"He f—ked the game up" - Carmelo Anthony says Tracy McGrady's 51 points against Denver in 2003 was his "Welcome to the league" moment

“He f—ked the game up” – Carmelo Anthony says Tracy McGrady’s 51 points against Denver in 2003 was his “Welcome to the league” moment originally appeared on Basketball Network.

Carmelo Anthony still remembers seeing a dominant Tracy McGrady when Melo entered the league in 2003.

Carmelo recalled that it was only his fifth game as a pro with the Denver Nuggets at the time when T-Mac unloaded a game-high 51 points. He admits it was the first time he had seen a player finish with 50+ points up close.

Worse, he couldn’t do anything because containing Tracy was the responsibility of his shooting guard teammate.

“He f—ked the game up cuz he was the two (shooting guard). So no matter if you wanted to guard him or not, you wasn’t going to guard him because you had shooting guards on your team… That 50 was deadly,” Anthony said on the “7PM in Brooklyn podcast.”

“It’s a little bit of a welcome to the league moment,” he added.

Recalling that game, McGrady made 20 of his 30 field goal attempts and converted 8 of his 11 three-point shots. Aside from that, he also hauled down six rebounds and five assists.

It was a huge effort on Tracy’s part, which was a must since the Orlando Magic lacked players who could contribute offensively. Despite McGrady’s huge effort, Orlando still lost that game, 101-106.

Melo just wanted to be part of the narrative

Being a rookie, Anthony was still learning the ropes and getting used to the professional brand of basketball. He finished with 17 points in that win over the Magic, providing ample scoring support to Andre Miller and Earl Boykins, who finished with 27 markers each.

Carmelo explained that all he was thinking about in that game was to help the team in whatever way he could. In all, he just wanted everyone to see that he was doing his part to help the Nuggets win games.

“My thing was, I just wanted to be like, I wanted to make sure I did something that somebody could say anything and yeah, ‘Melo did this in this game.’ Like make me part of the narrative,” Anthony said.

Anthony believes T-Mac deserved better

There is no question that McGrady was one of the potent scorers the league has ever had.

After getting the break to start for the Magic in 2000, T-Mac didn’t waste time and showed that he was a lethal scoring machine. In the four seasons spent in Orlando, McGrady averaged 28.1 points per game on 44.6 percent shooting from the field and 36.1 percent from the three-point region.

In Anthony’s book, McGrady should be among the names mentioned when the greatest players of all time are talked about. With his incredible skill set, athleticism and offensive firepower, Melo feels Tracy is not getting the credit he truly deserves.

“For me, he was one of my favorites, but he was one of the most underrated players of all time,” Anthony batted.

McGrady undeniably unleashed his true offensive self after years of not being able to do so with the Toronto Raptors. He immediately rose to stardom with the Magic and never looked back after that.

Unfortunately for T-Mac, the wear and tear of the game took its toll on him. Injuries to his back, shoulders and knees forced him to miss games and the 2001 Most Improved Player was never able to recall his old deadly form.

There is no doubt that McGrady was one of the exciting players to watch each time he took the floor. His contributions to the game may have been overlooked, but it remains that T-Mac was arguably one of the most talented players the NBA ever had.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 20, 2025, where it first appeared.

“He f—ked the game up” – Carmelo Anthony says Tracy McGrady’s 51 points against Denver in 2003 was his “Welcome to the league” moment

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