Tracy Wants To Play: Last year a few days before the Houston Rockets could have consummated a trade involving Tracy McGrady, T-MAC announced from his website he was going to have season ending microfracture surgery much to the dismay of his team and his coaches. The trade never happened and McGrady has spent the last 8 months working and rehabbing for his return this season.
The Rockets have been clear they will re-evaluate Tracy on or about November 23rd, however this week in typical Tracy form he made it clear he's ready to play sooner and expects to be on the floor in the coming weeks.
"I have been practicing, training, and rehabbing hard for my return to the court," McGrady said in a recent Blog entry. "I'm going full speed at practice and am not being held out of drills anymore. I'm hoping to get out there as soon as possible, and with everything that my doctors have been telling me, it sounds like that will be sooner rather than later."
McGrady has also involved the media in his push to return to the court sending a few e-mails to reporters trying to force his case.
"Excited to get back and compete at a high level again," McGrady said in an email to Yahoo! Sports Marc J Spears. "For a full year I had to play on one leg against the best and I couldn't compete with anybody the way I was feeling.
"It's gonna be a relief to get out there and play knowing what I went [through] last season and this summer."
The Rockets responded with a written statement, saying that while they are pleased with Tracy's progress, they are not ready to set a date for Tracy and that any speculation – even from Tracy - is premature.
"While we are all encouraged by the fact that Tracy's rehabilitation has been ahead of schedule, we must remain vigilant through the next stages of his recovery," Morey said in a statement Monday. "No timeline has been set for his return. He will return when team doctors, officials and Tracy all agree it is best."
Sources close to the Rockets said several weeks ago if Tracy had his way he'd be playing now, the Rockets are being overly cautious because they want Tracy to prove he can practice every day and compete every game night and not be in and out of the lineup.
Sources said recently that Houston is doing everything in their power to insure they get value out of McGrady this season and won't let his ego or personal goals derail their plans.
Just Call Me Earl: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." – that biblical verse defines Denver's J.R. Smith; always labeled an immature talent with limitless potential, it should come as no surprise that J.R. no longer wants to be known as J.R. and would rather people use his proper name of Earl.
"J.R's kind of crazy," Smith said to Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com. "J.R was involved in knucklehead activities. Earl's more grown up."
Smith is looking to make his return to action tonight for the 5-2 Denver Nuggets.
"(I'll) have the same role I had last year, with more impact on the second unit, be the leader – the captain – of the second team. That's my goal this year," Smith said. "We have three, four, five leaders on the first team. Just be the captain coming off the bench."
"I don't worry about rust too much," Smith said. "I got a lot of work in. Hopefully I'll be right in rhythm."
The Nuggets visit Chicago tonight in a matchup with the Bulls, and while the game will be Smith's first game of the season, playing against the Bulls has a little extra value for Smith who still hasn't forgotten the Bulls traded him to Denver in 2006 for Howard Eisley and two second-round draft choices. Smith never played a single minute for the Bulls.
"It's a great arena. I look at it as one of the places that Michael Jordan put on a showcase his whole career," Smith said. "I've always wanted to play in Chicago. Every time I have the opportunity, I want to showcase my talent in Chicago because of the history there. Plus, they (the Bulls) traded me for nothing."
Nothing New On Iverson: The Memphis Grizzlies nor Allen Iverson have said anything new on Iverson's status with the team. Yesterday the team had a "we need to keep moving forward" mentality – not necessarily moving on, but understanding the world has not ended in Memphis because Iverson may or may not retire.
"We still have the same goals and aspirations," Hollins said to Ron Tillery of the Memphis Commerical Appeal. "Allen Iverson has to do what's best for him and his family. If it doesn't involve playing with the Grizzlies, then it doesn't. If it does then we'll keep trying to figure it out and get it going in the right direction.
"As I said when we started, it's a process. I said all along I want to get better and better each day, and be better than we were last year. We've got a long ways to go to get to that level but we're working at it."
Iverson's teammates would like to see him back and playing, but also understand there is a job to do tonight when they play host to the Portland Trail Blazers.
"Iverson is a big part of this team and we're behind him, but we have to keep on pushing," Griz forward Zach Randolph said. "I hope the fans continue to support us. We're working hard every day. We're really trying to pull this thing together."
"It's frustrating not having a teammate," forward Rudy Gay said. "But it's also frustrating not having Darrell Arthur (pectoral surgery) here. We'd like to have our whole team, but we're going to have to move on."
NBA Chats: There are three NBA Chats today starting with Alex Raskin at 10am EST. Alex covers the Knicks and the Nets and will do his best to get to as many of your questions as possible. Luke Byrnes brings up the afternoon chat at 1pm EST. Luke covers the Western Conference and College Basketball for HOOPSWORLD. Senior Writer Eric Pincus will hold his weekly NBA chat at 4pm EST. All of the chats fill up fast so getting in early always helps your cause. You can always find the next chat here: Upcoming HOOPSWORLD Chats.
