SO let me get this straight, b/c our team gets along with each other and makes stupid nicknames up FOR FUN (ie. germanator, yeah, kind of racial and messed up admittingly) we're cocky? Mutombo's statement on going to phoenix although I believe to be self-confidence, did come off arrogant and too assuming that the Mavs would just lay down. But T-Mac is cocky? He makes incredible play after incredible play and doesn't stare anyone down a la Josh Howard style, but wait, T-Mac is cocky....pfth. He speaks with self confidence, he knows this is his team now. He doesn't speak out of place. I don't know, I try to be fair and a gracious winner or loser (well the team is the one that wins or loses), but it's tough when people assume b/c one fan might be abnoxious, that we all are (both mavs and rockets)... Oh well...
Well, after the 20 point or so trouncing the Mavs just took from Phoenix, I bet they're thinking twice about what "cockiness" is all about. Ironically, if you really want to see cocky (and this is part of the reason why I hate Phoenix and Amare & Co. sans Nash) is that the WHOLE Phoenix bench was up and LAUGHING DURING the game last night. I guess it serves Dallas right. If anything, the Rox under JVG have been about as humble a team as I can think of. Deke's comments were a little like what Patrick Ewing said many years ago about promising the ring. I guess its' 50% self-motivation (i.e. I believe!) and 50% outward show. The outward show is where it could be read as cockiness. But other than that, I don't recall any gestures of sheer cockiness from any other Rock. Do you? theSAGE
I would have to say that McGrady was more on the arrogant side than I would have liked, particularly after Game 6. He has made comments similar to this during the regular season as well, but after the game he said "When I feel like I can make 3s from anywhere on the floor, my defender is at my mercy.'' This, combined with his "Who da man?!!" expressions after plays could easily come across as arrogance, though he did walk the walk for most of the series.
Yeah, I'm sure Dirk sticking his tongue out was due to him panting. Give me a break, it's basketball.
I don't think the Mavs would be ones to complain about the Rockets being "cocky". Barry and Deke said few things that might have come across as cocky, but it was really gamesmanship, and wasn't meant as a slight at anyone. On the other hand, you had Finely talking crap before the series even began. You had Stackhouse disrespecting Barry callin him "trash". And you had Avery flip flopping all over the place with his comments about "we don't complain" You also had Dampier disrespecting Yao talking about exploiting a medical condition he has, and calling himself the 2nd best center in the league Then you have that thug Howard with his stare downs that make no sense at all, alas Snyder from the Jazz. But at least Sura "sacked" him and stared him down to retaliate for his foul on Yao. That was the moment I will cherish the most in the series
Give me a freakin' break McGrady didn't disrespect ANY single Mav out there. They asked him about the shots he was making from all over the court and he responded in the same way he did during the season: "When I feel like I can make shot from anywhere on the floor, my defender is at my mercy". There is nothing "arrogant" about that, because it is true as we have seen all season long. As for the emotions he was showing on the court, that was to fire himself and his teammates up. I hear all the time complaints about how McGrady looks "passive" or "careless" with his body language, and yet when he shows emotions to pump his team up (not to show up the opponent) people STILL complain. You can't have it both ways. Sorry, but you are mistaking "confidence" and "arrogance". Go back and look at what great players like Jordan and others used to say. If you are a great player, you have to have that "swagger", or otherwise your opponents will smell blood and come after you. Do you think if Yao spoke up for himself about the bad refereeing in the series against him, or if he talked back to Dampier and the other idiots who were taunting him that JVG would have been in the predicament he found himself in? Even McGrady had to stand up for the guy in the media, and Sura had to take "one for the team" when he slammed Howard to the floor and stared him down. Being confident in yourself and not letting yourself be walked all over by everyone is PART of being a great player, and until Yao gets that attitude he will never become a truly great/dominant player in this era. There is no player that was more humble than Hakeem, but when he felt slighted by the league for not getting that MVP trophy, he DESTROYED the Admiral. It was the biggest smackdown of all time. He just wouldn't ever let anyone disrespect him.
TMac is cocky. ALl you need to do is go back to the 2002 playoffs when McGrady - despite being outplayed by Baron Davis - said he was thebest player on the court and in the series. Now, cocky can be a good thing, but there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
I am not debating his "past", he was definitely cocky in the past. We are talking about in this series, and since he has been with Houston. There is no question that there were a lot of labels and baggage McGrady came in with, but he played the right way this season. He hasn't disrespected anyone, certainly not anywhere close to what Maverick players said/did.
So what is he, cocky or arrogant? Make up your mind. IMO, he is neither (though he might have been in the past). In those 2002 playoffs he was 22 years old. Now that I'm almost twice that age, I look back at some of the stupid things I did and said at 22 with a bit of chagrin. I'm sure Tracy does the same, even at a 3-year remove.
