https://theathletic.com/2963431/202...le-wing-who-blossomed-into-a-scoring-machine/ “I don’t think any of us expected it this way,” McGrady told Marc Spears in 2013 when he was a player on the end of the Spurs’ bench in the NBA Finals. “But some of us are dealt different cards. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t blessed to play with other All-Stars, other great players. A lot of people don’t realize it, but I was only able to play with only one All-Star. And that was Yao. “I didn’t play with no (healthy) All-Star my whole career. Didn’t have one in Orlando. Yao was in and out with injuries. You see some of these guys today with two or three Hall of Famers on one team. I didn’t have that.”
he was never healthy himself, and he was so lazy that his prime was done and he was washed before he hit age 30 08-09 was his chance to be on a very good team, but he showed up built like a blimp and quickly broke down
He really was gifted. With hard work he would have been the best player in the world for years. He just wasn’t mentally made to be that type of player.
He's not completely wrong but yet he manages to say it in a very pathetic and self-aggrandizing way with little self awareness. Classic Tmac! The Rockets wasted both Mac and Yaos time here, shortened as it was. Carroll Dawson was offensively terrible beyond 1997 and Morey built a championship contender once the wheels fell off (literally). That 2006 and 2007 roster is one of the most pathetic rosters of all time. 4 players scoring in a playoff game!!! This is why part of me will always feel for Mac, when he doesn't open his mouth. As a fan, we all felt the pain of watching 2 all stars carry a G League team into battle and getting torched 76-68 on so many nights. What an absolute waste of human endeavor to build those rosters. Even 2005, which was a fun team to watch, was primarily desperation veteran signings.
I remember watching Tracy as Orlando rolled into the forum. He dominated Kobe on both ends. Bigger, faster, more explosive, sweet splash, defensive monster...It was an amazing display. I was kind of shocked, as Kobe was incredible. But, with injury, those days went the way of the DoDo...long before he came here. With the knee and back issues came inconsistency on that J, that once was so sweet. No continuity. He was never the same. Proceeded to get worse over time, and exhibited massive denial which only made things worse. It became a train wreck. I'm just saying, Tracy in Orlando was a beautiful thing. We got to experience a % of that player in chunks. That's how good he WAS. This guy, if he hadn't gotten hurt...
In all seriousness, some of the most fun basketball I ever watched was prime T-Mac and Co vs. D'Antoni's Sun's. Man those were amazing games!! Remember being in packed bars in Rice Village and people cheering like crazy and getting wasted when those games were on. Good times.
his chicken legs prevented him from being great. also didn't help that one eye was looking at the rim while the other at section 415 in the nosebleeds
Fun fact: Tim Duncan was insanely close to being a Magic but Doc screwed that up. What could have been
Agreed. He carried teams with a <22 year old Mike Miller and a past his prime Darrell Armstrong as the 2nd and 3rd best players to winning records and the playoffs. I remember some of those playoff series -- the workload they put on McGrady on both ends was insane. He probably should have taken care of himself better, but there is a what if for TMac of what shape his career takes if Grant Hill stayed healthy and shared the Orlando burden.
