[Tracy McGrady] I wish in my day I could've had a terrible game like Harden and still win by 20

would lose by 40, the way you played.

 

Geez... the video is even worse than the quote.

"Look at this one game where I did really awesome and we lost! See? See? It wasn't my fault! I didn't have help!" And TMac wants to talk about KAT playing soft

I picture Westbrook doing the same thing one day- pointing to his triple doubles but still losing.

 

Why is this so outrageous to say? T-Mac was never a true MVP candidate like Harden, but few are. He was still great! Yao was a part-time player due to health, and the next best player he had (during a healthy season, I'm not counting Artest's season and beyond) was Juwan Howard. The Rockets have 2 HOF players still in their prime, plus Eric Gordon, Capela, Ariza, Tucker, Ryno, Gerald, Iso Joe, Nene, Luc. His statement is probably true of any superstar pre-super team era...

 

Lotta salty fans here. I get T-Mac left Houston on bad terms, but who wouldn't wish they could play terribly and still win by 20? Morey did a great job of constructing the current squad. Remember who T-Mac had outside of Yao? Juwan Howard, Rafer Alston, Shane Battier? You couldn't count on any other player on that team, starter or bench, to get 10 points.

 

With Orlando he was an MVP candidate though because it is a regular season award.

His peak lasted couple of years or little longer, that is why.

He had what Harden did not have enough. Explosion.

But Harden did better at everything else except Defense but he improved.

 

Harden is going to win the MVP

Tmac will always be remembered as DNP

 

Loser talking like a loser

 

He’s not wrong though.

We are lucky to have a stacked team and a legit 2nd superstar that can not only create his own shot but for others as well. If Harden has a performance like last night (it’s happened before) with the same roster from last year or previous years we lose by a lot and you’d see threads like “Trade Harden” (who made that btw? )

 

I mean he's right. When Mac was healthy, most of his supporting cast was either injured (Yao in 04-05 was not great yet, in 05-06 injured, 06-07 came back from injury but wasn't as good prior to, and in 07-08 yao got injured again)...or not that talented (RYAN EFFING BOWEN). By the time the Rockets had a quality supporting cast around him, T-Mac's injuries had caught up to him and he was barely an NBA player anymore. Does he sound bitter....I suppose you could take it that way, but it's not like what he's saying doesn't have merit.

 

Of course, it is a reasonable and logical thing for him to think. But it's another thing to say it publicly on a distributed platform. I think most people are just responding to T-Mac making this about ... drumroll ... him. This "I coulda been a contender" is a natural part of human aging, but there's rarely a time when it's not pathetic and doesn't induce eye rolls.

Personally, my least favorite part of having former athletes do sports analysis is when they have a "remember the game where I" moment.

It's one reason I like Tom Tolbert in the Bay Area. For one, he's funny, but for another, he only does the "back in the day" stuff to make fun of himself. And as obnoxious as Barkley is, I can't recall him throwing a whole squad of former teammates under the bus, saying he could have won rings with better teammates and all that.

 

Barkley gets away with a lot of things as a slew of fans deem him entertaining.....he still is sour about not winning it all though or Les not paying him.

 

T-Mac had the misfortune of playing on some Rockets teams that had virtually no bench. 2007 might've been the worst. That team had basically 8 players in the rotation and that included Chuck Hayes in the starting lineup and a bench of Deke, Juwan Howard, and Luther Head. Hell, in Game 3 against the Jazz, only 4 Rockets players scored in the entire game!

When the Rockets finally did put together a deeper roster in 2008, Yao got hurt. And then in 2009 when they had one of the best collections of talent ever for a Rockets team, T-Mac was hurt(or selectively shut it down for the season depending on what you believe).

So I do have some sympathy for the dude. It's not like Harden hasn't experienced the same thing, although to his credit, he helped get a very shorthanded Rockets squad back in 2015 all the way to the Conference Finals. That's more than can be said for T-Mac.

 

Yao Ming's reaction to McGrady's comments:

Spoiler

b**** Please...

 

Just reading through this thread and catching up.

So let me get this right, Tmac is sour because if he did have a bad game when he was with the team, we would have got clocked?

He is not wrong. Hell, even when he was giving us 40 in that round against Dallas... what happens?

I still recall the cast of ex-Knicks we trotted out on the floor with TMac. Then David Wesley and the Ghost of Jim Jackson.

By the time real reinforcements came on board, the injuries were setting in.

 

I definitely believe Yao would be playing in 2018 with Harden, if not for his foot injuries, China Team really made Yao play in the NBA offseason when Yao should've rested. Maybe Yao would be a backup as a 38 year old in 2018. Zhou Qi and Yao Ming playing together that is a lot of length. Put Capela as a Small Forward, Harden and Paul all on the floor.

 

Honestly I don't blame him. Who wouldn't wanna win by 20 after having a bad game?

 

Spoiler

https://pics.me.me/dont-be-a-salty-b****-26429535.png

 

True, I was honestly just thinking about his Rockets days. And I'll take Harden's "lack of explosion" all day, because I think it directly relates to his durability...

 

One fact you had to add is that the bench plus infamous Joshua Smith helped get the team to the WCF in 2015.



Well documented, and people still think the comeback was led by the best player. Without Smith that's a 2nd round exit.

Josh Smith also happened to be a playmaker down that stretch. Tmac sold his soul to Smith.

Terrence Jones also contributed.