Grant Hill talks about the Big Three that never happened in Orlando: "That could have been real" - NBA

The summer of 2000 was a scorching one across both American coasts. By late summer, temperatures were routinely shattering the 100 mark. In early September, historical maximums were recorded: Houston hit 109, Dallas reached 111 and Austin and College Station climbed to a blistering 112.

All that heat seemingly bled into the NBA offseason, where the San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic were weighing a landscape-shifting move: Tim Duncan potentially trading Texas for Florida to form a “Big 3” with Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady.

While T-Mac was the only one officially on the roster at the time, a grand plan was brewing behind the scenes that would have nuked the NBA market and turned Orlando into an instant contender. Hill recently recalled just how close the deal came to crossing the finish line.

“That summer was crazy. And, there was a chance where Tracy, myself and Tim Duncan were all going to play together. And Tim and I, we made our visit to Orlando together. We had the same agent at the time and we both came down. And it felt like Tim was, actually, it felt like Tim was more on board than I was on the trip. And for me, I was on crutches, which made it a little bit difficult to kind of maneuver and get around,” Hill said on the “Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady” podcast.

“And I still had, like, Chicago, I had the Nets, I had San Antonio, the Heat. Like, I had other teams I was talking to. Some of them didn’t really have cap space, but when we left for Orlando, I felt like Tim was all in. And then, I also had heard that Tracy was coming down, Tracy was from there. And so the possibility at that time was like, man, like, T-Mac, myself, Tim… that was real. That could have been real,” he added.

Beginning of the end for Hil

Hill was coming off his sixth and finest season with the Detroit Pistons, averaging 25.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 1.4 steals on 48.9 percent shooting. He had no clue that season would actually be the beginning of the end.

A nagging ankle injury had worsened to the point of putting him on crutches, and from then on, he became a shadow of the player many once predicted would be mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan.

On the other side, Duncan, fresh off a 1999 title, had missed the entire 2000 playoffs with a meniscus injury, leading to a first-round exit for the Spurs. He was seriously considering the jump to Florida, but a bizarre coaching decision killed the dream.

Policy-driven blunder

Doc Rivers, then a rising coach after a stellar playing career, was all for adding Duncan but refused a specific condition: Duncan wanted his family to be able to fly on the team plane. It’s a policy-driven blunder that McGrady still finds baffling.

“I’m like, this man has won a championship. He’s arguably one of the best power forwards in the game and this is three years removed from college,” McGrady said. “You give him what he wants, all out, 100 percent. You’re supposed to give that man whatever he wants.”

The deal collapsed. Timmy stayed in San Antonio and went on to win four more rings, while T-Mac’s dominant years in Orlando felt incomplete. Hill, ravaged by injuries, managed only about 200 games over the next six seasons in Orlando and never recaptured his early-career magic.

History has shown us plenty of times that superteams don’t always work on paper without chemistry, but it’s impossible not to imagine this trio of basketball masterminds sharing the court.

Even with the injuries, they likely would have hoisted at least one Larry O’Brien trophy together.

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on May 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Grant Hill talks about the Big Three that never happened in Orlando: “That could have been real”

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