Yeah, a star player on the team you root for basically quits on the team. Why should that anger you? I guess you never had a problem with Quitten either.
It concerned me when he was part of the team earlier in the season; when his poor play affected the outcome of games. But now he's gone for the season. What he says and what he does will not affect this season in any way, shape or form. Thus, I don't care.
He is still part of the team, he is returning next year, and chemistry between a team is very important in winning, admit it you are not a real fan probably just a bandwagoner that joined this site 1 month ago.
Saying the Lakers will win will not affect chemistry next year in any way. What he says in his own free time does not matter unless it's something particularly insulting to the team (which this is not). You all are blowing it WAY out of proportion. If you want to say I'm not a true fan because I don't have the reaction "OMG T-MAC HATES HIS OWN TEAM" when he says "Lakers will win," then fine, I don't want to be a true fan if I have to be completely biased to the point of stupidity about my own team. Perhaps it's the difference between an "educated fan" and a "true fan"? I'll be the educated fan. But don't you dare assume I'm a bandwagoner. I'm only 25, so I wasn't around for the really old days, but I became a fan back with the first pair of championships. I started following basketball around 1993, anyway. The Rockets have been my team ever since. Like I said in an earlier post directed at someone else: assuming things on the Internet is one of the dumbest things you can do.
See I assumed most people defending him were young, and wallah, I was right, you are young. (in a Darth Vader voice) TSchmal, I am your father....... Under 30 to me is fairly young....cause I am old. DD
So you don't care about next season either? How the teammates will feel about him next year should he come back? How we as fans will feel about potentially having him back next year? How this could affect his already strained relationship with the organization? That doesn't cross your mind at all? Are you saying as a fan you need to focus completely on what happens on the court? Dude, you're not a player. It's really not that hard to closely follow the playoffs and at the same time express anger at McGrady. Really, it isn't. It's seem natural to be upset and disappointed at a guy you have supported and rooted for the past couple of years, and then he goes and makes comments to the media that undermine what he think his teammates can achieve.
I'm not exactly defending him, I'm just saying y'all are being ridiculous and blowing it way out of proportion. I still think we're better off without him (unless he's at 100%), and I'm glad he's off the team for now. I'll be happy if we can shed his contract mid-year next year and I sincerely hope that they don't do something r****ded like re-sign him (they won't). I'm not a fan of him whatsoever. I am, however, objective. So it's not "young," it's now "fairly young." Age has nothing to do with knowledge or opinions, too (unless you're under 13).
Exactly.. but there's no distinction here.. people think that anyone who disagrees with TMac hate must be a "defender" with fatheads on his wall. I'm here to talk basketball issues, folks, not pick sides. I don't care if people rip TMac for things he deserves, like never winning and quitting in the Toronto game, but I don't understand the mentalities that he faked his injuries or he "roots" for the Lakers. It is almost unbelievable the amount of malice this thread has produced. I'm going to stand by my opinion no matter how many sheep join the flock.
Under 30 is young to me......and age has a ton to do with opinions, life experience has a ton to do with it. Leading a team or squad or company, anything gives perspective that others may or may not have, Tmac is hardly a leader, in fact, he sucks at it. Because a leader would never say these things, and Tmac is the captain of the Rockets, currently. Tmac just has no idea how his words impact others, and eventually you just roll your eyes at the guy and go "Whatever"...that is what I suspect his teamates do to him now, they know it is just Peter crying wolf. I can respect that. It is not a baaaaaaaaaad idea. DD
Again, how does this affect the organization? Saying he hasn't played with a great player affects his relationship with Yao. If they play together again, that is bad. Not notifying the team about his decision to have surgery is bad; it's disrespectful and probably caused most of this strained relationship as you indicate. Playing halfass for some games and coming in-and-out of the line-up is bad; we lost games because of this and probably the #2 seed. Saying he thinks the Lakers will win the championship...? Not so bad. It doesn't affect the current team. It doesn't affect what the team thinks of him. Do you really think the fans are suddenly going to boo him when he returns over this? I'll laugh if you do. I care about what affects the Rockets' season. All his crap earlier in the season hurt us, so I hated all that crap. Most of the stuff he's done is bad, so I despise most of that stuff. But this? Really? You're going to make a big deal out of this? You're going to make a blanket statement saying this particular comment will affect team chemistry next year? You're going to say this particular comment will cause fans to hate him that don't already? Really? He didn't say the Rockets can't achieve an NBA Championship; he just thinks the Lakers can. Again, blowing it out of proportion.
All this really does is guarantee he will not play in Houston again. Bon Voyage TMac. Thanks for your support.
Do you think so? I'd love if we could hear Adelman or Morey give their true, unadulterated thoughts about this subject. If they agreed with you I'd be willing to eat crow.
I really think they were done with Tracy when he announced he was shutting it down with the media and didnt tell the team about it. I mean Morey and Adelman came out and said they had no idea about it and acted like they were blindsided.
Yeah, I think we just seriously disagree on the severity of picking another team to win a tournament that your team is currently still involved. If you think I'm blowing that out of proportion, then that's fine. I think it is a big deal. As someone who grew up playing a lot of different sports I can't even fathom me or any of my teammates ever picking against our own team. Much like true competitors like Artest and KG could never fathom someone doing that. If it was me, yes it would affect my team chemistry with that person if I was forced to play with him again the next season. But if your experiences growing up lead you to believe that it's not a big deal, then so be it. I'll stop arguing with you about it.
I'm not here here to argue that, I don't disagree there. Maybe they do want him out of town for that, but I thought we were talking ONLY about this. If this was any other player, I don't believe that this comment would get them run out of town. I agree it wasn't very tactful, but I don't think he intended to belittle his teammates. They had a whole season and several head-to-head matchups to prove they were better than the Lakers, but didn't. I don't believe we WILL beat the Lakers, but I sure as hell believe we CAN. Maybe I just look at this comment differently because I'm not as convinced that we'll beat the Lakers as other people are.
