Tracy McGrady 11 Ricky Davis 10 Earl Boykins 10 (Note: The Cleveland Cavaliers just qualified for the second round, marking Joe Smith's first appearance beyond the first round after 12 failures. And Orlando's Pat Garrity has advanced for the first time in his 10th season.)
McGrady and Hill... man, I loved that team they had if they coulda stayed healthy, and I'm sure they would have broken their curse together. ... But then we might not have gotten McGrady, so that's not necessarily such a good thing, heh. Either way, I really want them both to advance.
Wait a minute, that can't be right... Grant Hill has been in the league for three more years than Tracy McGrady. Hill's number should be 14, not 13.
I came up with a theory about the McGrady jinx after his second season in Houston. It's not only limited to McGrady, it's rubbed off onto his teammates too. What I wrote was based on the 2005-2006 roster. Here's what I remember: Yao Ming - Played all 82 games his first two seasons. T-Mac's arrival signaled the start of Yao's string of injuries. 2 games missed his first season with T-Mac, and about 25 games per season since then. Juwan Howard, Keith Bogans - Part of the the T-Mac Orlando team that went 1-19 one year. Bob Sura - Still hasn't recovered from the injury suffered while playing with T-Mac. Jon Barry - Played 73 games with Rockets before the jinx made him retire. That was pretty much my "evidence" from two years ago. Now, with some updated info from the most recent rosters: Kirk Snyder - Played 68 games in each of his first two seasons. First season with Houston, he played 39. Bonzi Wells - Everyone here knows of his string of DNP's his first season. V-Span - T-mac of Greece. Steve Francis - Least number of games played, 10, in his career this season. And if you go back to Orlando, one might agree that he's responsible for Grant Hill. Hill got injured before signing with Orlando, but was expected to recover. Being on the same team with Tracey was detrimental to Hill's health. PS I don't believe in jinx's.
Wasn't Piatkowski on the Suns last season and the Suns went past the 1st rnd...i could be mistaken though...
After a year I think we'll see an article saying. "80% of Journalists fired due to over uncreativity, its time to smoke these jackweeds out."
