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Bill Simmons on Tracy McGrady
Posted on 8/31/13 at 7:31 am
Posted on 8/31/13 at 7:31 am
Great article by Bill Simmons on T-Mac and his legacy.
LINK
LINK
quote:
As the summer passed, everything I witnessed during the 2013 NBA Finals blurred into one colorful, eclectic memory. Tony Parker chewing up 23.999997 seconds of the shot clock before clinching Game 1 with an outrageous leaner. Spurs fans clogging downtown San Antonio after Game 5, relentlessly honking their horns and creating a festive gridlock. LeBron's headband getting symbolically knocked off in the second half of Game 6, right before he summoned his immense powers to save Miami's season. Ray Allen making the single greatest shot I've ever seen in person to steal San Antonio's championship away. Tim Duncan bent over in the last minute of Game 7, his hands pushing against his knees, totally distressed, unable to fathom how he missed a game-saving bunny that he's probably made a million times.
Somewhere in that Finals memory morass sits Tracy McGrady, once considered the de facto equal of Kobe Bryant … only now, he was toiling away as an overqualified benchwarmer for San Antonio. The role was so far beneath him, nobody even knew how to fully process it. This was like Gene Hackman slumming it as an uncredited policeman in Lincoln. Poor McGrady had no impact on the series, but one T-Mac moment stood out for me. About 75 minutes before Game 4 in San Antonio, I was standing on the court waiting for Duncan to warm up — one of my favorite Finals moments, if only because everything that has happened in Duncan's extraordinary career makes sense after you've seen him warm up. It's like what Glenn Frey revealed about the secret of Jackson Browne's brilliance in the Eagles documentary.
Elbow grease. Time. Thought. Persistence.
Duncan only takes shots that he plans on using in games. No joking around, no casual conversing, no stopping, no smiling. Just an aging artist honing his craft. It's beautiful to watch. On this night, Duncan hadn't emerged from the locker room yet. So I started watching McGrady — a future Hall of Famer like Duncan, only someone who had never even won a playoff series until he joined San Antonio in April. I was standing there wearing a suit and tie, my face covered in makeup. McGrady was wearing practice clothes, halfheartedly hoisting 3s with a half-smile spread across on his face. I knew he wasn't playing that night unless they were up 20 or down 20. So did he. I knew his career had been over for a while. So did he. Only he kept jacking up those 3s, and he kept kind of smiling, and the moment meant nothing and everything.
6
Posted on 8/31/13 at 8:09 am to tgr4ever
Probably his big problem. Great talent, but never thought to hone it like Duncan. Just so casual throughout his career.
Posted on 8/31/13 at 8:11 am to tgr4ever
Probably his big problem. Great talent, but never thought to hone it like Duncan. Just so casual throughout his career.
Posted on 8/31/13 at 8:17 am to tgr4ever
Tmac is a hall of famer?
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:04 am to Flair Chops
quote:
Tmac is a hall of famer?
Has a much much much better case then Paul Pierce, Ray Allen or Reggie Miller
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:06 am to VerlanderBEAST
quote:
Has a much much much better case then Paul Pierce, Ray Allen or Reggie Miller
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:07 am to VerlanderBEAST
quote:
Ray Allen
I'll take that as the first joke of the day.
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:10 am to Flair Chops
quote:
Tmac is a hall of famer?
it depends on the shifting argument
he was the arguable best player for like a 3-4 year stretch, which typically is enough to get you in
sadly, team stats (that shouldn't matter) and injuries (both to him and his teammates) will dominate the discussion
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:21 am to tgr4ever
quote:uhhh... That's not exactly true. He was on the 08-09 rockets team that won 20 something games in a row and won a playoff series against Portland and took the eventual finals champs lakers 7 games behind houston rocket Ron artest. I mean, he was hurt and didn't play, but he was no less apart of that team than he was on the spurs this past year
McGrady — a future Hall of Famer like Duncan, only someone who had never even won a playoff series until he joined San Antonio in April
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:25 am to Flair Chops
If freaking Joe Dumars is a HOFer so is McGrady
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:46 am to Flair Chops
How many 2x scoring champs are not in the hall?
