"Rav 02/23/2010 3:59 AM Just please be patient with him. He hasn't played for a while. Give the guy some credit! It hurts when you knock knees with somebody, twice, you don't have to be McGrady to know that!!! I still see this spark in his eyes " Oh how we all remember that boat...
People should really make fun of someone getting hurt but all I can say to all those TOF's is.... We don't you so. That's why we limited his minutes.
I don't think there was any doubt about how good he was. It was those other factors such as his brittle back, knees, bones, etc. Then there was his attitude, throwing teammates under the bus, not being able to control his mouth, and the rest we all know... I used to pity him with all his injuries a few years back. However after all the drama he created, I just wish he would take his unearned cash and disappear from the NBA.
One of the biggest problems with major joint injuries is that you always feel okay before you actually are okay. The day to day pain, swelling, and other symptoms subside, you aren't feeling the issue anymore....but if you stress that joint full tilt a couple times, it's probably going to go south on you in a hurry. Grant Hill is a great example of that - at least twice in Orlando he showed up in October declaring himself ready to go again, but his ankle couldn't handle two weeks of regular season play. Nearly every microfracture patient has gone through this, trying to come back earlier than they should have - Amare declared himself back after a nice return game and had to shut it down for the season about a week later. Webber's return to the Kings was a disaster, with him forcing his scoring despite being about 70% of his old efficiency, killing the team. Allan Houston never could get himself right. It's a bad combination of microfracture surgery needing 6 extra months of healing than anyone expects, of Tracy wanting to prove himself, stick it to the Rockets, and earn one last paycheck. Sadly, it also looks like Tracy still hasn't learned how to gauge himself coming back from injury. To think, he was declaring himself ready to go in early Nov.
I don't wish ill of anyone, esp. TMac, but after the sniping he continued to do about the Rockets organization after he got traded and Kevin Garnett's stupid comment about how we hostaged TMac, at least this vindicates the wisdom of our 7 minutes a game strategy last December. Tmac should have just kept quiet if his knees were painful tonight. I think he felt bad about the crowd booing and tried to make excuses about his knees bumping into another player's. It sounds lame. When will he just suck it up and take responsibility? Like "It doesn't feel so good now; but I love this game, I want to play so bad to help the team win. I'll try to see how it goes tomorrow." Sadly it's still all about him.
It just seems rare to have a player immediately after a game say "I might lace them up tomorrow." At least see how the knee feels the next morning and let the coaches/trainers have some input and make the announcement. Don't go to the media five minutes after the game ended and talk about "might" and "we'll see" and trash like that. I don't know what his intentions are but he sure as hell is coming off like he is calling the shots up in NY already.
I wholeheartedly agree. I honestly couldn't believe they put him in for that long... and what did it amount to? OT/loss. I knew these epic minutes would spell disaster for him.
