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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)
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."
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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.
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."
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Tracy McGrady is bringing back a piece of basketball history. The seven-time All-Star is reviving the legendary ABCD camp with Sonny Vaccaro, the sneaker executive and founder of the camp. McGrady, who will own 80% of the camp, and Vaccaro, who will retain the rest, spoke to Front Office Sports about the revival in recent interviews. “It was only because of Tracy McGrady that I’m doing this,” Vaccaro told FOS. “He had the most impact on what I did because he was probably the biggest underdog. He was so close to not being invited because of other people’s opinions of him.”
“Looking at the landscape of summer basketball I felt like we were getting away from traditionally how camps need to be ran,” McGrady told FOS. “You had to earn your right to be at ABCD. And nowadays it’s a lot of relationship-based, a lot is just handed to these kids instead of making them work…This property is missed from what is going on in summer AAU basketball. Had some conversations with Sonny, he agreed to that and I was just like, ‘let me take it over.’”
McGrady could have a new home as an analyst next season. He told FOS that his deal with NBC was only for one year and it’s currently unknown if he will return to the network next season. McGrady was part of NBC’s pre and post-game team with Maria Taylor, Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony, which drew mixed reviews from critics. Before joining NBC, McGrady worked as an analyst for ESPN. NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “I give ourselves a B+,” McGrady said of the group’s performance. “And we have a lot of room to improve. I only did a one-year deal, so we’ll see how that goes moving forward. But I would love to be back with the camp.”
Tracy: “If you have a center like Zack Edey, who is slow-footed on the defensive side of the ball, you need your power forward to be able to cover some ground for him defensively. I think you could have two guys in your front court that are slow-footed, can't really cover that much ground. So, when you're playing a team like OKC or San Antonio, who can spread you out with shooters. They can't cover that ground.” Vince: “You need more of an athletic big for that pick. So, Caleb Wilson fits that mold a little better than that one.” Tracy: “That's what I feel. I don't think it's a bad pick because of the player. I don't think he fits what they already have there. I would love to see a more athletic, long, lanky type guy that can stretch the floor and cover Zack Edey on the defensive end.”