Advertisement - scroll for more content
Tracy McGrady: I never felt like I had (financials) under control. Ever. I was trying to control it the best way I possibly could because I was—I didn’t have the knowledge. Right. Right. I’m young. I didn’t have the knowledge. I’m just maneuvering through this [] just by trial—trial and error. Just trying to figure it out as I go. But having Kobe at the time, right, I could pick up the phone, call Kobe, right, cuz he’s somebody that I leaned on, you know, religiously at that time. Very intelligent person, right? He’s very grounded. He comes from two-parent home. Like his structure and my structure are totally two different structures. I needed to have that conversation and—and—and learn from him who had the structure and had the intelligence to help me maneuver through this [] that I know nothing about, right? So it was good that, you know, we had the same agency. We both was Adidas guys at the time. But I could just pick up the phone and call my man and be like, 'Yo, I’m—I’m struggling with this. What—what should I do?' And he was, you know, so gracious enough to give me the game. And uh that was through our whole career."
Olden Polynice on Tracy McGrady, Jeff Teague: It's a bum mindset to criticize Kobe Bryant
Q. There's a lot of podcasts out there now, a lot of former players doing shows and… Olden Polynice: Bums! Q. I’ve never seen so much slander on Kobe in my whole life, and all of it is just trash. What's your thought on this? Olden Polynice: I agree with you wholeheartedly. And the problem that I'm having is bums are talking. And I'm not saying that Tracy McGrady or whoever, Jeff Teague, are bums, okay? But it's a bum mindset to criticize this man. And he's not here to defend himself. You didn't say any of this bullsh*t when he was alive. Not one of y'all opened your mouths and said, "No. Oh my god, I love you. I love your shoes and everything else." No. Let the man rest in peace. I'm sick and tired of this crap with these people. It's some bullsh*t. Excuse me. And you know I ain't never cussed until now cuz now I'm offended. It's some bullsh*t. The man is dead, man. And y'all are going to be criticizing. Come on, man. That's one of the things I hate about this damn world, man. Everybody's using certain opportunities. They're being opportunistic because this man's no longer here to defend himself. But you guys loved him. You love his shoes. You love everything about him, and now all of a sudden, ‘Oh yeah, I was way better.’ No, you were not. Stop with the bullsh*t. I'm serious. This is whack, man. Get the hell off the air.
"T-Mac, I'm telling you dog, listen — T-Mac was another level," Pierce said on Paul George's podcast. As terrific as McGrady was, he couldn't do it alone. In Orlando, the best players he played with were an oft-injured Grant Hill and a young Mike Miller. In Houston, he had the pleasure of playing with Chinese phenom Yao Ming. However, the 7'6" behemoth also dealt with a litany of injuries and was already out of the NBA after just eight seasons. "He needed that one other superstar. If you had to put T-Mac with KG, if you had to put T-Mac with Shaq, you know, yeah," Paul stressed. "People be like, 'Oh he played with Yao.' Yao was kind of hurt. He was in and out. And like, you put T-Mac with LeBron, man come on."
As a primary player, he never advanced past the first round. His legacy took a hit despite being elected to the Hall of Fame. He spoke about it recently in wake of LeBron James' comments about ring culture in the NBA. McGrady said he would have won titles if he were in the right situation during Friday's episode of First Take on ESPN. He used Kobe Bryant as an example. Bryant won his first three titles while playing alongside Shaquille O'Neal. "You don't think I could win a championship," McGrady said. "You don't think I could carry the Lakers to a championship?"
Jorge Sierra: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander passed all these players in playoff scoring tonight: Tracy McGrady Mychal Thompson Anthony Edwards Archie Clark Jermaine O'Neal Paul Silas Bradley Beal Sean Elliott Cedric Maxwell Kevin Love Rolando Blackman He's No. 205 all-time now.
Advertisement
Kyrie Irving is one of the most electrifying bucket-getters in the NBA, thanks not only to his scoring arsenal but also to his masterful handles. But according to Tracy McGrady, Jamaal Tinsley was on another level when it comes to handling the ball, even though he admits Irving is still a must-watch. "Man, I don't think nobody had better handles than Jamaal Tinsley, even Kyrie," McGrady said on The Young Man & the Three podcast. "I think Jamaal Tinsley's handles were probably the best I've seen. That's an argument, though. He was nice with that thing on a string."
