Tracy McGrady‘s career is probably the NBA’s greatest What-ifs after the turn of the century. The talented forward captured the attention of the NBA community with his Herculean potential before a devastating knee injury curtailed what promised to be an All-Time career. Shaquille O’Neal recently highlighted an incredible stat that illustrated McGrady’s dominance in the NBA in his prime.
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Kobe Bryant was another NBA great who never hesitated to underline McGrady’s talent as a peer in the league. Bryant has even admitted that the former Magic star is the toughest opponent that he ever faced. McGrady’s savvy skill set mixed with his underrated athleticism really bothered the Lakers legend, which prompted him to work even harder on his craft.
Shaquille O’Neal recently shared a fan page named sports_kingdom97’s post on Instagram, that highlighted just how much ahead of his competition McGrady was in his prime. The caption of the graphic shared on Shaq’s stories read, “In his prime from 2000-2005, Tracy McGrady scored and averaged more points than Kobe, Shaq, Dirk [Nowitzki], [Paul] Pierce, KG [Kevin Garnett] and [Tim] Duncan. [Allen] Iverson is the only player to score and average more during that 5-year span.”
McGrady joined the Orlando Magic in 2000 after spending his first few years in the league with the Toronto Raptors. It was at this juncture that his career took off. The 6ft 8″ star soon became the Magic’s biggest star in the post-Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway era, averaging all-time numbers till his departure from the franchise in 2004.
As per ESPN, McGrady averaged 26.8, 25.6, 32.1, and 28 points in his four years playing for the Magic. The seven-time All-Star continued his MVP-caliber numbers after joining the Houston Rockets in 2004. In the 2004-05 season, he averaged 25.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists. As the above mentioned graphic pointed out, nobody except Allen Iverson was putting up those kind of number during those five years, not even the likes of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. And I think it’s safe to say, McGrady could have given the 2001 NBA MVP a run for his money in the near future, if he didn’t have to deal with lingering injuries.
Tracy McGrady earned the respect of his peers in a very competitive era of basketball
The 2000s were pretty productive in terms of producing world class basketball talent. Shaq and Kobe welcomed the new century in the NBA by winning the first three-peat since the Bulls’ 90s’ feat. The period also saw the rise of the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics’ Big Four, the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers, and the San Antonio Spurs’ dynasty.
Dominating the court in that period against generational stars like LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki was as tough as it could get. However, McGrady never had any issues standing out in the crowd. Even though his career couldn’t go along the trajectory it deserved, T-Mac managed to earn a seat among the greats, especially after being honored as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.
While McGrady’s career will always be a ‘What-if’ story for posterity, his body of work in the league is no joke. In other words, Shaq did a good job of reminding fans that just how much T-Mac did prove on the hardwood.
