Prior to this season, Tracy McGrady (above, reading Sean Avery’s fanzine) missed 64 Rockets games over the course of 4 years. It’s a large sum considering how badly the franchise requires his services, so with this week’s latest malady, the Houston Chronicle launched “The T-Mac Injury Ticker”. Tracking McGrady’s games absent along with his per game & season “pay for no play”, the graphic was characterized by Deadspin’s Rick Chandler as part of “the journalistic no-man’s land between impartial reporting and the opinion page”. The Fan House’s Tom Ziller wasn’t nearly as amused, however.
The whole thing’s a case of a newspaper trying to be cute and bloggy, but it just doesn’t translate when you’re dealing with such a large media presence. Even in this toned down state, it’s an insult to one of the team’s longest-tenured players. Mac had knee surgery a few months ago. How dare he claim soreness and sit out?!
Also, a double standard screams out. McGrady has averaged eight more games per season than Yao Ming over the last three years. Should I assume we’ll get a Yao injury ticker if he goes down? Yeah right.
Under the circumstances, a similar swipe at Yao when (rather than if) he’s hurt would be well in order. The graphic is certainly unusual in such a mainstream context, but the Chronicle is in a daily battle for eyeballs with Ziller and Chandler’s sites. Had the ticker been the work of say, “T-MacNeedsCrutches.com”, it would’ve been showcased, if not applauded throughout the blogosphere. If the journalistic mission of a daily newspaper precludes being a dick, never mind whoever came up with the ticker, there’s a number of print vets who oughta be taken to task as well.
Tmac is one of the best players to ever play the game when he is putting up buckets and leading the rockets to victory no one is complaining now that my boy is hurt you all want to dog him get off his back let him get healthy because the rockets can not I mean no way possible they can win a title without Tracy Mcgrady. So lay off him ya dig.
Tracy Mcgrady When healthy is tied for the first best player in the league because of his ability to SHOOT and drive which gives him a slight edge over lebron. His ability to score and take over a game is unbelievable we have seen what the rockets can do without mcgrady nothing which is why he has not been traded. This is His team because its all about the play offs and his numbers make yao ming numbers look useless. Yao is the best center in the game by far but he is not even ranked among the best in the play offs in fact he trails kwame brown. If the rockets was to loose him for the play offs they would not win a game even if they played every possesion perfectly. I think he knows the chance he haves with the aquisition of Ron Artest and will take full advantage of it when he becomes healthy again which is exactly why the rockets management have any common since would not even be thinking of trading him. Most sports writers have no knowledge at all of this all they see is his health issues, so they dog him just for a topic coming up with trade options for Mcgrady. Hey I have an idea if you want to help, get him some consistent help for the play offs because he has never had it. Maybe then will he be able to get the first round monkey off his back. Thank you and have a nice day. This is the ultimate tmac fan reporting . David Fletcher,Houston Tx.