Wow. They will say anything in Orlando to make themselves feel better. At least "Me-Mac" made the playoffs. I hope the Magic enjoy years of mediocrity while the Rockets continue to build around T-Mac and Yao and WIN a title in the near future.
for sure they have nothin else to write about .. they so desperate they have to drag tmac back into their articles again..
Interesting that the first article quotes Karl who said T-Mac was the most unstopable player in the league a month ago. I didn't like the shot at Dominique either. 'Nique should be in the HOF now and every current GM would have loved to have him in his prime. But he was a loser? I'm really beginning to hate American sports culture. T-Mac acquited himself quite well this season and against the Mav's. But 26 and no ring? He's a loser. Right. I'm also sick of this huge significance of getting out of the first round crap. Man, arent the Wizards scary because they beat the Celtics? It's just something to write about and take cheap shots.
Boy, they didn't waste any time starting this s**t didn't they? Can't say I'm really all that surprised because a great deal is expected of LeBron, Yao & TMac and this crap will keep getting whispered/printed until the aforementioned 3 do something substantial in the playoffs and/or win it all.
eh, stupid articles and vindictive writers. Anyone who saw the series knows McGrady doesn't fit the description these morons want to attach to him.
Actually, TMac's mentality did seem different in the last game compared to the previous games. And I had always hated the team's 0+3 hand signal. Should focus on the game.
Let's not expect McGrady to deliver the world in one year guys. Last year he was a loser - he gave up on that team. This year he's played like a winner, but he has room to grow. And that's a great thing. This about it people - Tmac is going to actually get even better!!!! But he's not a loser in my book by any means.
I don't think we disagree, what T-MAc did last year in Orlando as far as his attitude about the team/etc. was wrong, but the kid himself ADMITTED to it and came clean and was appologitic about it, saying "it felt really bad" to not feel like you have given your all, etc. I believe him, I think he REALLY is trying to put all that behind him and mature himself as a person and then as a player. The guy was asked to do it all on a crappy team while being only a few years removed from his teenage years (Can you imagine the enormous pressure on a 22-24 year old being asked to "save the team"?). McGrady was a kid, he in fact STILL is a kid (you don't fully mature at 25 yrs of age), and to expect a young kid not to make mistakes is hypocritical to say the least. Now, however, we are talking about the utter sadness of what Orlando writers are going through: their team missed the playoffs after being solidly positioned in it a few weeks earlier; they had to trade away their hometown kid whom they absolutely lived and died for as sports fans, so the fact he was traded was heartbreaking for them (I understand this part, and that is why I can't be mad at Orlando fans, because they are only reacting to a breakup of a marriage they thought would last forever, but deep inside they really loved McGrady) ; and finally now they are depressed about the strong possibility of losing the franchise all together, because they won't approve a new arena. I just really don't understand Orlando writers, they are sooo transparent with this stuff that they sound now like the jilted girlfriend that keeps insisting she is "over him", and yet can't stop talking about him and how she was better than him and he didn't deserve her, etc. It is quiet sad to read their articles, they just spew hate and are looking more and more like the bitter jilted girlfriend with every passing day. You don't see that kind of bitterness from the Chronicle, which makes you wonder who is not happy/rethinking this trade?
Tigermission It's funny that you use the analogy of a jilted girlfriend, because that's exactly what a caller said today. Bianchi is a participant on an Orlando radio show called Keep'N Score on 740 The Team (740theteam.com, 8AM). Bianchi was talking about his article in the Sentinel, basically trying to promote the newspaper. The show has callers who express their opinions on different topics. Today there were about 12 callers in a row who wanted to comment on the article and all of them were just criticizing and blasting Bianchi and his shameful MeMac references. One caller was really mad and he said to stop calling him Tracy that name and admire his performance in the playoffs. He said that the story is getting olf and Bianchi can't let go, sort of like an old girlfriend. Bianchi was trying to defend himself and it was so funny because everybody was turning against him (even his cohost) and he wasn't expecting that. I also emailed Bianchi and he emailed me back twice. It went like this: ME: How can you live with yourself? Just six days ago you were lamenting the fact that the Magic let another great player get away and today you're writing that it was a great move????????? You have got to be the biggest hypocrite and flip flopping writer I have ever seen. I am embarrased to read your articles in our hometown newspaper. What happened to ethical journalism? Take a stand and stick with it. HIM: That was another columnist David Whitley who wrote the T-Mac article a few days ago. Thank you for reading. _ Mike Bianchi ME: You wrote on April 27 and said the same thing. HIM: Gary: I wrote a column about all the former Magic players and coaches -- Shaq, Ben Wallace, Chauncy Billups, T-Mac, Stephen Hunter, Doc Rivers, Scott Skiles, etc. -- who were in the playoffs and how this is torture for Magic fans. I never said the Magic shouldn't have traded T-Mac