Kobe Bryant was impressed while watching Tracy McGrady perform for the Magic during the 2001 playoffs.
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During his career, Kobe Bryant played against several great players. However, there were only a few who could match the talent and intensity that The Black Mamba played the game with. One of those players who actually gave the Lakers legend a run for his money was Tracy McGrady.
T-Mac was one of the most explosive and gifted scorers in the league during his playing days. Despite sustaining several injuries throughout the course of his career, McGrady retired as a 7-time All-Star, 7 All-NBA player, 2 Scoring titles, got inducted into the Hall-Of-Fame, and was the “toughest player” Kobe ever played against.
After his retirement, Kobe named Tracy as the “toughest guy” Bryant ever played against.
“Toughest guy I ever played against. So I mean there’s a lot of guys but the guy that always gave me the most problems actually was Tracy McGrady.
Yeah yeah, something about Tracy McGrady with his, you know, he had all the skills and all the athleticism but he was 6-9 and he was really really tight to figure out.”
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The moment Kobe Bryant realized that Tracy McGrady was the ‘real deal’
Even though injuries cut short a pretty terrific career, T-Mac had some pretty unreal campaigns. In his prime with the Magic, the swingman averaged a staggering 28.1/7/5.2 per game. During this same period, McGrady was selected to 4 All-Star Games and 4 All-NBA teams, won a MIP award and even clinched two scoring titles.
However, one specific playoff game was the moment when The Black Mamba learned that Tracy was the “real deal”.
In a must-see interview with Tracy McGrady and Rachel Nichols, Bean revealed:
“So when he went to Orlando, and we were trying to win our championships in LA, so I absolutely buried myself. Even more so, in the craft and literally cut everybody out of my life and just focused on that. But I remember in that playoffs, you guys were playing the Milwaukee Bucks one year and me and Vanessa went out for lunch and went to a restaurant and they had TVs in the restaurant.
I remember sitting there and watching, I mean you just cooking, I mean, calling them a ‘puppy dog’. And I remember sitting in the restaurant watching the television and I said ‘man, that dude’s the real deal. He’s made it’.
When we started out, like as young as together, I remember feeling like such a sense of joy because of what he was doing. So even though I’ve never told him, there is a sense of pride.”
Kobe is most probably talking about Tracy’s Game 3 performance against the Bucks in the 2001 playoffs. In a do-or-die game, the prolific scorer ended up recording a 42/10/8 near triple-double.
Truly, that display was one of the best games of the Hall-Of-Famer’s short-lived career.
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