In the NBA, teams only perform at their best when the entire roster shares a clear understanding of what the group is trying to achieve. It’s not just about running the right plays or locking in defensively; the emotional chemistry and trust matter just as much. When that trust breaks, things can spiral so quickly that a locker room once built on unity suddenly feels split into different islands.<\/p>\n
According to\u00a0Tracy McGrady<\/a>, that is exactly what happened to the 2010-11 Detroit Pistons when the team had unanimously decided to boycott their head coach.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n T-Mac on how the Pistons wanted to boycott their head coach<\/p>\n The frustration had been building against coach John Kuester for quite some time. Detroit managed to register just 27 wins in the 2009-10 campaign and was constantly among the bottom five or six teams in the 2010-11 season. Eventually, that tension boiled over.<\/p>\n The entire team decided to skip the shootaround one day as a unified protest, hoping that the act would spark a coaching change. McGrady admitted that, despite joining the Pistons only that summer and not being fully aware of how deep the frustration ran, he went along with the plan because he didn’t want to stand alone against the players.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “‘Hey man, it’s a boycott. Dude got to go. We don’t want him around. We don’t want to play for him.’ So, we had a trip come to Philly, right? Mind you, we’ve had talks. Hey, we ain’t going to shoot around. Young players talking with us, ‘Alright, everybody’s in. We’re not going to shoot around,'”\u00a0McGrady\u00a0recalled<\/a>\u00a0on his podcast.<\/p>\n “The next day come. Shoot around. Mind you – it’s team – the young players and vets, we all agree. I’m new to the team – they doing it, I’m doing it,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n Related: Larry Nance Jr. reveals NBA players are more focused on investments than ever: “We talk about it on the plane, on the bus or in the locker room”<\/a><\/p>\n McGrady and the vets were backstabbed<\/p>\n However, the moment things truly went haywire was when the veterans learned that the younger players had quietly abandoned the boycott and attended the shootaround anyway. Feeling betrayed and wanting to make a point, the vets chose not to play in the next game.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Instead, they allowed the younger players to log all the minutes, providing no support on the floor – sending a straight-up message that loyalty and respecting decisions made as a group was a non-negotiable.<\/p>\n “Let me check and see where my vets at? Making my calls around.\u00a0‘Hey, man where you at, bro?’\u00a0(A vet said), ‘S\u2013t I’m in the room.’\u00a0Bet. ‘Hey, dog. Where you at?’\u00a0(Another vet said), ‘Hey, man. I’m in the room.’\u00a0So, my vets? They hold tight,”\u00a0McGrady continued.\u00a0“So, we get to the game, Q said, ‘All the guys that was at shoot around… Y’all all playing all the minutes tonight.'”<\/p>\n The impact of that internal split showed on paper as well. The Pistons finished that season with just 30 wins, missing out on the playoffs altogether, and in fact, they were the third-worst defensive franchise in the league. And McGrady was out of the team the very next campaign.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Related: Shane Battier reveals the one player he had no answer for defensively: “He just shot over me like I wasn’t there”<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Apr 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n