in that article. They had to trade the guy. ME: The idea of "getting something in return for a player whose contract is about to expire" (T-Mac) is a little overused. Let's say T-Mac would have bolted after this season. You would have had salary cap space to sign Michael Redd or Ray Allen or Larry Hughes or Joe Johnson or Ilgauskas. Would you not take one those guys over Steve Francis? The Magic traded T-Mac for three bloated contracts (Francis, Cato and Christie). The Rockets got rid of their albatross and you're saying Weisbrod did a good job? Nobody wants Francis and Cato and their contracts. A lot of people want T-Mac. As far as I am concerned, the Magic did not get something in return. If anything, they became more fiscally irresponsible. Francis is far more selfish than T-mac. Francis will never play second fiddle to Dwight Howard. He showed that with Yao Ming. Tracy wanted Yao to be his equal and his IQ is far superior than Francis. T-Mac is a team first player. Francis is the one who is all about showing off. In three years Weisbrod will want to trade Francis and he won't find any takers. What's worst, Francis might run the franchise player (Dwight) out of town. I AM WATING FOR HIS RESPONSE
macfan, Thanks for the recap of the radio segment/the callers/and your personal exchange with Bianchi. It is very nice to have an "insider" in Orlando, your posts help us non-Orlandoans (is that right ) to understand what is being said/done over there. I am not surprised quiet honestly that a caller on that show used the "jilted girlfriend" reference, because it REALLY is quiet transparent in the case of the Orlando writers. But hey, we had some articles here in Houston Chronicle that made knee-jerk comments about Francis as well (which I think was classless as well, I won't be a hypocrite and praise my hometown boys if they write something stupid to appease the local fans). If what you are saying about the Orlando fans calling in and lambasting Bianchi is true, then I have to tell you that I have just gained a whole new level of respect for Orlando fans, because it would mean that they are level-headed people who know the facts and won't be "appeased" by some stupid local columnist, who clearly was hoping to get a positive reaction from the Magic fanbase for writing this silly and immature piece of trash. So hats off to Orlando fans. I just really think that both teams, both cities, and the major media in both towns should JUST FORGET the whole damn thing and move on, there is no point of living in the past, it won't do anyone any good. If Bianchi and other Orlando Sentinal writers want to feel good about themselves by continuing to knock T-Mac down every chance they get, hanging on McGrady's words/actions, counting his every action/game/position just to gain some ammunition to say "See, I told you so!", then I have to say that I feel sorry for those writers on more than one level. The irony here is that McGrady grew up and learned from his mistakes, and now it seems like the very people who wanted McGrady to grow up in Orlando need to do some growing up of their own.
Yeah, but that's the thing, they are the jilted gf...and you know what they say about a woman scorned? Anyway, I'm glad Orlando hates McGrady, it's good to have a few enemies ya know....you want to know what's actually really sad? Toronto fans hating McGrady!
It's just the same thing that Orlando "hates" McGrady. As TMac admitted jokingly about the boos he receives in Toronto, "They still love me." Actually, I think he speaks the truth. We do. I hated to see him leave. At the time, he didn't want to play in the shadow of VC, and wanted to be the Number One guy on his own team, which is understandable. I was very high on him, coz he's gifted, tall, and played better defense than VC. I really hoped he and VC could make the Raptors a contender. If he sticked around, it might become a truth. He and VC sometimes still talked about that as what ifs. On the other hand, I am glad that he ends up in Houston. In your words, actually Toronto fans who booed him and "hated" him, were the first jilter gf
NOW LARRY BIRD HE KNEW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME OF BASKETBALL This paragraph cemented it for me. This whole article is thinly disguised racism from an ignorant writer who's coming off as a low-rent Skip Bayless. First he teases McGrady about the hand signal that Barry and Sura, both unassuming role players, started. Then he goes off into la-la-land where all he sees is a flashy, cocky black player and immediately he launches his asinine stereotype completely foreign to anyone who's watched a Rockets game this year. All McGrady does is circus dunks? I could probably count the number of times McGrady drove for a dunk in each game on one hand. Sure the drives he does finish stand out due to their highlight potential but he's far more likely to pull up for a jumper, kick out to the wing, or hand off to Yao. Then later in the article he criticizes T-Mac for "pulling up for a three" instead of driving to the basket. No doubt if McGrady had driven to the basket and lost the ball in traffic he would have delivered another inane rant about "those damn STREET BALLERS." What a dipshit. Plus only someone completely ignorant of anything other than the score would hang Game 7 on McGrady. The reason the Rockets lost wasn't because McGrady came up small, they lost because their role players collectively laid an egg and because they couldn't rotate on defense (and even that can't be blamed on T-Mac because his man, Dirk, did jack the entire series). "How else do you explain it" indeed. Well, it helps to watch the goddamned games, *******.
if tmac was a loser in this year's playoffs, then i hope he plays like a loser for the rest of his career in houston.
