Tracy McGrady:

Written by Erik

Wednesday, 18 February 2009 21:24

tracy mcgrady

Let me start things off that the title isn't a typo. The "S" that's conspicuously missing at the beginning of the word that is obviously supposed to be Superstar was omitted intentionally to make a point. I will get to that in a moment.

News is all around the web that T-Mac has opted to go for season-ending microfracture surgery on his knee to address the recurring pain and discomfort that he has been experiencing with it.

I suppose that means slight fantasy bumps across the board for the group of Shane Battier, Rafer Alston, Luis Scola, and Von Wafer.

I was moved to thought by a quote from Houston Rockets' owner, Leslie Alexander, I read in an article on Yahoo sports that came out a few days back:

“I don’t think we’re going to part ways with Tracy,” Alexander said. “We acquired a great superstar and everybody wants us to trade the great superstar. You don’t get superstars that often.”

I found it interesting that Leslie or anyone for that matter still considered T-Mac a "superstar."

Tracy McGrady is not the Houston Rockets' star. That title would have to belong to Yao Ming.

Tracy McGrady can no longer be called an "All-star," he's been too hurt too frequently to consistently be voted to and/or chosen to participate in that NBA festivity we know and love as the All-star game.

The '02-'03 T-Mac was the peak of his career, back when he was in Orlando and averaged 32.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 5.5 APG, and 2.3 Treys. That was a season when I would boldly call him a superstar. Those averages were indeed impressive. He could take over games at will, pretty much how LeBron does, oh just about every other game nowadays. Sadly, Tracy would be a superstar, it's just that something is missing. Well a lot of things are missing in fact. Namely his health and its dependability, his ability to consistently put up fantastic numbers, or even the capability to take over a game and simply win it just because he could.

So I'm sorry, but I respectfully disagree, Mr. Alexander, T-Mac may have been a superstar when you acquired him, but he definitely isn't one now. Well at least not in my book. In fact, these recent turn of events have lead me to place T-Mac officially on my "Don't Bother Drafting List" (DBDL), as far as the game of fantasy basketball is concerned.

Interestingly enough, as I was tapping away at the keyboard writing this post, rumors have surfaced that may be considering trading their uperstar for that of the L.A. Clippers', Baron Davis.

On a side note, a funny idea struck me as I was instant messaging a friend of mine, Thons, and I mentioned that I wanted to address Alexander's perspective of T-Mac still being a superstar. He put it simply in three words: "Love your own."

While the recent trade rumors appear to make that statement moot, as Houston's top brass may have had a change of heart. I felt those three words that Thons messaged to me resonate and tickle my fantasy basketball playing bones.

Players on our fantasy teams look like superstars as far as talks are involved when it comes to letting them go in trades. We see their value as a lot higher than they really are when we propositioned to let them go in exchange for another manager's offer. I've seen this psychology in action time and time again when I enter into trade talks with other managers. We do end up "loving our own" guys.

We watch what they produce on a nightly/game basis. We are in touch with at the least the upside we almost always perceive them to have. I suppose there's something that goes on in a relationship between a fantasy manager and players he owns at some level. A little bit of emotionality or even sentimentality if you will gets sprinkled into the mix of things when it comes to our guys.

Sometimes, we just have to face the facts; the history; the numbers... our guy might be a superstar in our eyes, but in the end he might just really be what he really is - like Tracy McGrady, an _uperstar.