Tracy McGrady: Pleasure and Pain
There’s a Ben Harper song called “Pleasure and Pain” I’ve always enjoyed, both for it’s simple elegance, and for the way in which the the song’s theme mirrors the way I feel while listening to it. It’s a bittersweet, nostalgic song and when hearing it, I inevitably feel a sense of my own bittersweet nostalgia, happy and sad all at the same time.
And such is the case when I watch Tracy McGrady participate in a playoff game.
Let it be known that I have no particular allegiance to McGrady. I’m not a fan of the Houston Rockets, nor was I ever a big supporter of the Orlando Magic or the Toronto Raptors. I am not a graduate of Mount Zion Academy either, I don’t buy Adidas shoes and I don’t play NBA Live 07. I simply just enjoy watching him play basketball.
Unfortunately, late spring isn’t a good time to be a McGrady fan. Or maybe it is. It depends on whether you’re looking at the pleasure or the pain of McGrady.
Consider the following:
2001 - Pleasure. In his first year in Orlando, McGrady was able to drag a brutal squad (Bo Outlaw was third on the roster in minutes played) to the playoffs, where he put up an unreal stat line, going for 33.5 points, 8.3 assists, and 6.5 rebounds per game.
2001 - Pain. Despite his individual brilliance, McGrady’s Magic were overmatched against a Bucks team that reached Game Seven of the Eastern Conference finals. They lost 3-1 in the first round.
2003 - Pleasure. McGrady was an absolute beast for the first four games against the top-seeded Pistons. He scored 43 in Game One and 44 in Game Two and had his Magic poised to pull off one of the great playoff upsets when they were up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. Unfortunately …
2003 - Pain. This is the year of McGrady’s infamous comments following the 3-1 lead his Magic took following a Game Five win. In the post-game press conference, McGrady expressed his delight with finally experiencing the second round. The real story here is that the Pistons started a run of five straight (and counting) trips to the Eastern Conference Finals by throwing a young Tayshaun Prince at him and coming back to win the series. I find it amazing that people still hold this series against T-Mac … the guy nearly single-handedly beats the top seed and somehow he is remembered as a choker?
2005 - Pleasure. This series with Dallas is the best I’ve ever seen McGrady play. He posted a 30/7/6 stat line and added double-digit blocks and steals for the series, but it was the leadership, poise, aggressiveness, and - most of all - his incredible defense on Dirk Nowitzki that won me over. No one ever talks about this, but Houston’s usage of McGrady on Dirk Nowitzki was the blueprint for Stephen Jackson’s defense on the big German in last year’s playoffs. If the refs would have called moving screens fairly (this is the year that only Yao Ming could commit a moving pick, apparently), or if Houston would have any modicum of speed in the backcourt (or a legit home crowd), it would have been the Rockets jousting with Phoenix in the second round.
2005 - Pain. Brace yourself for a shocker - no one remembers any of the stuff I just wrote. Nobody remembers McGrady’s strong individual play after squandering a 2-0 lead in this series. All anyone can recall from this series is that Houston went 0-3 at home and then lost by 40 in a Game Seven at Dallas when they finally ran out of gas.
2007 - Pleasure. McGrady took the onus on himself before last year’s playoffs and his Rockets were nearly up to the challenge as they lost a seven-game war against the Jazz. Despite shooting struggles, McGrady played so well that I had friends and readers email me just to say how much they admired the way McGrady had evolved and mastered how to play the game the right way.
2007 - Pain. It ended, as always, in defeat for McGrady, as the Rockets failed to get enough defensive rebounds to hold off the ferocious Utah Jazz. This was the first time in his career that T-Mac had been on a team with home-court advantage in a series but even then, the Jazz were just one game worse during the regular season and wound up ultimately reaching the Western Conference Finals. Not exactly an easy draw.
Now it is 2008 and we are seeing more of the same. The Rockets have suffered through their annual Yao Ming injury and are in another playoff gunfight with a bunch of pocketknives. They managed to win 55 games but all it got them was a date with the 54-win Utah Jazz, a team projected by many (including yours truly) to win the Western Conference. Meanwhile, McGrady is out there doing everything humanly possible to win games and to no avail. He drives and dunks in traffic and we hear “never made it to the second round.” He goes for 23-13-9 and then watches Luis Scola blow the game on a series of missed layups and dumb fouls and how does the AP story read? “Tracy McGrady disappeared again …”
That’s why I experience pleasure and pain when watching McGrady. The pleasure comes from observing this immense talent play so hard and so unselfishly, year after year. It comes from watching a guy with a pattern of injuries go out and play in every postseason game his team has ever been a part of. It comes from seeing him mature and learn how to lead and take on the burden of responsibility. It comes from watching one of the true good guys in the league play the game beautifully.
