Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 11:00 am  |  214 responses

T-Mac on Houston’s Title Hopes, or Lack Thereof

by Marcel Mutoni

Tracy McGrady isn’t the most popular dude in the state of Texas these days. Many Rockets fans feel he quit on the team, and some will no doubt be pleased if Houston can shed the first-round Playoff monkey off its back without him.

After his latest interview, T-Mac’s approval rating in Clutch City is sure to hit a new low. The rehabbing McGrady was asked who he thinks will win the title this season, and instead of picking his own team (who lead the Blazers in their opening round series), Tracy chose a bitter conference rival.

From Sports Radio Interviews:

His pick for the title:

“Lakers. (Host: That easy, again?) It’s no knock on Cleveland, I think Cleveland’s gonna get there… Cleveland to me is really not that good. If you take what the Celtics did last year…You knew, they were either gonna get to the finals, or they were gonna win it. You can’t really say the same thing about the Cavaliers. Although, they had the best record in the league this year, a lot of people like, ‘Okay, they havin’ a great year, but we don’t know if they can win the championship.’

They really didn’t do anything on the road with the elite teams in the league, they lost, they had a bad record when they went to face the elite teams in the league. I think they’re a good team, but I don’t they’re ready to take the next step.”

Imagine if the L.A. and Houston meet in the second round, and Mac is in the building. It might be the first time that Kobe gets booed less by Rockets fans than another player.

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  • http://www.broy7.com/roy/index nate the great

    tmac wants to go to the lakers, so he could ride the bench and make it to the finales.
    which is fine with me cause if he is playing, no way are the lakers ever making it out of the first round.
    everyone on here makes great points.. of course he doesnt want his team to do good, because he wants to show the world none of the rockets problems are caused by him (which they are) and he has no connection with his team, the question is now… WHere is tmac going to go now? who would want him?

  • Jeter

    I know McGrady’s words might sting the Houston populace but, c’mon, is he really wrong?

  • Jayemmbee

    Well T-mac aint wrong, he just told it like it is, but he shouldnt have, theres a time and a place, would be surprised if he got traded

  • http://www.slamonline.com Blinguo

    Maybe T-Mac doesn’t get Houston updates or something erroneous with tangibles tying into his “not caring” mentality associated with him forevermore; maybe isn’t watching Houston play at all. Too many injury memories. Not necessarily, hurting to get out there and wishing he could help, although he says he damn sure wants to get healthy and this shouldn’t happen every year in the 1st section of the article. This again is overblown considering he wasn’t asked or maybe the script was edited up to show no instances of what Houston can do this year. He was probably led in with the ?, about Lakers and Cavs looking good (public opinion everywhere, not by regional fans exclusively), who takes it? Since that’s all his answer included, only the Lakers and Cavs.
    Only Cavs fans should be scorned by the comment of “they aren’t that good.” And can give T-Mac his comebacks to say the same ol’ he isn’t 2nd round good – make what they think are “funny” signs when he comes into town next season (Houston player or not). He could have acknowledged, yeah, wow, The Cavaliers are good @ home. What a record, but can they do it on the road is the ? (if they lose homecourt by anyone coming in and stealing a game). & those would be the PC comments, nothing major by the talking heads types on ESPN/ABC all the time. Hard to watch those sometimes when say, Jamal Mash says something that contradicts what he said about that team, one sentence earlier. Get back to the games!

  • George B

    The truth

  • http://www.mynameinorange.blogspot.com Hisham

    This was nice to read. insightful discussion

  • http://www.lkz.ch Darksaber

    great discussion even. Nary a swearword or verbal smackdown in the mix. Commenter respect on slamonline? When did that start?

  • phil

    mac has done so much for houston over the years. he’s had injury problems and just speaking his mind. what is wrong with that? what’s wrong with a normal guys just giving his own opinion??? i just dont get it

  • T-mac

    Sorry ya’ll…im leaving..im sick of houston. i was just foolin’ with y’all im not injured. im ready to play hard. hard for a good squad! take me kobe! take me lakeshow..its mac time baby~

  • Tavoris

    RV check out this list, which is accurate as of 4/16/09
    http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FreeAgents-09-10

    I follow the Rockets (and every other team)…

  • truthteller

    T-Mac is not really in any position to criticise the Rockets of not being good enough. Truth is, they are playing better without him and if they make it to the second round, that will make him look really, really bad and probably useless to the team. I think he knows this. This kind of reminds me of the Eagles when they picked up garcia to replace the injured McNabb and the eagles ended up going pretty far in the playoffs and McNabb didn’t like it ’cause that made him look like a liability. T-Mac’s in the same situation and I really don’t see him playing for Houston next season.

  • chintao

    All the “maybe” ‘s in this thread were blown out of the water by T-Mac himself. According to an article by Richard Justice in the Houston Chronicle, MacGrady dubiously claims that he had bad cell reception and that part of his comments were dropped during the call:

    … [McGrady] has told the Rockets he didn’t actually pick the Lakers to win the NBA championship this week in an interview with an Atlanta radio station.

    He apparently had cell-phone issues at the time, and wouldn’t you know a key phrase got dropped?

    “If they get by us, I think the Lakers will win,” he said.

    That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.

  • Tavoris

    thanks chintao. I knew from the start (read my comments) that it appears his comments were taken out of context.

  • mj

    wow i would just like to say this article is bias. its not even the whole story. Go to t-mac’s website u can actually listen to the same interview, and t-mac himself says that the lakers have to get past our guys first. Its this kind of stuff that ppl fall for, and its not your fualt its the media that does this crap

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