NBA Top 50: Tracy McGrady

Tracy McGrady's new movie, originally uploaded by WhoDat12.

OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Monday there are/were 22 days left.

This is honestly one of the picks I'm most leery about. Tracy McGrady? Number 22? How can I possibly justify that after a season where he missed 47 games? He hasn't ever played in all 82 games in any season. McGrady has missed 168 regular season games of a possible 952 of a twelve year career (including the 50 game shortened lockout season). That's nearly 18 percent. Since he got to Houston, though? Try 113 games missed of 410 for almost 28 percent.

When he's been on the floor, though? Try these numbers out. 15.6 points, 5 assists, and 4.4 rebounds a game last season in 35 contests. Not bad. But look at his last really healthy season, 2006-2007. He hit for 24.6 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.3 rebounds per. Look at the year before. Similar numbers, but the assists and rebounds essentially flipped. That shows an ability to evolve. As he gets older, more ground-bound, he changes the attack, uses the weapons around him.

In short, McGrady's still dynamite years past his seeming prime. He's not yet past 30, but he sure seems like it. He's the NBA's version of Job, and with the world's weight upon him he can't help but be a step slow. Still, it helps in these rankings that he takes on weights he doesn't need to bear, like that of the Darfur situation shown in the above video (Mahalo Truehoop). Obviously, that kind of thing, while highly estimable, doesn't exactly translate to success on the hardwood. However, as it must be included in our ineffables section, it falls to me to justify the effect of such a seemingly tangential factor.* Read the asterisked statement, try to talk to me about lockouts, and then leave it at this. The Houston Rockets have been impressing me for awhile. Since they stole Luis Scola out from under the Spurs's noses. Since Daryl Morey came on the scene. Even Ron Artest couldn't mess that up. The Rockets do things the right way. McGrady's humanitarianism is part of that. It's not like the Rockets are telling their players to go out and make the world a better place, but they set a good example.

What does all this have to do with the action we will see on the court in a mere 22 days? Well, it means that when the official Rockets statement came out about Yao's injury not being career ending, I was ready to believe them. It means that when I hear McGrady's on pace to come back from microfracture surgery early, I'm excited for him and think the team's uner-the-radar guys can really come through while their superstars recover. Shoals posited that McGrady and Yao might actually be a Morey smokescreen we'll see lifted this season, as the "role" players receive bigger and bigger roles. No one really knows until that orange ball goes up for the first time in (approximately) 30,240 minutes. Still, I have to think McGrady's going to be much more than a smokescreen when he finally comes back full strength. Furthermore, I have to think he will make it back to that 100% playing preparedness. The Rockets organization simply instills in me the sense that things like that should happen, will happen.

Djabal Refugee Camp, originally uploaded by Darfur Dream Team.

*When the point of your short term goal is discussing basketball, not when the point is life and the perpetuation of it in higher and higher qualities of living for all people...remind me why again we spend time talking about sports. Except I know the answer. Because it helps us cut our writing teeth in an arena that isn't as high pressure as reportage on, say, Darfur. Because people love sports, and it's important to cultivate love and work towards making it wiser and healthier. That's how we help to increase the quality of everyone's life we touch, and writing especially online means we touch that many more people's lives. Lastly, we do it because it allows us to have the tangential discussions, because communication allows for the growth of understanding, as long as it's self-reflective.

Posted in: NBA Top 50,Tracy McGrady