I have to admit that I am truly amazed by the level of talent that guy has. Coming from rehab, playing like this, wow.

Shoot, drive, assist, everything seems to be so effortless for that him.

Glad we have a chance to see him play a bit, cause maybe in the end our second guy next to Lebron is just right there.

NFT: McGrady tells Stephen A. Smith: "I don't need any money."
Beez : 9:08 am
McGrady was on with Stephen A. this morning. Thought some of his comments warranted a separate thread. I found at least a few of them somewhat surprising, given today's "pay me" NBA landscape. Not the least cool comment from McGrady also put to bed the drum BBB was beating all late afternoon yesterday about NYC being no greater than the next place to go play.

Among McGrady's comments:

* Smith started out asking TMac how it felt to be called a New York Knick. McGrady paused, joked, "what team am I on?" then went on to say it feels great, and this is the only place he wanted to be for the last couple months. Said he went to his agent and said he wanted to go to NY, and asked him to make it happen. Said his agent had to really work at some things, but he's thrilled to be there and looks forward to these 29 games.

* Smith asked about the health. McGrady said he plans to come out and show people right away that he is back. Said he's fully healed, that there will be no more "limping up and down the cout" and "gutting it out." One phrase he kept using about playing with the Knicks: "I'll be putting it down," referring to the ball ... in the hoopage. McGrady said he'd rate himself "in the high 90s," but that, of course, he's not quite 100%. Still, said it won't be an issue.

* Smith mentioned the top players in the league and their games. Asked TMac where he would rank himself among those guys, if he would at all. McGrady said that he's realistic and knows he's been away from the game for 2 years now, but when he's healthy, he's "right up there with the rest of them," and he added, "they all would acknowledge that, too."

* Smith said everyone's talking about the $23m expiring contract and avbout how the Knicks will try to go out and get two "max" players, like Lebron and Bosh. Stephen A. talks about it as though Lebron's a done deal ... asked TMac if he would be willing to take less money to stick around if the Knicks went out and brought in LBJ and Bosh. McGrady's response(s) was/were the most interesting thing in the interview.

"No question," he said. Then he went on to tell Smith, "I don't need any money."

Smith sounded somewhat shocked to get that response, so he emphasized the question again. McGrady said if the Knicks were to get those players (or, it sounded as thought he was speaking in general, about players of that caliber), "there's no better place" to be for him.

He said he would NOT ask for big money, and would welcome the chance to play in such a situation.

* Stephen A. joked with McGrady about having to pay New York state taxes now, while he didn't face state taxes in Texas. McGrady joked about his previous experience paying up.

"I played up in Canada," he said.

"That's why you left," said Smith.

McGrady responded: "But this is the mecca."

: /

NYKBocker wrote:I was under the impression that we sign 2 max FAs first then we can sign our own players and just pay the luxury tax. I would have some new respect to Dolan if this happens.

No it doesn't actually work that way. There are salary cap holds. We have to renounce these holds to sign 2 max guys.

Was his comment about the money a message to James or any FA interested in the coming to the Knicks??

One of the articles posted on UK had an observer of McGrady gush about his passing and his lateral movement on D. Is he a guy MDA would consider at PG? His shooting has always been so-so, but if he could defend, dish, do some opportune scoring, and is willing to take less $$ to play with someone like James, would he be worth keeping around?

Hope he has some game left and the legs hold up.

Douglas
McGrady-Chandler
Lebron
Lee-Gallo
Camby

Draft selection

MS wrote:I'm curious if McGrady plays well down the stretch if it makes sense to tell Lebron that Camby 6 million Lee at 9 and Tracey at 3 million makes more sense then Bosh.

We won't be in a position to tell LeBron anything. We will sell him Donnie's job if he comes here. He can pick his team.

Paladin55 wrote:One of the articles posted on UK had an observer of McGrady gush about his passing and his lateral movement on D. Is he a guy MDA would consider at PG? His shooting has always been so-so, but if he could defend, dish, do some opportune scoring, and is willing to take less $$ to play with someone like James, would he be worth keeping around?

Hope he has some game left and the legs hold up.

I dunno. After I ripped my ACL playing hoops, I was able to rehab back into playing condition in a year and still take it to the hole strong. But my defense was NEVER the same. After a few years of that getting exposed, I just said f**k it and gave up playing.

But I think with the knee, defense takes a harder hit due to lateral movement and the fact that such movement is a reaction to the covered guy.