Tracy McGrady, an elite-level scorer who had to retire without winning a ring, controversially stated earlier this year that he would have won the same number of championships as Kobe Bryant if he had been Shaquille O’Neal’s No. 2 on the Los Angeles Lakers. Maybe he was being genuine, but the comment came off as disrespectful to many. And Shaq agreeing with him did not help.
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“I think I could have gotten three in a row with T-Mac,” was what Shaq had said. Samaki Walker, his former Lakers teammate, disagreed and questioned whether McGrady would have fit in with that roster.
Walker played with Shaq for two seasons and won the 2001/02 NBA championship alongside the big man and Bryant, so he knows what it took for them to get over the line. He didn’t take a dig at McGrady’s brilliance and even praised him highly. In Walker’s eyes, though, basketball wasn’t just about scoring. Kobe brought something extra that was needed to win.
“I’m calling Cap. Let me tell you something. I love T-Mac. T-Mac is one of my favorite players, and I watched him. In fact, he was as talented, and potentially even more talented, as Kobe from a pure talent standpoint,” said the 49-year-old on the Coach JB Show. “But when you talk about basketball players, it’s how you play the game. It ain’t just scoring.
“It was what Kobe did off the court to prepare mentally,” he added, before launching into a passionate rant about what Mamba Mentality meant to the Lakers. Bryant was not just a talented scorer but a man on a mission to drive himself to greatness. Walker used that backstory to pose a very important question about the T-Mac hypothetical.
“Would T-Mac challenge Shaq the way he (Kobe) did?” he asked. “We talking mentality now. Would that happen? I doubt it. Kobe had the mentality to bring the best out of the Diesel and carry that, and wasn’t willing to be confrontational with nobody. It wasn’t about being boys with Kobe. And that’s what makes success.”
Walker was never a name that dominated during his time in the league. Nor does he have any chef skills on his résumé. But he was cooking here. People will only look at Kobe’s stats to make their argument. The truth is, if these guys had wanted to win as badly as he did, they would have.
McGrady didn’t want to disrespect Kobe
The internet, as it often does, blew T-Mac’s words into a much bigger deal than they actually were. As noted, the term “disrespect” came up several times, not just from analysts but from players as well.
McGrady was not about to have any of that on his conscience. The Hall of Famer spoke with Timeless Sports and did his best to cement his love for Kobe.
“To go back to those comments, I never should have said replaced. I think replacing Kobe, I don’t want to say I’d be replacing Kobe,” he stated. “Everybody knows Kobe’s my man. Kobe’s my brother, bro. There’s no way in hell I would ever disrespect my brother like that.”
At the end of the day, there’s no real way to argue whether McGrady would or wouldn’t have won a ring with Shaq. We’ll never know. Some can fantasize all they want, but the truth is right in front of us.
T-Mac was one of the best guards the game has ever seen. A top-tier talent with a handful of big moments. Do those moments match what Kobe did for the Lakers? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean McGrady doesn’t deserve recognition.
