The enigma of Tracy McGrady continues. "I'm young,'' he says. "But I'm old.''
McGrady is 27, yet he's entering his 10th season with a sensitive back that sidelined him for 34 games last season. He feels much older than he looks. "My first year here,'' he says, referring to his 2004-05 debut with Houston after being traded by Orlando, "I felt like I was that same type of guy that was in the Magic uniform, that I could go out and get 30 or 40 every night. At this point right now, I don't feel that way. I feel like the last few years my game has diminished a little bit. I don't know if it's because I'm older, because of the injuries or what, but I feel that I'm a step slower.'
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"I had a very quick first step, and I've lost a little bit of that. I've put on some weight, but hey, man, as you get older you slow down a little bit and that's what's happened to me.
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Is McGrady ready to cash out? On the contrary. He compares himself to the pitchers who lose something off their fastball yet compensate with a better understanding of how to work the plate. "Roger Clemens doesn't throw as hard as he used to throw, but he's very smart, he knows how to mix his pitches up and keep the batters off balance,'' McGrady says. "Obviously I'm not 40-something years old, but just the whole mentality of knowing that you don't have that overpowering [presence] that you would normally have when you were younger. As you get older you don't have that, so you got to find another way -- and that's got to be by smarts.''
McGrady's career seemed to be at risk last year when Rockets owner Leslie Alexander personally decided to hold him out for the final month in order to get to the bottom of his back injury. McGrady spent the summer getting leaner and now swears that he doesn't worry about reinjuring his back. "My back was so jacked up, I was healthy -- this is no lie -- for one game last year, and that was the first game of the season,'' he says. "I kind of lost my passion for the game, but I worked my ass off to get into tip-top shape just to bounce back and come into training camp more focused than ever.
"I think I'll be healthy to play out this contract,'' says McGrady, who is signed through 2009-10, when he'll be making $23.2 million as a 30-year-old. "But after that it's a big question mark.''
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"When I was younger I was extremely happy and excited to win a scoring title and accomplish all of these individual accolades, but now I don't even care about all this stuff. I watched Dwyane Wade [win the championship] and LeBron -- he's in his third year and he's advancing to the second round -- that's motivation. That's where I want to be because I see how much fun those guys are having out there. And that's what I want to do.''
It's as if McGrady has been abandoned by the new Wade/LeBron/Carmelo era. "It's like everybody's forgotten him all of a sudden,'' Rockets GM Carroll Dawson says of McGrady. "He used to be one of the stalwarts, but you never see his name anymore.''
What does that mean to McGrady? "Nothing,'' he says. "I know what I'm capable of, and you ask those guys -- they respect me.''
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