Then there’s the pain. The pain of knowing that somehow, someway, the fates will conspire to bring McGrady down. That his team will draw the worst matchup or get the worst calls or the most unimaginable breaks. The pain of knowing that for all his grace, skill and poise, McGrady himself will wear down, or even break down. Most of all, the pain of knowing that he will be the fall guy and that the snarky journalists and experts will barely glance at the box score, let alone watch the game, before labeling him a failure.
Come to think of it, watching T-Mac play hoops in the spring is really just painful.
Photo Credit: ICON SMI
I feel bad for McGrady in most years, but not this one. no one even picked houston to defeat utah without Yao, but I think people DID expect him to actually show up in a 4th quarter and he hasn’t.
I feel no sympathy for this baby. All he does is cry and complain about others around him and he needs to grow up. I guess he will move to another team as McGrady will fail to get out of the first round yet again.
Famous quote by McGrady “Theres no I in team, but there is an M and an E”
rashad,
McGrady did show up. The Jazz are simply a team with superior depth who can run many defenders and double and triple teams at him all night. Have you seen how exhausted he is in the fourth quarter? On top of this, McGrady takes the primary ball handling responsibilities with Rafer Alston out.
You know…as a HUGE McGrady fan, I’m glad to finally see someone (who’s not a McGrady lover no-less) finally shed some light on his playoff struggles. And point out that no matter how much he ups his game come playoff time, how much he makes the right plays, how brilliant he performs, it’s like you said, they look at the final score, and call him a choker. Good write-up. I applaud your non-biased approach.
In 2005, Dallas led the series 3-2 lost game six at Houston then won game 7 at home.
Please get your facts straight.
Hate to spoil a good story with facts,
but the 2005 Rockets/Mavs series went like this:
Rockets win games 1-2 in Dallas
Mavs win games 3-4 in Houston
*Mavs* win game 5 in Dallas
Rockets hold home court and win in Game 6
Rockets fall apart in Game 7
http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_2005.html
and Luis Scola didn’t blow anything this series. He at least scored in the 4th Q in both games.
I’m sorry. He’s marketed as a “superstar”. I don’t CARE what your line is for the entire game, it all comes down to the 4th quarter. In this series (two games) he has scored a HORRIFIC 1 point TOTAL in 4th quarter. Does anyone honestly believe Kobe would be “blanked” in the 4th quarter in a PLAYOFF game? T-mac get to the LINE that’s 8-10 easy points right there. Instead, all we get are missed jumpers and regret? He’s a stat monster. I’ll grand that. But I’m sorry, he’s just not a “prime time player”.
On another note, I thought T-mac’s GREATEST playoff ever wasn’t mentioned. When he was on the Raptors and carried the even-more-disappearing Vince Carter to Game 5 against the Knicks. He willed Toronto through that series and STILL ultimately came up short…
Michael Jordan once had a quote like that…When Tex Winter was talking about that same principle he told Jordan that “there’s no I in team” to which Michael responded, “you’re right, but there’s an I in win”!!! Not relevant, but I never pass up an opportunity to seqway into Michael Jordan!
The Jazz aren’t throwing double and triple teams at McGrady. He’s settled for fadeaway 20 foot jumpers and not taking it to the basket in the 4th.
You should update the part about McGrady’s second round quote:
From True hoop on ESPN:
Round 1 was extended from best-of-five to best-of-seven for the 2002-03 season.
That made it easy for pundits to joke that Tracy McGrady apparently forgot about that little rule change after leading the eighth-seeded Magic to a 3-1 series lead over No. 1 Detroit, because T-Mac dared at this point to describe how it might feel to finally advance.
“For me, a guy who hasn’t experienced the second round, that would be great,” T-Mac said.
He was responding to a question about finishing off the Pistons off in Game 5. Sadly for T-Mac, though, no one ever tells the story that way. Orlando got pounded in the next three games, and NBA legend turned McGrady into the guy who prematurely proclaimed Detroit to be done
He is so great and has so much potential. I guess this just goes to prove how much power the heart has. Kobe Bryant has been criticized for being too passionate about winning and not caring about his teammates, I suppose I rather have a guy that wants to win than a guy that just wants to be a good friend.
