McGrady Still Ready, But Rehabbing

Tracy McGrady's premature return was always a bad idea. Not just because this season's Houston Rockets, either a bunch of inspired underdogs or the NBA equivalent of a smart phone, are fine without him. Nor, seeing as T-Mac's greatest importance to the organization is his gigantic expiring contract, was it the distraction/bad blood issue.

To borrow from a great man whose name I forgot, it's the microfracture, baby. Leaps and bounds have been made in recovery from what once was a career-ending procedure. But there's no shame in taking close to a full year off before returning. Amare Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin, the poster children for athletic players regaining most of their spring, took the conservative road back (Martin twice). Jason Kidd jumped right back in, as did early success story Stockton, but neither of these wily geezers needed much more than a knee that supported weight.

How much damage has Gilbert Arenas done to his body by repeatedly trying to rehab too aggressively from a cluster of knee issues that involved a microfracture treatment? Zach Randolph shrugged off recovery, and lurched through 2005-06 -- and Z-Bo's a player hardly dependent on lift or burst. McGrady had his surgery last February, and since late fall has been pushing himself to get back on the court. Not exactly the best course of action for someone whose body has a long history of being his worst enemy.

So it was with a combination of relief and snottiness that I read in today's Chicago Tribune that McGrady is up in Tim Grover's fortress of fitness "rehabbing from microfracture knee surgery."

What's that, you say, didn't he rebab already? Apparently, all parties involved have realized that it's time to do this thing right. Grover rattles off some spin: "Tracy looks great ... There are no physical limitations that he has. Any team that gets him is going to get a very fine-tuned and hungry player to prove himself over again." But context is everything. McGrady's back in the woodshed. Owing to a combination of this injury, the Rockets' position here, and uncertainty over what T-Mac brings to the table these days, it's the best career move he could make.