“Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter were cousins?!”: When an internet rumor about Kobe Bryant’s best friend and the Raptors legend became a true story!

Tracy McGrady was one of the greatest scorers of all time. But did you know that he was directly related to Vince Carter?

Another day, another great story about the NBA fraternity. Sometimes players love to joke around that they are friends and brothers. They often love to talk about how the NBA player association is one giant fraternity.

Well in some cases that is true. The NBA has seen plenty of siblings lace up and hit the courts together. However, it is rare to find that some relations could go unnoticed for years.

This is the story of how Vince Carter found out that Tracy McGrady was his cousin. Yes, the legendary high-flying dunker and the scoring machine T-Mac are related!

The story starts out long before the two reached the NBA. In fact, Carter got to know that he was related to McGrady when they were playing AAU ball together!

Also read: “Rip Hamilton is the one scoring for the Wizards, not Michael Jordan”: How a 39-year-old MJ schooled an overconfident Vince Carter in the second half

 

Vince Carter shares how he found out Tracy McGrady was his cousin. (via @FadeawayWorld) https://t.co/r6eBwcTVXt

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) May 22, 2022

Vince Carter gets a call from his grandma but Tracy McGrady is on the line instead!

The story goes that Carter and T-Mac were well aware of each other as they played AAU together, they even used to see each other quite frequently including the time when McGrady came to North Carolina for pick-up games.

Carter recollects in an episode of “All The Smoke” podcast that nobody would give T-Mac his locker so he decided to share his. McGrady told him that he was going to his grandmother’s house and that he would see him next week.

Later Carter gets a call from his grandmother and on the other end of the line, someone says “What’s up cuz! It’s T-Mac man, what’s up”.

TMac & Vince Carter really found out they were cousins at a Family Reunion before they became teammates. Imagine if that happened early and VC convinced him to go to UNC

— Maliik Obee (@NFLMaliik) October 31, 2020

Vince tells the podcast that McGrady sat down with his grandmother and when they got to talking she talked about having another grandchild studying in North Carolina at the time.

As fate would have it both the players later played together for the Toronto Raptors. While individually they both had dazzling careers, both wish they would have won team honors instead.

Also read: “If the Lakers would’ve made it to the playoffs, Tracy McGrady thinks they would’ve been a problem”: Shannon Sharpe shares a clip of T-Mac saying LeBron James and the Lakers were built for the playoffs

It’s so wild that Tmac and Vince Carter are cousins. Honestly insane

— Ghost LaK (@LaKsoh) August 13, 2016