All these guys were tough freaking players. Landry got shot and broke his teeth multiple times and you don't see him b****ing about anything. somebody give this guy +99 rep points!
and tmac didn't play through a knee injury that required constant drainage and steroids + a bum shoulder for one season when yao was out for the most part, leading us to a 22-game winning streak plus playoffs? i mean, that ain't tough bro. anyone can do that.
oh he did play with injuries, but I don't recall anyone stepping on his foot or he was taking a charge on Dirk and breaking his teeth. there's a difference from getting injured and just being injured. being a Rockets fan before all this tmac/yao stuff. so what? that was normal for the 80s and 90s players to do that stuff. Dream got a fractured eye socket and came back after 25 games. Tmac's mouth did more damage to the team than his injuries.
I don't hate T-Mac. As a player, I enjoyed watching him. Too bad he could pay someone to speak for him 24/7. He is a terrible speaker and decision-maker off the court.
You do realize that Yao was there for 12 of those 22 games right? Also, I would hardly say that T-Mac led the Rockets alone. Our team played out of their minds during that streak, especially Rafer.
Also, tough is the last word that ANYONE, save maybe T-Mac, would EVER use to describe himself. You know what tough is? Tough is Yao taking a hard hit to his leg during the playoff game and came back to play, because his TEAM needed him, never mind Keith Jones begging him to stay out. Tough is Landry taking a charge and losing his teeth inside Dirk's elbow and walking off like it was nothing. Tough is Hakeem almost getting his eye poked out and coming back as quickly as he could or destroying opposing players while starving. Tough is Mario Elie, Mutombo, Vernon Maxwell, Drexler, Scola, Lowry, ect. If T-Mac had took hits like any of those players I just mentioned, he would have sat his ass straight on the pine and whined about getting hit.
If tmac could be half the MAN when it comes to toughness mentally and physically as these guys, he might be one of my favorite all time (eh...) rockets. But we wasn't... through reading lots of the posts I've come back to reality and have some flashbacks of the real tmac. Lots of talent.. not nearly enough heart. Lots of talk.. not enough toughness to back it up. That would be the best way to describe him... good memories too, but not enough to overcome the lack of work ethic and the few time he DID give up on the court, not running, not in on the action, etc... he helped us A LOT... but it seems he screwed us over just as much. Man, it's almost scary what we couldve done with a healthy and MANLY, TOUGH, non diva and work work work WeMac not MeMac.
He's become an easy target and while it's understandable some people did not like his antics off the court and false promises, I think there are alot of people who just hate him because it's the popular thing to do in houston
Like many of us have said, we don't hate the guy. If we hated the guy, then we would be wishing death upon him and his first born. We are simply disillusioned and disappointed at a guy who could have done so many great things for our beloved Rockets if only his head and heart were in the right place and not stuck so far up in the reality distortion field in his ass. His antics and empty promises only serve to make an already extremely bitter pill much harder to swallow. I really like Yao as a person for instant, but I extremely dislike him as a player on the Rockets due to his limited production from being always injured. T-Mac's only saving grace was he had the intelligence and natural talent to do amazing things. Once his athleticism was taken away, we were only left with this broken down and pouty diva who continued to deliver empty promises and words effortlessly.
I like McGrady. Obviously, much of the hate comes from his injury season when he was in and out of the line-up. I have strong feelings about that season too but, unlike most posters here, I blame Morey for that season, not McGrady (though I still like Morey). I think there's a lot of cognitive dissonance here where people direct their blame to McGrady because the alternative -- blaming Morey -- runs at odds with the strong belief that Morey is an awesome GM. People don't want to believe that Morey could have mishandled that season, so they put the blame on McGrady instead. This redirection is so extreme I've even caught posters on occassion reinventing the history so that it was McGrady that was insisting on playing. In the end, McGrady was injured, Morey was so eager to win he refused to believe it so he mishandled the season and McGrady caught the blame.
blame morey? you hit a wrong person. tmac didn't follow the order the team doctors set and the decision all sides made. he always stepped out the circle and announced his own decision by himself.
