McGrady looking for the glaring omission
McGrady looking for the glaring omission
Scoring champ eyes team success to add to wealth of individual honors
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2874727
Nothing shows. There is a slight smile. Sleepy eyes. The look seems to indicate
he is plotting something, or reaching some sort of a conclusion.
Is the smile a smirk? Does that offer a clue? Is it a "tell" that reveals, or
at least hints, at the cards he holds?
Tracy McGrady shares a few thoughts, sometimes with verbal jabs as sudden and
startling as his first step to the basket. But the poker face seems to be
hiding more.
He wore that look on the bench in Orlando when he was held out of a preseason
game so Jeff Van Gundy could get a look at his teammates. And it was easy to
imagine him thinking of all he wanted to prove to those who would doubt and
malign him. He talks of the pain of losing as his eyes seem to close even more
until he almost glowers. And he seems to divulge a resolve.
McGrady describes his career so far and what is left of it. He speaks of
accomplishments that no longer satisfy, of potential unfulfilled. And though
that grin never quite leaves him, he doesn't seem at all amused.
Instead, he arrives in Houston insisting, though no one argues, that he has
something to prove. And he almost seems to give away what is behind that slight
smile and sleepy eyes.
"That's what it's all about," McGrady said. "When you have the type of season
I had, the type of player that I am, everybody questions your drive, everybody
points fingers at you and has these things to say about you. There was a lot on
my shoulders last year. There was a lot said about me in a negative way. It's
how you bounce back from that.
"Criticism to me always makes me stronger. When you go out and prove your
critics wrong, they have to look themselves in the mirror and wonder if they
meant what they said.
"That doesn't bother me. I don't worry about that. I want to prove that I can
wear the (championship) jewelry."
Looking inside
McGrady looks like a player who can win championships. He has offered evidence
to support the assumption. But he has not proven it.
The timing for that next step seems right. In leading the NBA in scoring the
past two seasons, McGrady has achieved the most glorified individual
accomplishment. Assist-to-turnover ratio is nice, but they make shoes and
commercials for the scoring champion.
But McGrady often is the first to mention that he has never won a playoff
series. He has never lost one with the better team, but now there is a sense
that he is a part of a team good enough that he can be fairly measured by how
well his team performs.
"He has a lot to prove," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "I have a lot to
prove. We all have a lot to prove.
"I think I can be a championship coach, but until I do it, all I proved is
can get a team there. I haven't proven I can get over the hump and do it. He's
proven he can get a team to the playoffs, but hasn't been able to advance yet.
You can make a great parallel to (Kevin) Garnett."
But Garnett did not fall as hard before winning a playoff series for the first
time and taking the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals last season.
He received his share of criticism. But the censure of McGrady was much more
personal and contemptuous.
"When you lose in this league, they will try to assassinate your basketball
character," Van Gundy said. "Everybody wants to label everybody. They're going
to say what they say about him until he wins.
"It's the same stuff (Michael) Jordan went through until he won. 'You can't win
when you're the high scorer in the league.' Then he won. ... The same people
that coronated him three years before had the criticism. Then they said, 'He
changed.' He hadn't changed. The team around him changed.
"There's so much talk now. It can sap you if you want to listen and respond to
everything. He has to be clear-headed. We expect him, and I know he expects
himself, to be great."
Taking it all in
McGrady, 25, is different from many players. He knows what has been said about
him and does not feign indifference. He said he does read the newspapers,
listen to the talk shows and watch television reports.
"We all know," he said, "because if we didn't, (the media) would tell us."
McGrady did not, however, have to be told what was said about him in Orlando.
Though his expression again displayed no anger, he has made it clear he did not
appreciate the condemnation.
"Let me tell you something, when something goes on like that, they're going to
come up with all kinds of excuses and blame it on the star player," McGrady
said. "All the blame is pointed on me, which is cool. I'll take that the rest
of my career. Even with this team, if we lose, it's going to be pointed at me
because we are star players of the team.
"I was reading a couple of quotes where (Magic general manager John) Weisbrod
said T-Mac can leave the gym having 30 or 40 and he walked out saying he did
his part. He doesn't understand what I was going through when I went home. I
might not show it around the players or around here, but when I go home to my
people, to my inner circle, I'm (angry) because we are losing.
"He tried to destroy (my reputation). Some of the things people that work with
me ... say, 'That guy is out of his mind. He doesn't know you.' But they all
understand the game as well. When you trade somebody of my caliber, with all
the stuff that went on, he has to cover his (reputation)."
Weisbrod has said he dealt or at least could not relate to McGrady in part
because McGrady did not seem upset by losses. That would make McGrady the first
player ever traded because of his eyelids.
But McGrady was the best player on a team that lost 61 games. He can dispute
the criticism but not the record.
He and Van Gundy also can argue it might have been useful for him.
"It was a very humbling year for him," Van Gundy said. "You don't lose 19 games
in a row and not look within for what's going on. I think we're getting him at
the right time of his career. He's coming here at the right time. It can be a
very, very good mix."
Hard work ahead
McGrady was not the only one looking. The league knew what had become of
McGrady's reputation. Labels might not have been tattooed, but they were stuck
to him like Post-its.
The Rockets juggled the trade possibility long enough to decide what they
thought about everything from McGrady's often sore back to his work habits.
They watched tapes, leaned on sources and called in assistant coach Patrick
Ewing, a former McGrady teammate in Orlando, for a heart-to-heart.
"I told Jeff I thought he was a great player and a great teammate for me,"
Ewing said. "I thought Jeff could get him to the next level, and that's what
I told him."
Van Gundy did not consider McGrady without fault last season. Defensively,
McGrady had gone from outstanding in Toronto to a traffic cone in Orlando. But
Van Gundy was also convinced that his shortcomings were not intractable.
"Subconsciously, when you go through a bad year or two ... you fall into some
bad habits," Van Gundy said. "Because not every possession or every game is
important. After the first 20 games last year, they were out. It's easy to slip.
"One of the best competitors I ever dealt with was Derek Harper. When he got
traded from Dallas to New York (in 1994), they had gone through some tough
times in Dallas. When he got to New York, he had slipped. Solving a problem is
acknowledging it existed. He acknowledged it and got his habits back to where
they should have been. If a great competitor like Derek Harper can let it slip,
anybody can. That's why a lot of times trades take a while to really work.
"Tracy has a good handle on who he is, what his strengths are, how he can
affect winning."
In the end, only that ?winning ?will answer critics or satisfy McGrady. For all he
has accomplished, he has not proven that.
"I think all of us have a lot to prove, individually and together, starting
with me," Van Gundy said. "I've been fortunate to be a part of teams that have always been in the playoffs. I've even been able to get to the finals, conference finals a couple times. But I haven't proven that I can get a team over the top. And that drives me. And I think (it drives) individual players."
But timing and history point that finger first at McGrady. He said he welcomes
that demand but also did not argue when Rockets owner Leslie Alexander called
him the NBA's best player.
"I would accept that, but at the same time I won't put myself as the best
player in the NBA because I don't have any jewelry to show for it," McGrady
said. "I'm not at Kobe Bryant's level because he has three rings.
"I feel I'm one of the elite players in this league. If you ask me at the end
of this year and I have some jewelry to showcase, I'll tell you yeah, I'm the
greatest player in this league."
Until then, when McGrady sort of smiles and barely squints, he seems to know he
has something to prove.
jonathan.feigen@chron.com
個人認為寫得很棒的一篇文章…不過太長了，所以沒時間譯…
Hope that T-mac will become a really great player with rings, one day.
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