[25], McGrady is often ranked as one of the greatest basketball players of all-time; The Book of Basketball ranked him 77th,[88] ESPN ranked him 63rd,[33] and SLAM Magazine ranked him 97th. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Year: 2002 Sneaker: adidas T-Mac 1 T-Mac and Allen Iverson also shared some battles on the court throughout the years, but clearly some were all laughs. We want to remember 22 straight and 32.1 points per game. 1 best seller The Book of Basketball. I knew his career had been over for a while. The Chinese center was selected first overall in the 2002 NBA Draft. 3 in order to promote his humanitarian efforts in the region and a documentary on his summer visit called 3 Points. season): 26.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 5.5 apg, 44-34-75%, 21.8 FGA, 7.4 FTA, 24.2 PER, 32.7 usage, Player B (reg. Age 21: 26.8 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 4.6 APG, 40.1 MPG, 46-36-73%, 3.0 stocks,4 24.9 PER, 12.2 WS The T-Mac 1 kicked off McGrady's T-Mac sneakers line with adidas, and would also be worn by some kid name LeBron, as well as players like . 87 Magic: 23.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 12.2 apg, 36.3 mpg, 52-21-85%, 2.2 stocks, 27.0 PER, 15.9 WS. McGrady, still just 25 at the time, was one year removed from a season with the Magic in which he averaged 32.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists on 46% shooting, including nearly 39% on 3 . This website uses cookies. Wouldnt they have smoothed over any alpha dog issues? Age 22: 25.6 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 5.3 APG, 38.3 MPG, 45-36-75%, 2.6 stocks, 25.1 PER, 11.5 WS McGrady entered the NBA straight out of high school and was selected as the ninth overall pick by the Toronto Raptors in the 1997 NBA draft. But Siamese twins is more like it. Out of nowhere, that became one of the biggest draft-day blunders in Celtics history. Ailing injuries and unfortunate luck have prevented T-Mac back from becoming one of the best players in the league, getting into the Hall of Fame, and most of all, winning a Championship. But with bad luck on Tracy's side, Hill played only 4 games that season due to an ankle injury. Four days before he scored 33 points in 13 seconds on December 9, 2004, Tracy McGrady dropped $6.3 million on a Texas mega-mansion. [39] Shortly after arriving in Houston, McGrady signed a three-year, $63 million contract extension with the team. Maybe Penny Hardaway is available to come in and coach. Will he ever be able to stay healthy for an entire season and win a Championship before he retires? Void in ONT. (True.) Would you feel differently about T-Macs career then? Ewing still carried a ton of weight for them, obviously. Both players were unaware of the relation until a family reunion in 1997. Report: Jimmy Kimmel, Cousin Sal, and Bryan Curtis on Mayweather-Pacquiao, Grantland Summer Movie Preview: Adult Movies, Grantland Summer Movie Preview: Summer Movie Confessions, Grantland Summer Movie Preview: Burning Questions, Grantland Summer Movie Preview: Talk Me Into This, Grantland Summer Movie Preview: Chris vs. Chris vs. Chris vs. Chris, Russell, the Creator: Westbrooks Underrated Playmaking, The Laughs, Pathos, and Overwhelming Talent of Jan Hooks, World Series Preview: Five Questions for Games Three and Four, 50 Scenes That Do Not Appear in the X-Files Revival. [74] McGrady sat out the August 26 game due to a back injury. He complained about pain in his elbow and this is when his doctor suggested he get an X-ray. Most points in a game with 62 (March 10, 2004 vs. [13], Before the lockout-shortened 199899 season, the Raptors drafted McGrady's distant cousin Vince Carter. He believes the line between success and failure is much thinner, and much more random, than anyone wants to admit. Hill played the first two months of the 2002-03 season before getting injured again, overlapping with T-Mac and Miller (also battling injuries) for only a dozen games or so. /VCG. We spent the past decade wondering if Kobe was too tough on his teammates, if he pushed them too far, if he called them out too much, if he was so overwhelmingly competitive that it actually worked against him sometimes. Conservation work. Thats when we wish they could see what were seeing. Ive always been partial to the 89 season just because were probably not seeing a 32-8-8 with 54 percent shooting again. His unfortunate luck prevented T-Mac from becoming one of the best players in the league. So I started watching McGrady a future Hall of Famer like Duncan, only someone who had never even won a playoff series until he joined San Antonio in April. I was there every night. Will he make it to the Hall of Fame? Shutting it down, force-restarting it, quitting Epilogue: I can only imagine was released as the breakout single to MercyMes first studio album, Almost There. That led to Rick Pitinos Celtics swooping in and getting Kenny for Chauncey Billups the no. Many devices do not have an SD card option, such as Apple devices. [95] After McGrady left the Raptors, they had a feud, but it was resolved in a short period of time. Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA (select parishes)/MA/MD/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OH/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. McGrady enjoyed the first, used to have the second, lacked the third and was broken by the fourth. But then he broke his back and was traded to the Rockets. McGrady politely turned them down. So what is going to happen with McGrady this season? If 2013s contract rules existed that summer, T-Mac would have been forced to spend an extra two years in Toronto and probably would have made the Finals in 2001 or 2002. [31], In 200203, McGrady won his first scoring title and, behind averages of 32.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game, finished a career-best fourth in NBA Most Valuable Player Award voting. Poor McGrady never caught a break. The 99 Knicks would have done that for McGrady, and vice versa. 