McGrady thinks about a center not named Yao
December 28th, 2007by John
With the holidays being so busy, I didn’t notice until now this article that was published 10 days ago. I don’t take too kindly to it. It’s another example where Tracy McGrady seems to say the wrong thing, even if you can understand why he thinks that way.
It’s okay for a player to say they respect another player’s game, but when McGrady was recently asked if he thinks about what it would have been like to play with Dwight Howard of the Magic, he responded:
“Oh yeah, I think about that a lot. And when I’m with my (Orlando-based) trainer (Wayne Hall), we talk all the time about how good me and Dwight could have been together.”
So is Yao not good enough for you, McGrady? A guy who never has dissed you?
When later asked about the idea of playing with Howard after his current contract held by Houston ends in 2010…
“I’ve thought about it. You never know.”
You just don’t say these things, even if it’s true. He should have responded by saying he is thinking about today, not two years from now.
In your mind, does the drumbeat to trade McGrady get even louder after these statements?
December 28th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
i say trade mcgrady immediately. he is an idiot, and does not have loyalty. How does Yao and other Rocket fans feel after he says that? He’s just looking elsewhere now because he himself lacks the confidence to take his team past the first round. And at this rate, i don’t even know if they will make the playoffs this year.
December 28th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I say Yao Ming should just slap T-mac just like how Shaq slapped Kobe =)
December 28th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I say let Yao and McGrady part amicably before the divorce gets ugly.
December 28th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
who would we be able to get for tmac right now anyway? hes the star of a team that is not even in the top 8 on the west coast right now. thats equivalent to a michael redd or worse considering tmac’s prone to injuries. i see tmac turning into a future shareef abdul rahim or similar- someone washed up who never won
shhhh. remember, if you want to get value for him, he has to be hyped up so some team will give the Rockets plenty in return. — John
December 28th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Yeah, let’s go ahead and dump T-Mac for whatever we can get for him. The team has proven they can with without him consistently so why do they even need him at all.
December 28th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
But would Dwight want to play with Tracy. I think not if he has to sit there watching Tracy ball boggin and jack up bad shots. Dwight’s stats would suffer playin with Tracy.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Does this guy not think before he speaks?
John, is there any way u can draw Les Alexander’s attention to this article? I think he might get upset enough to trade TMac. Let’s face it, his is the only decision that counts, not Adelman, not Morey, not the fans, not Yao
We’re all weary of TMac. And while you’re at it, send him all those get “rid of Alston and Hayes in the starting line up” fan emails will you?
Rockets will be real good then
John, something tells me Les knows about it, and I would bet the entire Rockets organization isn’t too thrilled about it. It wouldn’t surprised me if he got traded. Not just because of this statement, but many other dumb ones, and not being a leader at the price of $19 million per year. — John
December 28th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
SheMac hurt Yao feeling……………
what kind a teammate is that?……
Look at KOBE, Garnet,Iversen……
They REAL “SuperStar” (never cry about injury) ,
Rockets will make a playoff (If they trade SheMac).
December 29th, 2007 at 3:53 am
wow…we need to trade him man..
December 29th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Have any of you actually gone ahead to check out the actual article? This article is written in the point of view of a Florida column and McGrady is just showing some support for a friend he made over the summer. What was he suppose to say… “I would never consider playing with a rising center like Howard”. Never once while reading the article did I feel McGrady being disloyal. It seems like most of you on the trade McGrady bandwagon are the ones that are being DISLOYAL to him and the ROCKETS. Unless you guys are named Daryl Morey or Les Alexander, then please STFU because none of you know the first thing of managing an NBA team.
I think one thing that astounds most Rocket fans is that McGrady isn’t smart enough to think that it’s a small world where news articles are posted on Web sites for the entire world to read. He should understand that if he makes a comment to a reporter anywhere, that it will be read by readers in Houston. He should have said, “Howard is a great player, but I’ve got a pretty nice center in Houston named Yao.”
