The Rockets Daily – August 27, 2013

Goodnight, Sweet PrinceTracy McGrady has retired from the NBA. You can find takes on his career from various ESPN columnists here, here, here (Insider), and here, along with an excellent Grantland profile here. T-Mac brought Houston fans some of the highest moments of ecstasy (The Win Streak, Sucking the Oxygen Out of the Building) and some of the most miasmic moments of disappointment. My most indelible personal memory of McGrady is his status as virtual hoops god in the NBA Live series–a place where his staggering potential was unmarred by injury. Other writers who loved him better and watched him more can spill more ink over the man, but I’ll leave this as the memorial for his career: 13 points…

Hair At Home – The Hair offers a tour of his old stomping grounds in Central Florida on the team’s official site. A few highlights:

  • Chandler Parsons smoking a buddy named Posh in a 3-point competition
  • Chandler Parsons stopping his car to make fun of a golfer
  • A cameo of the bro of the bro-est bro in the NBA
  • The bro-est bro in the NBA also having a bulldog named “Bro”
  • Handsome Chandler Parsons saying, “you think I’m just a pretty face, and a pretty good basketball player”
  • Chandler Parsons introducing himself to some band moms at his old high school who have no idea who he is or what he’s doing there and couldn’t care less that he’s an NBA player.
  • Chandler Parsons showing up at his old park and being immediately recognized by a kid who totally loses it.

It’s good to be The Hair.

Stan the ManStan Van Gundy talked with Ethan Sherwood Strauss about a bunch of stuff, including Houston’s new center:

Why do you and Dwight Howard remain friends? Why do you still frequently text each other after everything that happened?

I do think that one thing that we all do is look at the whole picture when you’re looking at something. And there’s no one I know, there’s no one that I care about, people I’m a lot closer to than guys I’ve coached like my family, there’s not one of them I haven’t had major disagreements with.

One, you still love them and everything else, but also you’re judging by the whole picture. So, I can look at what Dwight did for me as a coach and for our whole basketball team in Orlando and everything else and I’m very, very appreciative.

Plus, I don’t think there was ever a point where I didn’t like Dwight personally. I like him. I’ve had a lot of laughs with him. He’s a good guy. We had some things that we disagreed on. We had some things we disagreed strongly on and some times where we pissed each other off. And those were well-documented. But it doesn’t negate all of the good things he did and the good times that were there in the five years we were together. So for me, it’s not a hard thing to overlook.

Just look back at your life and the people in your life. If you’re really being honest about it, then you’re going to think of major blowups you had with those people. You’re going to think of times you stormed out of the house. But you keep coming back because for the most part you will work off things in the big picture. You have to be careful not getting caught up in the moment too much.

Van Gundy’s take is unique and reveals some inner bigness. Did Dwight get him fired? Yes, but Dwight also gave him a great level of success as a coach. It takes a decent person to express gratitude like that. Hopefully the fact that Howard and Van Gundy remain on good terms reveals some inner bigness on Dwight’s part as well.

Lin, Documented – Via Ball Don’t Lie, the trailer for the “Linsanity” documentary is out.

Get your shivers ready.

Tweet That – Daryl Morey makes the case for James Harden’s spot in the shooting guard pantheon:

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Total comments: 1
  • rockets best fan says 2 days ago

    you know I was shocked to see D-12 and Stan were still close friends when Stan came out with that earlier in a previous interview. I agree it takes a big man to have that approach. who knows........if McHale fails to get this team to play to it's potential Stan might be just the man we need. always good to keep doors open ;)