Rockets play it safe with McGrady's return

HOUSTON -- Tracy McGrady says he's taking all the necessary steps to return to his previous All-Star form. They're just not the big strides yet that will put him back into the Houston Rockets' lineup anytime soon.

While his teammates open training camp Tuesday for the 2009-10 NBA season, McGrady will continue rehabilitation on his surgically repaired left knee.

"Listen, I won't make the mistake I made last year," he said.

Twelve months ago, McGrady sat at the same table, behind the same microphone and the same bank of TV lights and vowed to struggle through lingering pain in the same knee that had undergone surgery the previous spring.

But a short time into the 2008-09 season, his dogged determination turned into disappointed disenchantment as McGrady missed a career-high 47 games and was forced to undergo microfracture surgery on Feb. 24. He had averaged just 15.6 points, his lowest scoring output in nine years, and shot a career low .388 from the field.

Now, after seven months of rehabilitation in Chicago under the direction of renowned trainer Tim Grover, the 12-year NBA veteran says he was driven to not let last season be his lingering legacy.

"It was in my head from the time I left and until the end of the season," McGrady said. "That is embedded in my head, no question.

"I think going through last year made me re-focus. Going through that injury and going through everything about last season, I got frustrated. When you've got to deal with injuries like that, it's hard to love the game of basketball. It's hard to get up in the morning and go play the game, because you can't be yourself. And that's how it was last year. It was hard for me to come here knowing that 'I can't be me.' That was the toughest thing about it. I know I'm better than that.

"Everybody said I was washed up, but the year before that I just came off the All-NBA team. So I had that in my head: 'I'm hurt. So let's re-focus and get back to being you.' That's pretty much what I did. I had to get away from here. I had to get away and that's why I stayed in Chicago for seven months and I was just grinding and busting my ass.

"It (rehab) is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. It's not just the physical side, but the mental aspect part of it. It's challenging, knowing that what I went through last year, that it wasn't me out there, knowing that I had to push myself to a level that I hadn't pushed myself to get back to the player -- and even better -- that I want to be."

McGrady has returned to playing 5-on-5 pickup games ahead of schedule, says he feels fine running, jumping and cutting and, if it were up to him, he would probably be on the floor for the start of training camp.

But after what everyone endured a year ago, the Rockets are choosing the cautious route.

"I think he'll be rehabbing until Nov. 23," said Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. "We just took an MRI to give us the state of where he's at and the doctor who did the surgery and our team doctor agreed that up until then he'll be rehabbing and we'll take another MRI then and take the next step."

Yo-yoing in and out of the lineup last season -- excelling one night and floundering the next, choosing to sit out the second night of back-to-back games, scratching himself from the lineup as late as 20 minutes before the opening tip -- left the Rockets and their fans feeling discontented and eventually disconnected from McGrady.

Now, as he enters the final year of a contract that will have him as the highest-paid player in the league this season ($23 million), there is some sentiment that McGrady could most valuable as a trade commodity to the Rockets this season.

"I answer that question the same for every player," Morey said. "If there's a chance to upgrade, we're going to have to look at it this year."

McGrady shrugs off any such thoughts.

"I'm not worried about it contract-wise," he said. "It's more important for me, for myself. I don't have to prove to nobody that I still got it. I'm here to prove to myself that I'm capable of coming back from this injury and being the type of player I want to be. If I do that, the contract takes care of itself. That's not why I'm doing it. Not at all."

While McGrady is chomping at the bit to get back into the lineup, the memories of last year's miserable experience are helping to hold him back.

"It's only seven months out and the doctor says it takes year for this to completely heal," McGrady said. "You give it some time. Me, I feel like I'm ready. But it's not my option to go right now. I'm listening to my doctors and I don't want to rush anything.

"Last year I wanted to play so bad that I came out there and all hell broke loose. So we'll give it a few weeks or whatever that date is -- I didn't even know that -- and we're going to take it one day at a time. I feel if I can go every day without having to play a night or a practice and then sit out, until I feel that way, I'm not going to play."