Tracy this is FRUSTRATING. If you want 3 Weeks, USE THEM.

T-Mac has played through pain pretty much every year since he was traded here. He even does it pretty well in the playoffs like last year. So I don't think Bill and Clyde are suggesting that T-Mac can't play with pain. "Tough" is a pretty subjective word. Every player has their own style, some considered "soft" to the fans, some "tough". Yao doesn't exactly play with toughness, but that's not the type of player he is, so he shouldn't be criticized for that. Neither should Tracy.

This team will only go as far as Tracy can take it? That seems to contradict the idea that Yao is our best player, the #1 option, and that the offense should run through him. It would be more accurate to say that this team can only go as far as the TEAM can take it. We should be deep enough so that one player doesn't have to carry it anymore.

 

It was Fran Blinebury. Somebody noticed that he wasn't writing about the Rockets and asked Feigen in the comments section of one of his blog postings if Blinebury had been kicked off the Rockets beat because of his constant negativity or something. Feigen replied that Blinebury wasn't writing about the Rockets because he was out of town covering the college bowl games. I think it was a little bit after that that Paige was on ATH and specifically mentioned that his source was a Chronicle reporter covering the bowl games so it wasn't too had to put two and two together.

 

Clyde has openly said TMac should be playing through pain. Look, it doesn't matter....Tmac is what he is....a talented, sensitive player who sulks from time to time.

I am not surprised that he took extra time off to get his game right, just after saying he wanted the ball more.

It is typical him.

Thanks for posting it, now cue the "Fran hates Tmac" TMOF apologists.

DD

 

I'm kind of surprised that Kobe has shot 20+ 7 times already this season considering the healthy supporting cast around him. Maybe he should take advantage of them more often and stop chucking up shots.

I couldn't have possibly guessed it was Blindbury! We don't even know if Paige misinterpreted his words or anything. All that guy does is hate McGrady and say nothing about Yao as if he's flawless. I take his opinion with a grain of salt. Had you just said it was Fran in the first place, everyone would be like "go figure".

 

LOL - told ya !

DD

 

Point is Kobe's done a pretty good job of reining himself in and I think it's pretty obvious that the Lakers are a much better team when he does rein it in. Their ball movement is outstanding. In the Spurs game thread a couple of guys posted about how the Rockets' offense looked like the Lakers'. It makes sense--both Adelman and Jackson run motion offenses. The difference is that the Lakers have figured out how to run their offense and have got the record to show for it, while the Rockets are still struggling to get the pieces together. Is there really any question as to who'd win in a seven games series?

Also, I'm not 100% sure it's Blinebury obviously. I'm just trying to connect the dots.

 

I was going to say, he must not have read your post...

 

keep finding them, you won't find it. if it was fran, he WOULD write an article. you can't stop the guy. he's very opinionated.

keep reachin'

 

Assuming that the other Rockets would only comment off the record is he really going to write an article? The way I see it that would only happen if McGrady's teammates were willing to go on record with their criticisms and that's something that almost never happens with NBA teams. By and large that stuff stays inside the locker room and when it doesn't it signals a team in meltdown mode.

 

I like how someone posts a thread about him probably coming back the next couple of games, and you STILL b****.

When he was playing through the pain it was "Tmac, take a rest, you suck right now".

When he decides to shut it down for three weeks its "Tmac you should be able to play through the pain."

Now that he decides to come back its "Well, he still didn't play with us for those 7 games he missed."

Can you guys never give him credit?

 

ESPN ran an entire segment on terrell owens yesterday on FOUR anonymous dallas players who didn't want their identity be revealed.

so you can write articles/do segments if players/interviewees want to say things off the record. just mention "anonymous sources." it's very easily done.

the only people who covers the rockets are: jon feign (he's basically the beat writer), fran, occasionally justice but he covers more baseball, and solomon. so it's not that hard to connect the dots. but you're still trying to connect the dots. so keep connecting.

 

There's a difference between being willing to have your information published as an anonymous source and speaking completely off the record, and my suspicion is that the latter scenario is what actually happened.

My guess is that Blinebury passed that information on to Paige in the context of a social setting, over a beer at the hotel bar. And I'm also guessing that that's how he got that information in the first place, in an informal setting where the Rockets player(s) made it clear that the information they were giving out was not to be used in a story.

 

wow that's a lot of guesses. but keep guessing. i'm done.

 

You know what I'm not guessing about? Woody Paige going on national TV to talk about chemistry problems between T-Mac and the rest of the Rockets. I don't need to guess about that.

 

You are making a ton of assumptions there.

This is what bothers me the most about the whole injury thing. A lot of this hate is based off of assumptions and media sound bytes. How often do you think players distort the truth a little in the media.. for whatever reason. Especially when you bring in doctors and injuries where the science isn't 100% there (two players may have the same injury and experience it differently).

I've said this 3-4 times and no one ever takes me on it. If Tmac is resting when he obviously could play (and apparently everyone knows about it), then you would think someone would call him out within the organization. If its as obvious as you guys are suggesting it is, I'm more pissed that he isn't getting called out.