I am not debating his "past", he was definitely cocky in the past. We are talking about in this series, and since he has been with Houston. There is no question that there were a lot of labels and baggage McGrady came in with, but he played the right way this season. He hasn't disrespected anyone, certainly not anywhere close to what Maverick players said/did. All superstars are supremely confident and that might come across as "cocky" or "arrogant". That attitude and swagger tends to be the reason why these players are great, while others might have similar talents but they don't have the confidence to do things/say things/take responsibilities the great players do. Personality is a HUGE part of being great, just look back at all the great players of our era.
The one thing I hated during the playoff run was the guys talking about they had it won and doing the little 3-finger wave on the way back after hitting a 3. Yes they were arrogant at that point.
Well, you know how people are hypocrites. They always hold others to a standard they themselves didn't/can't live up to. Let's see, I know people who don't have a fraction of the money/popularity McGrady or any other NBA player has, they don't have his cars/houses/plane, but they still act like a bunch of cocky MoFo, nd for what? So if anyone has the right to be cocky and flaunt "his", it is these millionaire athletes. I can't say McGrady has been arrogant at all this season, he has been a model leader for this team. He has handled himself right, just ask JVG. We all make mistakes, you learn from the past (and this guy is only 25!) and you come clean about it, admit your faults, and ten proceed.
umm...you are going to have to show me who said they "had it won", I don't think that is an accurate description. Who specifically said "the series is over" or something to that extent? If anything, I heard McGrady and Barry and Sura and others saying (after winning Game 2) that JVG didn't want them to get overconfident and relaxed because they on two games, so he ran them hard in practice. The 3-point sign thing was just something the team used for fun, not to show up the Mavs. I don't see what was disrespectful about that. I guarantee you you wouldn't be complaining had we won this series, but now that we lost people are going to go back and try to find something stupid and silly to blame for our loss
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3170001 Mutombo's guarantee Before Game 6, somebody finally declared a winner. The first-round series was a Mavericks victory away from being over at Thursday morning's shootaround, but Dikembe Mutombo offered up a guarantee the Rockets would advance to play Phoenix in the second round. Mutombo was asked about his lack of finger-wagging against Dallas when he responded by saying that would change against the Phoenix Suns. "Man, when you're guarding all those little guys, they are moving you around and putting out pick-and-rolls and having different help, (blocks are) hard to get," Mutombo said. "But when we play Phoenix, it's going to be a lot different. When we play Phoenix, I believe we are going to make it happen. "We're going to win tonight, and we're going to go to Dallas and give our best and win it." http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...avs/stories/050705dnspomavsdate.818d9648.html "Mutombo stands by guarantee of victory Dikembe Mutombo, the Rockets' veteran center, repeated his guarantee of Houston winning Game 7. "We are going to win," Mutombo said. "We're going to Phoenix. Don't you want to come to Phoenix? We're going to Phoenix." Rockets forward Tracy McGrady said he wouldn't join his teammate in that proclamation. McGrady, in the 2002 playoffs, guaranteed an Orlando victory over Charlotte and lost. "I've been there before, and things quite didn't turn out the way I wanted it to," McGrady said. "I don't guarantee no more, man. I've learned my lesson on that." Mike Heika
Off topic, sort of. That was the second time I've heard that "... at my mercy." statement. Jordan said it the first time on one of his videos, I think he was talking about the 63 point playoff game he had against the Celtics.
Dude, you want to know why you are one of the worst posters on the board? Because you can't even get your facts right Baron Davis outplayed McGrady? LOL! Here are the series stats of that series, I will let it speak for itself: Baron Davis 44.6 min/game, .378 FG%, .339 3pt%, .597 FT%, 7 Reb/game, 7.9 Asists/game, 3.56 Steals/game, .56 blocks/game, 22.6 pts/game http://www.nba.com/hornets/stats/playoffs_stats.html Tracy McGrady 44.5 min/game, .462 FG%, .313 3pt%, .739 FT%, 6.30 Rbs/game, 5.5 ast/game, 1.75 blocks/game, 30.8 pts/game. http://www.nba.com/magic/stats/playoffs_stats.html If Davis outplayed McGrady (not to mention that he couldn't anyways because they weren't matched up against one another), then Dirk Nowitzki was the best player in our series
Fine, then I am sure you want Deke to stop wagging the finger as well, since he is "showing up" the other team, right? Oh, and Shaq should stop calling himself the "MDE", because it is pretty arrogant to say that. This is an age of showmanship in sports, so you guys really need to get over it. If you don't do it, the other team will. It is part of sports now, it's part of the whole "show".
