One of the most talented players in the NBA during the first decade of this century was Tracy McGrady. The shooting guard shined in the league between 1997 and 2013, having his best years with the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets. Now retired, T-Mac chose his favorite player.
“I’ve seen MJ, I’ve seen LeBron, I’ve seen Kobe. I’m going to say the best basketball player I ever seen with my own eyes, in person, is Michael Jordan. To me, that’s my GOAT,” McGrady said in a video shared by Hoop Heroes in 2024. “In my eyes, what I’ve seen, best basketball player is Michael Jordan.”
However, the Orlando Magic legend made a clarification. “As I get older, I understand this question more and more. When I was younger and ignorant, I would say MJ all day. ‘MJ, MJ, no way, nobody is better than MJ,’” he explained. “We can’t just sit here and say one guy is the GOAT. We can’t do it cause they played in different eras, the rules are different, the players are different.”
And immediately, McGrady mentioned the players who dominated their respective eras in the NBA. “LeBron James, in his era, I haven’t seen anybody better than him. He is the GOAT in today’s era. And in Kobe’s era, Kobe was the GOAT,” considered the seven-time All-Star. “You dominated your era, which MJ did, Kobe did, LeBron… individually dominated, not as a team, individually dominated.”
McGrady’s take on Michael Jordan
In another interview that McGrady himself shared on his Instagram account, he was asked about an opinion from a user on X who said: “The legend of Michael Jordan is greater than Michael Jordan himself.” The former guard’s reaction was brutally honest: “Get the (expletive) out of here. This gotta be like these Gen-Z people saying that. There’s no way in hell, you didn’t see Michael Jordan play.”
And immediately, McGrady took aim at Jordan’s critics. “Stop talking about who he played against. Please, we gotta stop that, ‘Oh, he was out there playing with plumbers,’” he asserted. “The guy is not 6’9, 270 built like LeBron playing against these guys. Michael Jordan is 6’6, 210, dominating. He’s not a freak of nature. So why does it matter who he’s out there competing against? That shouldn’t matter.”
Finally, McGrady elaborated on Michael Jordan: “He’s just better than anybody else, just admit it. You go watch and you study his game… he was incredible. It’s nothing like I’ve even seen. And this is me, I’ve seen the greats of the greats. So what people are saying, what I’m saying, oh yes, it’s true: He was that great.”
T-Mac praises Kobe Bryant
Tracy McGrady has always talked about the importance of one-on-one in basketball. Asked about the greatest player in that category in an interview with HoopsHype in 2022, he had no doubts. “I could go with a handful of guys that are great one-on-one players. Baron Davis. Cuttino Mobley. Lou Williams. Jamal Crawford. These are one-on-one certified killers. Allen Iverson. That’s what these guys do.”
However, McGrady singled out one star above all others: “Kobe is definitely at the top of that list.” And asked what a matchup between him and Bryant would be like at their peaks, Tracy was candid: “I think it would go back and forth. I think it won’t be a lopsided competition. He’d win some, and I’d win some.”
NBA stars talk about Tracy McGrady
His 15-plus years in the NBA earned McGrady the respect and admiration of some of the league’s top stars. “T-Mac wanted to be great, he wanted to dominate and he wanted to be the king on the court. Young, athletic, wanting to just destroy people. That’s what it was,” Vince Carter said.
“The guy that always gave me the most problems actually was Tracy McGrady. He had all the skills and all the athleticism, but he was 6’9. And he was really really tough to figure out,” Kobe Bryant said. “He was a guy at 6’9 moving as he was 6’3. Can literally do anything, we can turn left shoulder, can turn right shoulder, he can score from the post, he can score from the perimeter, he could facilitate, he could defend. When you have that combination, is extremely dangerous.”
Shaquille O’Neal, during a conversation on TNT, told McGrady: “I appreciate you, you know I love you. It’s unfortunate that you have to fall in that (expletive) category that you don’t have a championship. Whatever. I always thought you were one of the great players.” And Kevin Garnett, on his own podcast in 2023, also praised him: “I gotta say bro, at least in my time, you were probably one of the hardest guards to guard… You don’t get enough credit for your handle, you don’t get enough credit for your quick moves.”
Tracy McGrady’s career
McGrady began his NBA journey after being selected with the ninth overall pick in the 1997 Draft by the Toronto Raptors. After three years there, he left as a free agent for the Orlando Magic, where he established himself as one of the league’s top stars. There, McGrady won his first All-Star selections (he would eventually make seven in a row) and was the scoring champion in 2003 and 2004.
Between 2004 and 2010, McGrady shined with the Houston Rockets and then had brief stints with the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, and Atlanta Hawks. After a brief stint with the Qingdao Eagles of China, McGrady finished his career with the San Antonio Spurs, with whom he played in his only NBA Finals in 2013 against the Miami Heat, which ended in a Game 7 loss. In 2017, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.