09 Wade: 30.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 7.5 apg, 38.6 mpg, 49-32-77%, 3.5 stocks, 30.4 PER, 14.7 WS Brussels Morning is a daily online newspaper based in Belgium. McGrady came into the league with the Toronto Raptors, but it wasn't until he arrived in Orlando in 2000 that the 6'8 guard fully showcased his skills. Or maybe not everyones meant to lead a team that way, and thats OK, too. He would have had some idiots getting his back we were REALLY nasty that year. [56], Following Houston's loss to Utah, McGrady underwent arthroscopic surgery on both his left shoulder and left knee. In October 2001, Sports Illustrated quoted a scout for choosing McGrady as the best player of the Eastern Conference over Allen Iverson, Vince Carter and Ray Allen. Unfortunately, McGrady wrecked his career postseason scoring average by getting just 25 points in 12 games over his last two seasons for Atlanta and San Antonio. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Iverson has the 2001 Finals. So many of McGradys superstar contemporaries were wired a certain way: Kobe, Garnett, Duncan, Iverson, Shaq, Kidd all alpha dogs whose teams assumed their personalities, for better or worse. [63] Two days later, he made his team debut, scoring 26 points in an overtime loss against the Thunder. We want to remember seven All-Star Games in a row. In Hollywood, movie stars keep working after their careers cool off. With a Europe-wide perspective, BM covers policies and politics of the EU, significant Member State developments, and looks at the international agenda with a European perspective. Kobe and Duncan have nine rings and 12 Finals appearances between them. Van Gundy loved coaching them they would have fought through a wall for him, and for each other, too. Ive used this analogy for NBA players before, but the best one is usually called the everything package. He played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). [58] On February 24, he had microfracture surgery in Chicago, forcing him to miss the remainder of the year. Third, McGrady had a unique celestial quality in his game. Thats the irony, right? Second, he had the miraculous performance of scoring 13 points in 35 seconds. [24], During the 200001 season, McGrady defied the expectations of many,[25] emerging as one of the best players in the NBA, with Milwaukee Bucks General Manager Ernie Grunfeld going so far as to call him "one of the top five talents in the league". You probably figured out that Player B was Kobe. He was so unselfish, that was the best thing about him. Dec. 15, T-Mac injured his left knee in the first quarter, but returned in the second half. Alphonso shares a close relationship with his son, Luis. Seriously, how many?. Remember that wed never seen a 6-foot-8 freak who could score as easily as any 6-foot-8 guy not named George Gervin, only while covering the court like Scottie Pippen once did. I left that camp the No. Displacement can be negative or positive according to the direction. Just an aging artist honing his craft. First, he was teammate with Yao Ming for five seasons. Tracy McGrady means something special to Chinese basketball fans for three reasons. There arent many vehicles out there that can lug around tons of payload one moment and melt tires in a quarter-mile drag the next. Trust me every team went into a T-Mac game hoping he would shoot 3s instead of drive to the basket. Then he jumped to Orlando and I mean, Jesus. [75] The U.S. qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games on August 30 with an 8771 win over Puerto Rico; in the game, McGrady and Puerto Rico's Eddie Casiano were involved in an altercation which resulted in fans throwing drinks and debris on the court. He was forced to miss several games during the 2005-06 season and was carried off the court on a stretcher. Well, you know the slightly less expensive package right before the everything, the one that makes you say Shit, if Im getting that one, I might as well spend three extra bucks and just buy the everything'? Easy to coach, Van Gundy gushes about McGrady. Almost always, youre somewhere in your thirties, so you dont look dramatically different than you did when you mattered. Once you cant crack that group, youre confined to cheerleading and garbage time. TOTALLY unselfish. Tracy said to reporters that he is back to square one again. Tracy McGrady disease is a rare genetic disorder that causes calcium phosphate build-up in the brain leading to neurological symptoms. Dec. 19, McGrady limped noticeably with a sore left knee and was replaced for the rest of the game. [104], In August 2021, McGrady launched an app, SOLEcial, designed to sell autographed shoes, trading cards, and other memorabilia directly to buyers. Dec. 10, Tracy left the game due to an ankle injury and did not return. Van Gundy wishes people didnt overrate playoff success when they evaluated players, pointing out that Kevin Garnett was the exact same player in 2007 (32 wins) and 2008 (82 wins, including playoffs). I mean, even Bryant came out and said some nice things its not like Kobe Bryant goes out and blows smoke up peoples ass.. (WELL, SORT OF)", "A History of Tracy McGrady in the adidas T-Mac", "Tracy McGrady: "I didn't want to go to a team to chase a championship", "Former NBA player Tracy McGrady getting ready for a minor role in baseball", "McGrady says he'll spread word about Darfur", "Houston Rockets' Tracy McGrady to wear No. The team ended up losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Milwaukee Bucks. In 2014, he was also part of the documentary The End of the Wild about elephant conservation. 6'8", 225 lbs Orlando Magic SG Career Stats Game Log Splits Guard Tracy McGrady played 15 seasons for 6 teams. After back injuries hurt his athleticism, McGrady became the NBA's best screen playmaker and borrowed 35 seconds from God to create a miracle. After McGrady retired this week, I couldnt resist texting Kobe to ask him.
