Without Yao, McGrady has to step up.

Yao Ming is out with a foot injury for the rest of the year and playoffs and many of the experts think that the season is over. Mainly because the western conference is so tough. The eighth seed is ten games over .500. It seems as if the casual basketball fan loves Tracy McGrady, and what's not to love. he scores a lot of points, he takes a lot of shots, and he plays above average defense..... when he wants too. While I do agree he is an above average player, he is not one of the great ones. He shoots under 45% every year, he doesn't consistently play defense at the level he's capable of, but more importantly, he does not make his teammates better. For his much publisized first round failures, he's had at least a few teams more talented than their opponents, but wasnt able to get over the hump. Here's the ultimate bailout for him, getting this team in the playoffs in the the tough West. He can lose in the first round yet again, but people will give him a pass this year because he will be "shorthanded." Making the playoffs would be a minor miracle...... but since McGrady is so "great" and he has an average supporting cast at the very least, he should get them at least to the 8th seed. Time to earn that"greatness" label.

The Mitchell Report..... 10 Years too late!

When it came down last week, it wasn't the big time names I was looking for. We got the whole Roger Clemens situation out of it, which is going to be really interesting the next few months... but think about it..... it's all our fault really. In 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa was breaking home run records, there should have been suspicion then. I will always say that the beat writers knew what was going down with the steroid takers, but everybody turned a blind eye... possibly for good reason. You see 1994 was when the strike hit and by '98 that is when baseball was finally showing signs of recovery, so if this would have came out when it was suppose too, I think it would have killed major league baseball with a great possibility of not surviving this time. Baseball people have known for years. I remember hearing John Smoltz calling out that 1993 Phillies team for being steroids users..... I got two words for you..... Lenny Dykstra! The long term of this is when you see these guys drop dead in the next 10-15 years. The good thing about this is that it's cleaning up the game and it will be played the right way again. More base stealing and more hit and run instead of waiting for the three run homer. Baseball purists are dancing in the streets, but what does this do to the casual fan? All comments are welcome and if you like what you read, I'm starting a new webisite named huntersportstalk.com Be on the lookout for it. Peace and have a happy new year.