It's an Homage

I was nearly moved to tears last night. When McGrady badly missed that clinching jumper, it wasn’t just a missed shot. It was his missed shot. Any other player in any other situation and that’s just ugly. But after the one combined point fiasco, that could have been the cherry. Instead, it’s was the prelude to another round of CHOKER headlines.

Maybe Landry’s block makes people forget that Tracy had a chance to ice the game. Maybe people will just look at the boxes and see 9-2-1 in the 4th and forget about the missed shot. Surely, they’ll forget that the Rockets went to Battier (SHANE BATTIER?) for a good part of the stretch. Nonetheless, McGrady’s miss gave his detractors no reason to change what they’ve been saying.

For once, I want McGrady to transcend the game. To be what everyone wants him to be, even if that’s not who he really is. It might not be fatally flawed, but there’s something inherent to him that’s hard to capture. In the way that Kobe and Lebron make the “right” pass at the “right” time, T-Mac makes the right pass at the wrong time. It’s that something that leaves him incapable of destroying fourth quarters like KB24 and Bron. And it’s that fear of letting people down that tears me in two.