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No matter the sport, it is likely that a 40-something is leading the conversation. Almost all of them are rich enough never to work again. And future generations will retire with even greater wealth. But when your first career ends so early in life, the question of “What’s next?” is unavoidable. As McGrady and his generation are showing, the goal doesn’t have to be a classic second career. They can combine money and opportunity. They can become moguls. “Yeah, I’m jealous that some of these guys are making $50 and $60 million,” McGrady said of today’s players. “They landed with perfect timing, making this type of money.”
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, McGrady discussed a novel two-year strategic partnership with NBC Sports. Peacock will stream select games from the Ones Basketball League that McGrady founded in 2022, an idea that emerged from one of his sleepless nights. The network will collaborate on live tapings of “Cousins,” the podcast featuring McGrady and Carter, which debuts its second season Wednesday. In addition, NBC is exploring content related to the ABCD Basketball Camp, the storied high school showcase in which McGrady acquired a controlling stake, reviving it in July after 20 dormant years. When he joined NBC, McGrady sought more than a job. He wanted an alliance. “It’s crazy, but I visualized this,” McGrady said. “I saw it, and it was just about, ‘OK, what steps do I need to take for this to happen?’”
Playmaker: “My coach at 18-years old said I was going to be out of the league in 3 years” AMONGST LEGENDS episode 1, featuring T-Mac, out now 🔥 taap.it/AmongstLegends
Lou Williams is somehow regretting his work ethic before the draft. The former Sixth Man of the Year recalled his journey entering the league in no shape as he was picked in the second round. “I was just going on being naive to think, hey, look, if these guys can do it and I’m in the conversation of guys going, I want to be one of them, too. Watching that draft and my name not get called the first 30 picks, that was the first time I thought about, ‘Damn, I done made a mistake,” Williams said, via an episode of Cousins with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
NBA Courtside: Olden Polynice GOES OFF on Tracy McGrady for his MVP over rings argument: “T-Mac I’ve never read your book, Things Losers Say. Because that’s what it is. I’m sick and tired. And see, all these young people keep saying these old heads, they do this and do that. It’s not the old heads. Most of us know what we’re talking about. And we come from a point of reference where we try to keep it civil. You guys are just blurring out crap. Y’all just blurring out sh*t. Or, you know, if I had been on the Lakers, I would have won more championships than Kobe. Sh*t like that. Stop it dude. Okay. Championships matter. We don’t know who the 12th man is, but guess what? Jack Haley had three rings and he can carry that ring anywhere and show it and get stuff from it. Nobody gives damn about no damn MVPs.” (Via Byron Scott’s Fast Break)
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Dorell Wright: "I was just in the SLAM magazine, T-Mac too. Like I had the big punk cover, I mean, the whole page, me and my high school locker room, T-Mac too. I was believing that sh*t because I was one of the guys I idolized. Him, Kobe, and KG were my favorite three players. Thing about that when I get older, what I recognized that all three of them came out of high school, too. But those are the three guys that, I love to watch. And when I thought I got to Miami, I'm like, 'Oh, it's go time. I'm about to show out.' And then they were like, 'Hey, we’re on player development this year.' I was like, 'What?' So yeah, I definitely thought I was getting to it. I never knew like the vision like where I wanted to be, if I wanted to be an All-Star, Hall of Famer… I never thought of that. I just I was just so happy to be there. But one thing I can say, it never hit me that I'm in the NBA. Like it always felt like I supposed to be here. I never felt like, oh my god! Like it was never one of those moments for me. It was just like I'm where I'm supposed to be.
Tracy McGrady: "Jaylen Brown, right? Jaylen Brown came to me, came to my house, and we had a sit down. And he had some things that, and this was, this was many years ago before they won a championship. And you know, there was a lot of talk circling around, you know, breaking up this, this, this core with he and Jayson Tatum. So, and I was watching how they played with each other, right, year after year. And this particular year, they fell short. And it was a year where he was frustrated and was thinking about making a change, right? The media is, is talking, the fans are talking. I said, Jaylen, you got some good, bro. Like, don't, don't break this, don't break this up because I see, you know, a championship out of y'all two at some point." And we had him on our pod, and we was talking about this story, and I just felt like he couldn't see, you know, what, because I have no emotional attachment to any of the Boston Celtics of what they're, they're building. But he couldn't see what I was seeing. Right? And that's why I pointed that out to him and, and, you know, a year, two years later, they eventually won a championship."
McGrady, alongside Hall of Fame forward Vince Carter, explained why an MVP award matters more, per the Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady podcast. “The MVP of the regular season has more weight than a championship,” McGrady said. “Hell yeah, why wouldn't it? Man, name the tenth or the eleventh player on the Chicago Bulls or the Los Angeles Lakers, or the Detroit Pistons, or the Boston Celtics. Who are they? Any of those teams, name me the eleventh or the twelfth guy.”
Appearing on the 'Cousins' podcast with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, Wallace reflected on his time with Luguentz Dort. The two spent three seasons in OKC together. It's all love between the two as they were two-thirds of their three-headed perimeter-defense monster — alongside Alex Caruso. "Shoutout Lu. In my opinion, the best on-ball guard defender in the league. He’s so solid. He doesn’t gamble too often. He's one of the best," Wallace said. "I’ve learned a lot through Lu. He's one of the best guard defenders in the league for sure. Toughest assignment every night. Easily, it's him."
The ABCD Camp was the premier summer event for 22 years in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Basketball legend Sonny Vaccaro founded the camp in 1984, and the stories and matchups to come out each year changed the trajectory for some players. The camp ended in 2006, but Tracy McGrady and Vaccaro revived it 20 years later, and 50 of the top players in the country came out to compete over the weekend. Kobe Bryant was the camp MVP in 1995, and in 2001, it was16-year-old LeBron James who solidified himself as the best prospect in the nation. James stole the ball from Lenny Cooke and hit the game-winner, a one-legged 35-foot jumper, in the championship game. James’s nickname “The Chosen One” resulted from the ABCD Camp.
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Tracy McGrady: 'My duo, I'm going LaMelo Ball and Ant-Man. I'm going LaMelo because LaMelo is very entertaining, he's flashy, and then Ant-Man, what he brings to the table with the swag... I just think the two together, man, it's just going to be fun to watch, very exciting. They going to be going at dudes next on that basketball court and talking sh*t, doing it, taking names. I just think the excitement that we going to see from both of them is going to be something special to watch this year.'
Retired former NBA All-Star Vince Carter made an interesting revelation this week on the latest episode of his “Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady” podcast. Carter said that he had interest from NBA teams to continue his playing career but decided to walk away from the game instead because of “politics.” “Even after Year 22, I still received a couple of phone calls with interest to come play that next year,” said Carter. “I wasn’t able to do it how I wanted to do it and walk away when I was ready to walk away. The politics of it now took over and I was like ‘Nah,’”
AJ Dybantsa on his NBA player comparisons: "Some people say younger Paul George. I have heard a bigger Shai, I have heard a bigger Jalen Brunson. But the most accurate one I have ever got was Tracy McGrady. I think he was just super uber-talented, being 6'9, jumping over people to shoot, being a windmill, and being super athletic. I think that is kind of me."