Irving responded to T-Mac on a live stream, and while he took no issue with McGrady's opinion, he also gave his own take on what sets him apart from Tinsley: "When I see an OG like T-Mac come out and say, 'I don't think anyone had better handles than Jamaal Tinsley, even Kyrie,' it doesn't bother me because I'm a mix of all the great players that came before me. ... I wouldn't be who I am without watching the guys that came before me. I just took it to a whole different place. "When it comes to every portion of my game, I feel like I try my best to pay homage to all the great ones that came before me. So when he's talking like this, I know he's talking about one of the guys that he's seen that has better handles, but I just don't think he has the same movement. Jamaal Tinsley was not moving like me. I don't think anybody moves like me. I think we have similarities, others have similarities, and they've advanced different things."
Carmelo Anthony on Cooper Flagg: We haven't seen a white boy like that in a long f****** time
Carmelo Anthony: Ace Bailey — we've seen Ace before. That’s why it’s not talked about like that. We’ve seen Ace. We’ve seen Paul Georgee. We’ve seen Kevin Garnett. We’ve seen Tracy McGrady. We’ve seen Mellos. We’ve seen Jayson Tatum. Like, we’ve seen Ace. That’s why he’s not being talked about. That doesn’t take anything away from him, but visually we’ve seen him, right? We haven’t seen — and not to make this black and white — but we haven’t seen a white boy like that in a long f------ time. Right. That’s when you know he really good. That’s when you know Cooper Flagg really good. Like — but we haven’t seen that in a long time.
Libaan Osman: Masai Ujiri on the Toronto Raptors getting the 9th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft: “Tracy McGrady. DeMar DeRozan. Jakob Poeltl. We’ll be fine. I guarantee you we’ll be fine.”
StatMuse: Jalen Brunson has more 30-point playoff games than Clyde Drexler Patrick Ewing Julius Erving Moses Malone DeMar DeRozan Paul Pierce Jaylen Brown Magic Johnson Chauncey Billups Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Ray Allen Vince Carter Tracy McGrady Dominique Wilkins Klay Thompson pic.x.com/1o7kWPrjku
Advertisement
StatMuse: Franz Wagner in Game 3: 32 PTS 7 REB 8 AST (1 TOV) 2 STL Joins Tracy McGrady as the only player in franchise history to reach those numbers in a game.
Every player since tracking to score or assist on 25+ straight team points in the postseason: LeBron James (5 times) Tracy McGrady (2 times) Kobe Bryant Tony Parker Jason Kidd Jimmy Butler Damian Lillard Donovan Mitchell Ja Morant Jose Calderon And now... Ty Jerome! (via AutomaticNBA)
Tracy McGrady praises LeBron James' legacy but says he’d 'get crushed' one-on-one vs. other NBA players
Tracy McGrady: I think LeBron has been amazing for 22 freaking years. And he's been the best basketball player for, you know, God knows how long. But if you put him in one-on-one? I think he'll get crushed. Yeah, I think he'll get crushed — amongst guys that are actually in the NBA. And I’m sure LeBron would tell you that. Because his game is naturally built for five-on-five. He’s not a one-on-one basketball player. Kobe is a one-on-one basketball player. Kyrie is a one-on-one basketball player. James Harden — these guys are one-on-one basketball players. And LeBron can’t do anything with that." So I don’t know. I just know — we always name the big-name guys, but there are some guys out there that you don’t think about, that really can play one-on-one basketball."
Tracy McGrady: what I’m witnessing now — and by any means, this doesn’t make him the greatest player to me — but what I am witnessing with my own eyes is watching a 40-year-old man do what he’s doing on the basketball court. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in sports." "Yeah, I would say that. It is the greatest thing my eyes have seen in sports — for a 40-year-old guy to do what he’s doing at that level, and to do that consistently every single night. I don’t know how he’s doing it. I don’t know how he’s doing it. I hope it’s the right way, because that would be devastating to our sport and this league."
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement