T-Mac, Now and Forever

Tracy McGrady is signing with the Spurs.

Tracy McGrady, of two-time scoring champion fame. Of off-the-backboard at the All-Star Game fame. Of too-much-potential, sleepy-eyed, point- guard- vision/shooting-guard-arc fame. 

Tracy McGrady, whose crazy awesome talent inspired many a heated conversation in the early 2000’s centered around the question of the day: Kobe or TMac?

Tracy McGrady, the tragic hero, who couldn’t fulfill his immense promise and lead his team to the Promised Land. You know, he still hasn’t reached the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Tracy McGrady, last seen throwin’ ‘bows and gettin’ diarrhea in China. 

Tracy McGrady, who conjured a maelstrom from thin air and dropped 13 points in 30 seconds against…wait for it… The Spurs.

I was in 11^th grade when it happened. My friend Jeff had an extra ticket to see the Rockets play the Spurs—5^th row seats. Boom.

Most of the game was immediately forgettable. The Rockets played like garbage, ruining my notion that I was their good-luck charm when at games in-person. Yao Ming put up a quiet 20 points while T-Mac was bricking everything he shot—and he shot in volume. The Spurs were 34% from the field, yet the Rockets were still down 10 with a minute left.

If I remember right, up to that point Devin Brown would’ve been the player of the game.

And then, this happened: 

Tracy McGrady Scores 13 Point in 35 Seconds

 I remember a few things distinctly: 

1) Yao got this started with a dunk before Tmac went off. Yao had a career full of those kinds of moments; ones that were indispensable at the time yet overshadowed by something else in the annals of history. Aside from us die-hard Rockets fans, most will remember Yao for his off-the-court contributions to the game and his Bill Walton/Sam Bowie-esque playing career instead of his brief few years as the most dominant center in the NBA, with remarkable touch and understated defensive impact… but don’t get me started on Yao. (Tear…)

2) At least 1/3 of the crowd had left mid-way through the 4^th quarter. Everyone remaining at the 1-minute mark in the game was prepared to stay until the bitter end. This game made it more clear to me than ever that YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE A GAME UNTIL IT IS OVER!!!

3) No one in the crowd wanted to jinx TMac’s crazy mojo, but after the 4 point play we all started to sense what was unfolding. After the following defensive stand we all got up out of our seats for the rest of the game. All of us.

4) This is the most emotion I’ve ever seen from TMac:

5) This look couldn’t have summed up what it felt like to be on the receiving end of this any better: 

6) And this is how Rockets fans felt about our future with TMac and Yao, circa 2004:

Unfortunately, that future never came to pass. Yao and TMac are forever linked by their immense unrealized potential. TMac, the best that never was, will have one last shot to ride away a champion with the Spurs. But we’ll always have to wonder what could have been without the injuries and apathy that stole the Real Tracy McGrady from fans, teammates, and the pantheon of NBA greats. 

(Guest Post by Nikhil Kumar: Rockets fan since ‘97, Jordan acolyte before, during, and after)

Showtime 2013

With all the NBA basketball I’m getting to watch this year, it almost seems like a waste not to catalog my thoughts throughout the season, my first as a Lakers season ticket holder (!). 10 games in to the 2012-2013 campaign, the Lakers have had enough drama to fill most teams’ full regular seasons (and then some). With the early season coaching shuffle behind them and a new imperative from their head coach to play free, unencumbered ball offensively, the Lakers are starting to show some signs of life as a real powerhouse team.

Some thoughts from tonight’s 119-108 win over the Rockets:

- Darius Morris is really starting to look comfortable out on the court, getting starter minutes over the last few games and shaking off the jitters that young guards typically get when first confronting NBA defenses. He hit a few in-rhythm threes, attacked the basket and ran the floor, and continued to play his style of pesky, in-your-face defense that really disrupts opposing point guards. This opportunity to get some extended playing time will prove really valuable later in the season and through the playoffs, I think, when the Lakers need strong bench play.

- Dwight looked simply awful the first few games of the season; it was pretty apparent that he was either still injured or very out of shape from inactivity after his back injury. He moved a step or two slow on defensive rotations, lacked lift on offense when trying to dunk the ball, and routinely got schooled playing one-on-one defense on mediocre offensive players (Eddy Curry and Jermaine O’Neal both come to mind). That Dwight is slowly being replaced by the old Dwight that we came to know and fear— the dominant super-athlete that flies around the court and simply vacuums up everything in sight on the defensive end. He blocked three shots tonight, disrupted several others, and scored offensively in a number of ways - in transition, crashing the lane off pick and rolls, and with some old-school post moves that showed some real polish. Dwight still looks a little slow on rotations and the defensive communication with Pau/Jordan Hill isn’t completely there yet— but when he fully rounds into form, watch out.

- This Lakers offense will truly be a thing of beauty. I cannot think of enough superlative ways to describe this. It’s going to be unstoppable once it gets running.

——-

UPDATE: I wrote the above post and forgot to hit publish just 10 days ago, when D’Antoni euphoria was still in the honeymoon phase (I’m cringing at the superlatives I used). The Lakers offense has since fallen sharply back to earth with a thud, with a number of (fixable) issues mostly related to using personnel in the wrong places.

Looking forward to seeing the Lakeshow play the Nuggets tomorrow to soberly diagnose what’s working and what isn’t with the Lakers on offense and defense.