QINGDAO, China - Everything was in place for a perfect ending to a brilliant debut.

Tracy McGrady, the former NBA and Rockets superstar playing in the Chinese Basketball Association, had rallied his new team, the Qingdao Eagles, from a 16-point deficit against Fujian QB. Now, with the game tied and 18.5 seconds remaining, McGrady, who had 34 points and nine assists, took the inbounds pass and slowly dribbled, eyeing the clock as the seconds slipped away.

Unfortunately, McGrady - known as Mai Di in China - was not watching the man who had been given the seemingly unenviable task of checking the CBA's highest-profile newcomer. Fujian's Zhou Qixin, timing McGrady's high dribble, reached in, flicked the ball away and came up with the steal. Seconds later, Sundiata Gaines banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 95-92 victory.

That 18.5-second slice of action is a perfect microcosm of all the frustrations, gaffes and growing pains of McGrady's upside-down maiden season in the CBA.

The script-flipping, opening-day shocker triggered a staggering run of 12 consecutive losses, and in a league that has only 32 regular-season games, that left no wiggle room for a playoff run as the Eagles sank to the bottom of the standings.

So, is McGrady disappointed?

"Not necessarily," he said with a shrug. "We've improved as a team and as individuals, so I can't say that I'm disappointed. It is what it is."

Great expectations

When McGrady, who played with China's basketball icon Yao Ming for five seasons with the Rockets, arrived in this sprawling city on China's east coast, it was supposed to represent a seismic shift in the Eagles' fortunes. In anticipation of a monster season, the Eagles moved from their cozy 4,000-seat home court at Qingdao University to the much larger Guoxin Stadium, which has three times the seating capacity.

After all, this was the great Mai Di, whose 16-year NBA career included seven All-Star Game appearances, two scoring titles and - the highlight clip that got the heaviest rotation in China after McGrady arrived - the 13 points in the final 35 seconds that sank the San Antonio Spurs in 2004.

But that sublimely athletic 6-8 McGrady exists only in highlights and memories, something Qingdao management apparently didn't understand when assembling this year's roster.

Qingdao finished a franchise-best 16-16 last season, but management didn't keep the nucleus intact, instead going with nine new players. The biggest loss was stocky, slam-dunking forward Li Gen, the MVP of last year's CBA All-Star Game, who bolted to Beijing as a free agent.

It was assumed by many such personnel losses would be mitigated by McGrady's dominance. There was talk he would average 50 points, speculation McGrady laughed off.

"It's hard to score 50 points in a game," he said, "much less average 50."

McGrady, 33, is averaging 25 points and 4.9 assists, but it chafes some that his numbers are not close to what other "imports" have been putting up, such as Zhejiang's Quincy Douby, a fringe NBA player who is averaging 32.5 points and set a CBA record with a 75-point game against Shanxi.

"That wasn't my intention when I came here," McGrady said. "I told my teammates, 'I'm not coming here to lead this league in scoring. Don't count on me to go out there and get 30 or 40 points every night. I'm going to put some pressure on you as well.' They didn't understand that in the beginning because they were still sitting back and deferring to me a lot. But I think they've caught on now because they're a lot more aggressive."

Reinforcements

Given time to jell after a 2-17 start, the Eagles have started to put it together, going 6-3 and beating upper-echelon teams such as Liaoning and Stephon Marbury's Beijing Ducks, the defending CBA champions.

One big reason for the turnaround has been the addition of 6-11 Chris Daniels, a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi product who is among the league leaders in scoring (29.6 points) and rebounds (12 per game), but the Eagles are getting consistent contributions from Chinese players Li Tao, a smooth-shooting wing, center Yang Genglin and forward Zhao Yonggang.

Another reason for the Eagles' recent surge is because McGrady has embraced the original concept behind having Americans compete in the CBA. The theory was American players, rather than simply act as ringers, would use their superior experience, skills, fundamentals, athleticism and strength to help to accelerate the development of Chinese players.

In that regard, McGrady has been a huge success, spending chunks of practice time teaching "how the game needs to be played and what my vision is out on the basketball court."

"He's doing things that are more important than scoring," coach Zhang Shizhang said. "He helps us on both sides of the floor, defense and offense. Also, he motivates the players in practice, teaching them. The role he plays for us has so many intangibles, which is good for us."

Controversy with refs

Not that it has all been good for McGrady.

In the last of a three-game exhibition series against a team of Americans, McGrady started but played just 98 seconds before retiring to the bench for the night. Fans at the sold-out arena were outraged, and late in the fourth quarter a riot almost erupted when they began throwing debris on the floor. He also publicly blasted the requirement that players take a written exam on the rules, calling it "nonsense."

In a Dec. 9 game at Beijing, McGrady made more headlines when he delivered a retaliatory elbow to the chest of Ducks forward Ji Zhe, who had taunted him with a wagging finger after making a 3-pointer. And in the wake of a controversial loss at Bayi, when officials didn't call a late 24-second violation on the home team Rockets, McGrady vented on his Sina Weibo (Chinese twitter) account:

"CBA has to do a better job with these officials. My team plays hard every night and the 3 blind mice take it away from us!

"This bad officiating has to change. No way I'm coming back if the officiating continues to be this errant."

McGrady was hit with a one-game suspension and a fine of approximately $1,600 for causing "adverse social impact."

McGrady said he's fine with the travel, accommodations and practices, but the officiating - which some say is merely incompetent; other rumors persist that many of the referees accept bribes to influence games (called "black whistles" in China) - has been the one thing with which he has struggled.

"It's just bad," McGrady said. "It's bad … (if) this league is going to go anywhere that has to be cleaned up. I'm going to leave it at that."

The Eagles' struggles have had little impact on McGrady's overwhelming popularity. He is an icon in the truest sense - grown men, in near-religious fervor, have broken down and wept after finding themselves in McGrady's presence.

McGrady has appreciated the rock-star treatment he has received, but he admitted it can be too much.

"Considering that I've been coming over here for 10 or 11 years, I've seen it before," McGrady said. "I'm used to it. What I wasn't used to is dealing with it every day and every moment. There's nowhere I can go (without being mobbed)."

High price of fame

So McGrady spends much of his time in his hotel room, pondering his future. He has business ideas, like opening basketball camps in China, which he hopes will help young Chinese players catch up with the rest of the world.

Does his future include another season in the CBA?

McGrady just shrugs.

"I don't know," he said. "I haven't even thought about it."

Perhaps this long, strange trip is nearing its end. If so, McGrady said he will leave with no regrets.

"I wanted to come here and give back to my Chinese fans who have supported me over my NBA career," he said. "Before I stopped playing basketball I wanted to give them the opportunity to see me play in person. I think it's been fantastic this season. This journey has been everything and more than what I had expectations of it being.

"Coming over here for so many years I realized how passionate and loving these fans are. When the opportunity presented itself there was no hesitation - I wanted to do it. Who knows what the future holds, but I will have something going on here in China."

Michael Murphy is a freelance writer based in China.