Tracy McGrady Rumors
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Tracy McGrady
Position: -
Born: 05/24/79
Height: 6-8 / 2.03
Weight:210 lbs. / 95.3 kg.
Earnings: $163,057,818 ($212,641,828*)
Born: 05/24/79
Height: 6-8 / 2.03
Weight:210 lbs. / 95.3 kg.
Earnings: $163,057,818 ($212,641,828*)
Yet even he couldn’t help but find himself in awe of Kobe Bryant’s aura during his early years in the league. He explained just how captivating the late Lakers legend was whenever he was on the court to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on Thursday’s episode of the “All The Smoke” podcast. “To be around Kobe at 19 years old, bro, you would’ve thought Kobe had been here before and been around the greats of the game because his mindset was so different than I’ve ever experienced and ever seen in anybody at 19 years old … This man really, truly thought he was better than Michael Jordan.”
Just how far could Carter and McGrady have gone in the postseason if T-Mac decided to stay in Toronto instead of signing with the Magic in 2000? In the eyes of McGrady, the Raptors would have been competing with Kobe and the Lakers for a league title. “We would’ve played for a championship,” McGrady said of the Raptors team he played on. “We would’ve faced the Lakers if I would’ve stayed, there’s no doubt about that, but, there was so much stuff going on in Toronto with the organization. There was no way I could’ve stayed.”
It’s safe to say the Chicago Bulls’ rebuilding efforts after the second retirement of Michael Jordan didn’t go very well, but it reportedly wasn’t for lack of ambition. According to NBA veteran Jamal Crawford, who was drafted by the Bulls eighth overall two years after Jordan left the team, general manager Jerry Krause plan to launch the team back into title contention was simple. Sign Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill.
Crawford’s retelling of the plan: My first year and second year, we’re the youngest team in the league, right? And the fans knew, like, “OK, it’s going to be a rebuilding year.” But my rookie year, Jerry thought he was going to get Grant Hill, Tim Duncan and T-Mac. So, obviously, MJ just retired, right? We have all this cap space, and so we have all these rookies. And he was like — go back and look, I guarantee Grant, Tim and T-Mac were all free agents. And Jerry wholeheartedly believed we would get all three of them. Even if we get two of them at the time, boom.
Corey Benjamin: “I had Arn Tellem as an agent and Arn represented a lot of star players. The Bulls were trying to sign free agents. I hosted Tracy McGrady, Tim Thomas and Jermaine O’Neal when we brought them in. I was there personally for those [meetings] because we were all represented by the same agent (Arn). I remember Jerry Krause told me, ‘If you can get them to sign, I’ll renew your contract.’ I don’t remember Tim Duncan coming in, but I know we wanted Duncan. But we weren’t offering them the money that other teams were offering. I remember Tracy and Jermaine telling me, ‘They’re offering me peanuts.’ They weren’t trying to max these guys out; they were trying to give these guys smaller contracts.”