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:48 am to SlowFlowPro
quote:
he was the arguable best player for like a 3-4 year stretch, which typically is enough to get you in
Yes.
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:52 am to Gtothemoney
quote:
Here's a complete list of every teammate who started a playoff game with Tracy McGrady during his aforementioned 2001-08 peak …
Darrell Armstrong (three years), Bo Outlaw, Andrew DeClercq (two years), Mike Miller (two years), Pat Garrity (two years), Horace Grant (36 at the time), Monty Williams, Jacque Vaughn, Gordan Giricek, Drew Gooden, Yao Ming (two years), David Wesley, Bob Sura, Ryan Bowen, Scott Padgett, Shane Battier (two years), Rafer Alston (two years), Chuck Hayes, Luis Scola, Dikembe Mutombo (somewhere between age 40 and 52 at the time), and Bobby Jackson.
let's think about this for a moment
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:53 am to harry coleman beast
T-Mac = 5x All NBA 1st team or 2nd team
Allen Miller and Pierce combined 2x All NBA 1st team or 2nd team
Allen Miller and Pierce combined 2x All NBA 1st team or 2nd team
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:54 am to SlowFlowPro
He's a definite HOF IMO. The playoff record hurts him but it's not like he didn't show up and perform, he was actually quite dominant in the playoffs his teams just sucked.
love the avatar
quote:
SlowFlowPro
love the avatar
This post was edited on 8/31/13 at 10:55 am
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:54 am to SlowFlowPro
If Bernard King is in the Hall, McGrady should be in the Hall.
Posted on 8/31/13 at 10:56 am to RLDSC FAN
quote:
love the avatar
thanks. i've been bad the past 2 weeks. NEED TO RE-FOCUS
Posted on 8/31/13 at 11:11 am to tgr4ever
Regardless of how undeserving others in the HoF may be, I do not think McGrady should get in. JMO
Posted on 8/31/13 at 11:14 am to SlowFlowPro
this argument is why i think TMac's brilliance over a 5-7 year period has been somewhat forgotten/ignored
the american public just does NOT like guys who are so good they don't have to try hard to be great
we even invent this narrative for guys who do bust their arse, like lebron
we love "blue collar" types who "leave it all on the floor" and compete like their life depended on it. when you combine this with great talent, you get an MJ or Kobe. when it comes too easy, people turn you into a TMac. i'm so glad people have started leaving this argument behind with Lebron, b/c he busts his arse
quote:
T-Mac's brilliance was never infectious like that. He always looked half-asleep. He didn't have a nasty streak. He wasn't larger than life. He was just really, really, really great at playing basketball. That's it. If you want to pick McGrady's career apart historically, or even make the case that he's not a Hall of Famer, this is the easiest argument to make against him. When you're playing with a superduperstar, you should be heading to practice every day thinking, I can't let this guy down.
McGrady never made anyone feel that way. We spent the past decade wondering if Kobe was too tough on his teammates, if he pushed them too far, if he called them out too much, if he was so overwhelmingly competitive that it actually worked against him sometimes. (And it probably did.) McGrady sits on the other side of the spectrum. In that respect, he was the anti-Kobe. His teammates played with him; they didn't go to war for him. Maybe that was the difference. Or maybe not everyone's meant to lead a team that way, and that's OK, too.
the american public just does NOT like guys who are so good they don't have to try hard to be great
we even invent this narrative for guys who do bust their arse, like lebron
we love "blue collar" types who "leave it all on the floor" and compete like their life depended on it. when you combine this with great talent, you get an MJ or Kobe. when it comes too easy, people turn you into a TMac. i'm so glad people have started leaving this argument behind with Lebron, b/c he busts his arse
Posted on 8/31/13 at 11:16 am to SlowFlowPro
Not alot of talent by any means. But we're not talking about his lack of a championship. We're talking about not winning a playoff series. I don't recall this 3-4 year stretch where he was the best player in the league...if that ever happened then the talent level must've been fricking awful. If you're the best player you can carry your team to a playoff series win at least once
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