Tracy McGrady admits winning a title with the Spurs wouldn’t make him satisfied: “As a competitor, you want to be a part of the journey” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady never won an NBA title during his 15-year NBA career. He came close, though, in 2013 when he was a member of the San Antonio Spurs team that lost to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
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That Spurs team was on the verge of winning the 2013 NBA title, but Ray Allen’s iconic corner 3-pointer in Game 6 saved the Heat’s season. Miami clinched the title in Game 7, but even if Allen did not hit that triple or if the Spurs won in Game 7, McGrady said that winning a ring that year wouldn’t have filled the void he had as a competitor.
T-Mac played for the Spurs’ 2013 playoff team
A 33-year-old McGrady played in China during the 2012-13 season. After averaging 25.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.6 steals per game for the Qingdao Double Star Eagles in the CBA, T-Mac flew back to the United States to sign with the Spurs just in time to meet the deadline to make the playoff roster.
McGrady went scoreless and averaged 5.2 minutes per game in six playoff games played. In the NBA Finals, he played in Games 2 and 3, which were blowout games, logging in a total of 14 minutes while going scoreless with a mere three field goal attempts, pulling down four total rebounds, and issuing five assists.
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“I see a lot of people saying they wish I got that ring, but you know, as a competitor, you want to go through it. You want to be a part of the journey. Cuz that’s the fulfilling part. I want to be a part of the journey and going through the ups and downs of a season trying to figure out, and then when we do figure it out, we’re not looking back, when you get that cohesiveness and that form, that chemistry, it’s a beautiful thing,” said McGrady.
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The 2007-08 Rockets were the best team Mac played on
The team that did that best in McGrady’s eyes was the 2007-08 Houston Rockets, who went 55-27 in Rick Adelman’s first season as head coach. They started the season 24-20 before going on a spectacular 22-game winning streak. What made the feat more impressive was that 7’6″ superstar Yao Ming broke his foot after the Rockets won 12 in a row. They would win 10 more games before finally losing to the Boston Celtics.
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“That was a really good team. Now, had we had Yao that year, it would have been different, but the cohesiveness that we had with that group, oh my gosh. It was Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, Luis Scola, Dikembe Mutombo, Rafer Alston, like that was a really, really good bunch of guys. And we knew what it took to win. We go out there and do our jobs. But losing Yao really hurt us that season, though,” Tracy added.
Without Yao, the Rockets were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs 4-2 by the Utah Jazz. McGrady averaged 27.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game in the series, but not even Mac’s 40 points in Game 6 could stave off elimination. Considering they lost Games 2 and 4 by a combined margin of 10 points, there’s no doubt Yao would have made a big difference not only in that series but during their entire postseason run.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.