[First Take] Tracy McGrady: “Réplace me with Kobe with Shaq. I don’t win a championship? You don’t think I can carry the Lakers to a championship? Like, I never had the opportunity.”

41 comments

  1. I know he was impacted by injuries, but…

    Didn’t he only make it out of the first round once?

  4. Has anyone ever lost a hypothetical scenario 😂 it’s un fuckin believable there’s still ex athletes talking about what they woulda done with x y or z like yeah we know man 🙄

  6. The better way to word this is “could shaq carry tmac to a championship?”

    Yeah, they’d get at least one.

  8. The only thing worse than ring culture is “If, Then” culture of using hypotheticals to downplay greatness. Kobe and Shaq DID it. And that means a million times more than what a man COULD do. Tmac should be proud of what he’s accomplished. He doesn’t have to play hypotheticals for people to appreciate his efforts. He’s in the hall of fame.

  9. The whole FT episode was annoying af. Why does everyone have to shout. And Molly has that annoying high pitched low voice that’s trying not to get drowned out by the guys yelling over each other

  13. Holy, first Wade and now Tracy what is going on with these guys. Kobe content is booming this week

  15. T Mac was a beast but he wasn’t anywhere near the defender Kobe was. He also couldn’t be relied on to stay healthy, so the “what if” needs to take that into account.

  16. Dude had healthy Yao Ming in 2005 and 2007, lost both game 7 in first round. He’s just not the guy.

  18. Houston???????????????????????????????? Houston wasn’t an opportunity. He last year there they went on a 21 game winning streak and won in the first round without Mac. I love Mac he’s a top level
    Player but hearing the excuses is crazy

  19. You can be considered great at your sport if you never won a championship,but you can’t be considered the greatest.

  20. Well if he had stayed in Toronto he and VC would’ve won at least one Eastern Conf championship and then he’d play against Kobe and Shaq and we’d find out what’s what.

  23. You had the opportunity but decided to leave because you didn’t want to play second fiddle to Vince 😢

  24. lol wasn’t he up 3-1 in a playoff series on the eventual champions one year?

  25. I mean, let’s not pretend Yao, Ron Artest, Battier, Alston were scrubs

  26. I love TMac, but he ain’t going to 3 other Finals (winning 2 of them) with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

  28. If u on prime Shaq’s team, he carrying you, not the other way around

  30. I get what you’re saying, T-Mac. But after Shaq, Kobe took his team to 3 more finals and won 2 more. Not the same level.

  31. I hate when people think you can just plug players together and it equals a ring. Mac was great but we’ve never seen Mac in a high pressure basketball game in his while career. you could easily see Mac going 5/20 in a do or die game 7. Most great players who don’t have rings are chokers or they ran into MJ or Russell.

  32. He spent his whole time in Orlando complaining that he didn’t have enough help, threw his teammates under the bus, nothing was ever his fault. He still won’t stop talking about it, I guess. Always this same tired “I never had help” story, meanwhile he didn’t take care of his body at all and ruined his time in Houston, where he had plenty of help but still had little postseason success. But I’m sure that was someone else’s fault, too.

    His circumstances in Orlando were very tough, admittedly. Everyone knew, we all had eyes. Im sure he was frustrated. But you know what? Grant Hill had a much worse time, and he even almost died from a staph infection at the time, and he wasn’t complaining at reporters on a whim. Have some professionalism.

    Playing for a small market covers up a lot of sins. His blame rarely reached national media and usually only stayed local. I never hear stories about McGrady being a good teammate. He’s always talking about himself.

    Great player and all, I just got so tired of him off the court, and his last season in Orlando was so miserable. He punted the ball into the crowd a couple times. He bitched about the new zone defense because he couldn’t figure out how to beat it. His efficiency took a nose dive, but, believe it or not, he diverted the blame elsewhere! I don’t directly blame McGrady for the on court issues the team had, but the way he dealt with the issue was so toxic.

    And years after his retirement, he’s still on this fucking narrative, and he doesn’t even realize he’s dogging all the guys who went to battle with him through his career. All the guys that, to Tracy, just weren’t good enough. Meanwhile, he had prime Yao Ming and a very willing front office

  34. Bitter hall of very good players don’t make good analysts/commentators

    You never see Chuck talking about how he could have won if this or that and he has a better resume.

  35. Kobe did it with 2 completely different groups, multiple times each. Thats the difference e

  37. They are saying this but then would turn around and shit on James Harden every chance they get

  38. I think it’s sad to use the Kobe with Shaq comparison. How about you compare yourself to the Kobe that had 2 more chips and 3 total appearances after that.

  40. You had Yao.

    TMac was great, but folded a bit under pressure and was never the leader Kobe was.

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