Any stats on how T-Mac performs in playoff situations with the game on the line in the closing minutes? If I recall correctly, t-Mac usually amasses his numbers in the beginning of games (like the last Jazz game) in the first half and just disappears altogether in the 4th. Being tired is not an excuse. Other NBA superstars always seem to have gas left in the tank in tough 4th quarter situations despite having to work every bit as hard as T-Mac (Kobe and AI to name a couple). It’s funny when T-Mac apologists just chalk all of T-Mac’s playoff shortcomings to “bad luck” or something of the sort. If T-Mac trained like Kobe, maybe he’d have the conditioning to play effectively in those 4th quarters. Or if T-Mac had as much heart as AI, he’d somehow find a way to push through all the fatigue. Fact is, no one’s to blame for T-Mac’s shortcomings but himself. And that’s the truth.
one of the rapidly fading elite players in the league, with a template that was formed during the 90’s-early 2000’s (with which guys like Kobe, Michael Finley, MJ, Baron Davis, etc were formed).
it’s so very great (as a McGrady fan), to finally see T-Mac, once buried in a Toronto bench behind superstar cousin Vince Carter(who he has ably surpassed in the past 3 years or so), finally mature into the complete basketball player that he is today.
once upon a time, T-Mac was looked as “the next Magic”, the one(on paper) capable of putting up stats that rivaled the old Showtime Lakers guard. hell, he was running neck and neck with a developing young guard like himself, someone who was part of the revamped Lakers’ new tag team. he’s widely regarded now as the best basketball player on the planet. someone named Kobe Bryant.
from his ballhogging days in Orlando, where they could not assemble any sort of squad to assist T-Mac, he moves to Houston, where he plays under the mentorship of Jeff Van Gundy, and ultimately, learns to share the ball more and has played the best defense of his career.
to be labeled a choker on a team that depends almost solely on him (Yao has been largely undependable in the playoffs) in April, McGrady has put up some eye-popping numbers, assist- and points-wise.
in fact, there are only a couple of squads in the NBA that rely on one superstar to carry them (the Cavs’ Lebron James and the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant comes to mind), and only James has succeeded, so far, in carrying his team past the first round by his lonesome.
as one of the NBA’s best, and a true baller, it is nothing short of blatant disrespect to label him something when he has truly given it his all. McGrady is a warrior.
need proof?
see the Rockets’ game against the Sonics this season, where McGrady plays his first game back off an injury which is not even close to healing.
T-Mac basically plays that entire game on one good leg, but still does enough to sink Seattle to offset Kevin Durant’s awesome scoring antics. KD says as much.
ninjas conspire to david stern to bribe the refs agains T_Mac
Say what you will - the guy plays in the playoffs like a man possessed. I think most criticism comes from the people who haven’t really watched him play in the playoffs but in small clips. For the most part, he raises every single aspect of his game up another level in the playoffs. Compare McGrady’s regular season stats each year to his playoff stats and you’ll find he absolutely a top 5 guy in the league for increasing his game in the playoffs.
Unfortunately, he just has the poor fortune to have played for some really bad teams(as playoff teams go). His stats are even more impressive when you figure teams (like the Jazz) can double and triple team him when Tmac’s next best offensive threat with Yao and Rafer out is a guy like Battier. Even last year’s Houston team had a piss poor lineup - look at their team shooting stats without Mcgrady & Yao in the games they lost. It was brutal to watch as the Rockets role players shot sub 30% in losses - mostly missing open shots their stars set them up with.
…my only gripe with Tmac is he still tends to put up some bad shots and his shooting percentages reflect that but I think you can accept that when he brings so many more assists, rebounds, steals/blocks, etc. It’s just a shame so many writers feel the need to unfairly cast Tmac as some sort of playoff disappointment when the stats and the actual flow the game show the exact opposite.
I’ve always tried to summarize my feelings for T-Mac, and I think this article did a great job. I’ve never been a big time fan of his, or his teams, but I’ve always wanted to see him succeed for some reason.
I would love to take a look at the video of the press conference back in 2003 when McGrady made the comments about the second round. I can’t even come up with a transcript or even quotes from a legitimate web site. All the internet seems to have is variants of this (from Wikipedia)…
Prior to the fifth game in Detroit, McGrady was quoted as saying how wonderful it was to “finally be in the second round (of the playoffs)”.
If anybody has a hidden link to ESPN or a newspaper please go ahead and post it.
As for McGrady himself, what’s up with how he’s been acting lately? Not only has he done a complete reversal from last year, he’s kind of being snarky about it too.
“It’s my fault a couple people in the stands ordered Heinekens and they got Budweisers. It’s my fault, sorry.”
Dude, so many people still want to see you advance, we know you’re not alone, find some middle ground.
-AK
Ast Ed
YEA MY NAME IS JAMAAL STEPHENS FROM PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND AND TRACY MCGRADY YOU ARE MY FAV PLAYER AND I JUST WANT A CHANCE TOO MEET WITH AND AND WORK OUT WITH YOU SO JUST GET BACK AT ME.
FLYKIDD35@AIM.COM
THANKS
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