McGrady admits he's lost a step

[flipcritic]

This raises some interesting questions. He's only 27, but has been in the league for around 10 years. Does one's NBA physical prime depend on your age? Or how long you've been in the league?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/ian_thomsen/11/09/mcgrady.inside.nba/index.html

[mavsfan1000]

Doesn't College count as well than?

[diego]

god i hate jerry colangelo. "if it was done democratically then it would have never happened, coaches would have voted to fit their own strengths, so instead I just got my pals here in phoenix to make changes for our strengths"

[JamStone]

When an NBA player with elite athleticism starts to decline, it can go fast. And, many of them can't make up for it with playing smarter, especially perimeter players. Post players can lose quickness and athleticism and still stay in the league. Perimeter players lose a step and athleticism, and they're done. Penny Hardaway v. Chris Webber.

[101A]

Doesn't College count as well than?

25 games vs. 82 + Playoffs + Itntl.

No, college doesn't count.

[Supergirl]

Neither.
It's all luck. It largely depends on each player's individual body - Bruce Bowen, Ben Wallace, and Kevin Willis, for egm, are just blessed with strong bodies. A bad back is something you're either born with or not.
It depends on the player's relationship to pain - AI, for eg, could play through almost anything, because he has a really high pain threshold.
Finally, it depends on luck - some players are hit with a bad injury - coming down wrong and tweaking and ankle, a knee, etc that takes them out of their game.

[Walton Buys Off Me]

Hmmm, let me get this straight; Jerry Colangelo, the CEO of the Phoenix Suns is the man responsible for the rule changes that quickened the pace of the game? Does anyone else not have a HUGE problem with the fact that Colangelo's own team benefits the most from this? More importantly, his little 'committee' as they call it consists of NBA legends true, but nobody associated with any other NBA team. Whose voice- other than the interests of the Suns are considered during his little 'meetings'?

I know this is the NBA were talking about here, an organisation with less credibility than Ron Jeremy would have at a Senate/House committee meeting but come on people- is this not the most glaring example of what constitutes a 'conflict of interest'?

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

His little quote about how he wanted to make the changes because team's had lost touch with fundamentals and too reliant on athleticism had me shaking my head. The Suns are the poster children for that bull shit. Two of their biggest stars, Marion and Stoudemire, have made a career on little else but their athleticism, and as their playoffs failures have shown, they suck in the half court and play no defense. Me being the crazy son of a bitch I am, I happen to think that actually running an offense and trying to defend are part of the fundamentals of basketball.

Of course, I can't be the only one since the words "fundamentally sound" were the ones most often thrown around to describe the Spurs and '04 Pistons championship teams. Shit, name one championship team that didn't do those things. I guess if Jerry has his way the Suns will be the first. Hypocrite.

And I find yet another reason to hate David Stern. There's no way a control freak like him just handed Jerry a blank check to screw with his league. More likely is that knew that he and Colangelo wanted the same thing and set up this committee to give the changes at least a facade of credibility. Either way, he had to sign off on this shit and the game, IMO, is worse for it.

[diego]

exactly, huge conflict of interest, i cant believe that this happened in the US of all places.

i guess checks and balances and democracy have gone out of style.

[Obstructed_View]

Since the board of governors elected Colangelo chairman, and they vote to approve any and all changes, shouldn't they be taking the blame?