Will the real McGrady please stand up?

   
 
The real McGrady stands up
By Tim Povtak
of the Sentinel Staff

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on October 15, 2000

It didn`t take long to see what all the fuss this summer was about.
Just three exhibition games into this NBA season, it already has become perfectly clear:
The Orlando Magic hit the jackpot with Tracy McGrady.
Tracy McGrady goes up and then passes off to teamate Ed O'Bannon after former Magic player Ben Wallace of the Pistons defends. McGrady continues to turn these practice games into his own private playground, leading the Magic on Saturday night to another easy victory, 118-92 over the outmatched Detroit Pistons.
McGrady turned a slow start into an effortless show of domination, putting his own personal spin on the middle of a game that will be forgotten quickly in a season of rapidly growing expectations.
At 21, he`s young but already willing and able to control an NBA game. The Magic may have signed the most versatile young player in basketball.
It was 28 points, seven rebounds, four steals and a blocked shot in 28 minutes. It was 24 points and five blocked shots against the Pistons on Friday night. And earlier in the week, it was 24 points and eight rebounds against Atlanta.
There is a theme here.
McGrady is the real deal.
After three seasons in Toronto -- and only one really good one -- McGrady signed a much-ballyhooed, $93 million contract with the Magic, prompting hate mail from the team he left behind but love letters from the franchise he joined.
"At 21, he`s playing now like Scottie Pippen played at age 27," Magic Coach Doc Rivers said. "I knew he was good. That`s why we signed him, but he`s better than I even thought. It`s that great quickness that I didn`t know he had. He has the ability to play in different gears, and when he explodes, he`s as fast as they come."
McGrady, a 6-foot-8 guard/forward, was all over the floor, bringing the ball up the court against pressure, hitting an open 3-pointer and soaring high to dunk in heavy traffic. With the shot clock winding down, he took the ball and scored, getting points out of a broken play.
"This is me. This is my time. I`ll come to play like this every night," McGrady said. "I`m a guy this team can depend on. It`s the first year that I`ll fully get the chance to do my thing without having to look back over my shoulder. I`m going to make the most of it."
The Magic still are without Grant Hill, who sat out again to give his surgically repaired left ankle more time to heal. Although he wanted to play and he went through pregame warm-ups, the Magic decided to keep him on the sideline again.
The show belonged to McGrady. He made only one of his first seven shots but then made nine of his next 10. He had only three points midway in the second quarter, but he scored 25 points before he left the game for good late in the third period.
The Pistons got a scare when Jerry Stackhouse went down in a heap, going up high trying to block a potential dunk by McGrady. Both Stackhouse and teammate Chucky Atkins went crashing to the floor while McGrady scored.
Stackhouse left with a hyperextended left knee, and he never returned. The Pistons were led by John Wallace`s 19 points.
Atkins, who played for the Magic last season before landing with the Pistons in a sign-and-trade deal this summer, struggled in back-to-back games against his former team. Atkins had five points, five turnovers and eight assists Saturday night, making just two of nine shots. On Friday, Atkins had seven points and four turnovers.



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