You should never talk about another job (which he was basically doing — not just supporting a friend) in public, unless you really, really want it. I forget the name of the football coach earlier this year who said in a radio interview that he would love to coach at a university while he was still employed by another team. He got all kinds of heat for that dumb remark. This is a similar situation, and isn’t the first time McGrady has said something that was stupid. Remember when he said before Game 7 against Utah last year that it wasn’t the biggest Game 7 of his career, then everyone including the media couldn’t believe he was being that nonchalant about it, then he came back the next day and said it WAS going to be the biggest Game 7 of his career. Jonathane Feigen of the Houston Chronicle had a good blog posting about McGrady’s inappropriate remarks recently. You can read it here: http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/12/mcgrady_ill_probably_be_out_a.html — John.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
The guy dwight howard is not a true center, he only plays one. He is too short and small for a center. Did anyone see how small he is when he stand next to YAO when orlando play against the Rockets. He look like a shimp next to YAO and yet he has the guts to flip YAO on the floor. I guess his way of showing his toughness because he lacks size compare to YAO. In the history of basketball most center are 7feet or taller.
December 29th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I once came here regularly to read your thoughts John, but you’re becoming a typical Yao fan. Every opportunity to call Yao the franchise is taken, but excuses are always made, opinions change nightly, and your once unbiased posts smack of homerism.
If you want McGrady gone fine, but remember you said that if he comes back like he did last season and helps turn things around. If your thoughts on Jeff Van Gundy are “good riddance” because RA’s “new offense” got us some early wins don’t do a 180 and start saying how much you dislike RA and his offense when thing go badly. It’s called being a fan, and it’s something you should remember how to do(I loved your shot by shot analyses) rather than being one of the usual village idiots who will ignore any sort of good basketball reasoning and continue saying the same things despite being corrected.
Sure, I’m always calling Yao “the franchise.” Right. I would challenge anyone to find 5 references of me taking “every opportunity” to call him the franchise. I don’t even think of Yao in those terms, even if some would like to call him the “franchise.” Sometimes I feel bad, for this being a Yao site, that I don’t spend ENOUGH time writing about how “great” he is. Most of the time I’m writing about the state of the other Rockets because Yao has become so consistently solid, and that can sometimes become old reading (just like how people say Tim Duncan is boring, as great as he is).
Regarding the term ‘franchise,’ I don’t care what he’s called. I just want him to be the best center he can be and help lead this team to a few championships, and the rest will speak for itself. These days Yao doesn’t play so poorly to where excuses can even be made. But when he has played poorly in the past, I’ve called him out on it many a time. But over the past 5 years, he has made dramatic improvement, even with his defense which is much better this season.
I guess you haven’t been reading that I’m one of the few people who, despite McGrady irking alot of people with his antics (not sitting with his teammates on the bench, dreaming of playing with Dwight Howard, etc.), has not called him out to be traded. I have been very frustrated with him at times, and I’ve come close to saying it every time he jacks up stupid, ill-advised 3 pointers, and loses his basketball IQ. But he is too good of a weapon when he attacks the basket, and also opens up shots for others when he does that and gets them the ball. With that said, I am always open for any player to be traded when a season has turned disastrous with its highest paid player — and the one who was the self-proclaimed leader — at the helm. No player is sacred, except for Yao, and almost every NBA expert would agree with me on that one.
I liked the idea of Rick Adelman’s “new offense” and was all behind it. The problem was RA not sticking with it during their big losing streak, and reverting back to the way the Rockets played last year: relying too much on Yao and McGrady. If he had stuck with his offense, and hadn’t kept sticking with unproductive players and not giving the new guys like Brooks and Scola a chance (which he’s finally doing, and it’s paying off), then I would haven’t done what you called a “180.” Adelman brought it on himself by taking his sweet time making changes, ditching his new offense for awhile, forgetting all about defense, and letting the players do what they did on offense last year, which is basically let Yao and McGrady do all the work while everyone else stand around watching. Even Adelman himself said he saw too much standing around, but what did he do about it for the longest time? He kept giving playing time to the players who were standing around! Now Brooks and Scola are finally getting the playing time they deserve because they don’t just stand around. So as Adelman becomes “Idleman,” you bet I’m going to call him out on it, just like you want me to call Yao out when he continuously makes mistakes (which he hasn’t been doing much of). But hopefully now that he understands this roster better (albeit it took longer than the rest of us), the Rockets will get back on track. — John