Following his first NBA Finals appearance of his career in 2013, former NBA superstar Tracy McGrady retired from the NBA and took up minor league baseball briefly. With that short career over and that hunger satiated, feelings about McGrady wanting to still play in the NBA still linger. He's been an All-Star, an All-NBA player, a superstar, one of the most marketable players of his era, and an MVP candidate. He was one of the most talented offensive players to ever lace up his sneakers.
McGrady is just 35 years old, but hasn't played much in the past few years due to various knee and back ailments that come from a professional basketball career that was tough on his body. And yet, T-Mac believes he can still play in the NBA. In an excellent long-form piece on Bleacher Report by Les Carpenter, McGrady says he can still play but doesn't want restrictions on the type of player he's allowed to be. He also says he'd love to play next to Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers as their second star.
"The thing is, I can still go, man," T-Mac says. He is driving from lunch to his daughter Layla's junior high school volleyball game, but the workout is still on his mind.
"My body is still in shape. I can go. It's about opportunity, though. … I want no limits on who I am and what I can do, not stand in the corner and shoot jump shots," he says. "I want to be involved, that's not saying 10 to 15 shots, I want to be involved. I don't want to stand in the corner and shoot threes. That's not me."
The ideal team, T-Mac says, would be the Lakers. The Lakers are inexperienced. The Lakers need players. He could be the second star the Lakers must have to go with Bryant.
"This Kobe," he says. "I could play with him."
If only T-Mac could find a team that agrees with him. Even Williams, who fondly remembers the back-to-back NBA scoring titles McGrady had for his Magic a decade ago, sighs softly when asked about the comeback.
"Tracy has milked every bit of basketball talent out of his body," Williams says. "There's nothing left."
It's hard to let go of the idea that our favorite stars can still play in the NBA when their careers have all but passed on. Plenty of fans still want to see guys like McGrady and Allen Iverson make a comeback in the NBA so we can relive how good the players are or have memories of what they used to be right before our eyes. It's tough to come to the realization that our stars of the past can't be stars anymore and that coming back would be a fruitless venture for fans on most occasions.
And yet, the idea of McGrady teaming up with Kobe on a hapless Lakers team that has to 1) protect their top 5 protected pick owed to Phoenix and 2) set Kobe up to keep attacking the all-time scoring list as he's close to passing Michael Jordan for third all-time doesn't seem terrible. Assuming McGrady could be a "second star" in the NBA today is a tough sell. His body and conditioning haven't let him be that for at least six years.
McGrady's conditioning after being away for a year-plus could be detrimental to his body and the ability to stave off injuries. What would the Lakers have to lose though? Either McGrady bumps their Q rating a bit and helps generate more interest on the court for a team that has become a punch line in the NBA or he fizzles out shortly and the Lakers just go back to Wes Johnson and Nick Young as the wings next to Kobe.
