The Curse He Couldn’t Lift…

The Curse He Couldn’t Lift…

As most basketball fans already know Tracy McGrady was simply one of the most talented players to ever play the game as Kobe Bryant once described him he was a player who had all the skills and athleticism but in a 69 frame at his Peak he was averaging as high as 32

Points per game and he’s famously known for his iconic comeback over the San Antonio Spurs where he scored 13 points in only 35 seconds as talented as McGrady was his potential reached even higher but unfortunately his chronic back injuries disrupted his career and stunted his progression making him one

Of the greatest Whata ifs of basketball history with that being said we still got to witness McGrady perform at an elite level for roughly Seven Seasons straight and within that window many stories and Legacy defining moments took place that much of the basketball Community have since forgotten today

We’re tackling the story of Tracy McGrady’s career and evaluating the events that took place when his legacy was on the line when McGrady entered the league he was an 18-year-old kid straight out of high school who would take time to blossom into the Superstar we know T-Mac was only operating as a

Role player in his time in Toronto while his cousin Vince Carter was operating as the franchise player and the Talk of the Town in his last season as a member of the Raptors McGrady made the NBA Playoffs but was swept out of the first round in three games by the New York

Knicks unfortunately this early playoff exit would begin to become a theme of his career a theme that would start to build a narrative about him as a player and about his legacy in the summer of 2000 McGrady signed with the Orlando Magic putting him in a position where he

Was now able to shine as the primary Superstar of a team McGrady was now averaging around 27 points per game and was proving himself to be one of the best perimeter players in the entire league Orlando finished as a seventh seed heading into the playoffs where

They were matched up with a far more talented Milwaukee Buck Squad it’s also worth mentioning that Tracy’s sidekick Grant Hill was out for the playoffs with yet another significant injury which meant that T-Mac had to carry the team almost exclusively offensively he put up ridiculously monstrous all-around numbers throughout the series But

Ultimately it wasn’t anywhere close to enough as the Stacked bucks closed out the Magic in four games The Following season was more of the same as Grant Hill once again missed the entirety of the playoffs while Tracy had to carry an Orlando Squad that was pretty devoid of

Talent this time the magic were eliminated in four games by the Charlotte Hornets and McGrady once again put up insanely monstrous numbers he consistently wasn’t getting the help he needed and as a result this ended up being the third straight season that Tac had been eliminated out of the first

Round of the playoffs but it was in the next season where his reputation started to take some major hits from an individual standpoint McGrady’s 02 to03 season was likely the best of his career as he put up his best regular season numbers yet the thing is Tracy was still

Missing a second star as Grant Hill only played 29 games which were all in the first half of the Season Orlando finished with a 42 and 40 record which was good enough for only the e seed in the Eastern Conference and resulted in a matchup with the consistently contending

Detroit Pistons mcgr and the magic were obviously massive underdogs in this series and stunningly they roared out of the gates and managed to get a 3-1 series lead over Detroit up to this point Tracy looked like he was having one of the greatest playoff series in

NBA history as he dominated his way to these absurdly high and efficient numbers against arguably the best of defensive team of that era unfortunately the season wasn’t yet over at that point but that didn’t stop McGrady from acting like it in a controversial postgame interview McGrady confidently stated it

Feels good to get into the second round even though his magic were only up three games to one it was a classic example of Pride coming before the fall as the Pistons went on to crush the Magic in the next three game straight winning by an average of 20.3 points the series was

A tale of two McGrady as his last three games looked nothing like his first four as he was contained to extremely inefficient numbers by Detroit not only did McGrady’s postgame comment age like milk but it also started to appear like some self-induced curse as he once again

Failed to get out of the first round and the narrative was now firmly established that he was a superstar that just couldn’t advance in the playoffs what’s probably worse than getting eliminated in the first round is not making the playoffs at all which is what happened

In the 03 3 to 04 season as Orlando finished with the worst record in the Eastern Conference despite McGrady winning his second straight scoring title at this point Orlando’s management had finally accepted the fact that they were a franchise that needed a rebuild and traded McGrady to the Houston

Rockets T-Mac expressed his excitement to play with the new Star big man Yao Ming as a legitimate Superstar Duo McGrady and ya led the Rockets to a 51 and 31 record and it appeared that McGrady might finally be in a solid position to advance beyond the first

Round they were facing a solid Dallas Mavericks team whose Dirk nitzki was just reaching the prime of his career T-Mac started off solid as did his Rockets as they stormed out to a two- lead in the series The Mavericks claw their way back into it and the series

Was heading to a deciding seventh game in Dallas although T-Mac had played incredible throughout the majority of the series and had put up his usual strong postseason numbers he picked the wrong time and place to come out cold as Tracy missed his first seven shots of the seventh game Houston can never find

Their groove and the Mavericks completely demolished McGrady and the Rockets winning the deciding game by whopping 40 points at this point in history many basketball fans including myself were confused as to what to make of Tracy McGrady on one hand he appeared to be one of the greatest talents that

The game of basketball had ever seen and consistently produced tremendous postseason numbers but on the other hand for one reason or another he just couldn’t get past the first round of the playoffs as he was now 0 and five in his first round appearances in The Following

Season Houston was hit with a slew of injuries including the first major one to Tracy McGrady as it was the beginning of his devastating back injuries that would ultimately cut his career short due to this the ‘ 05 to 06 Rockets missed the playoffs entirely finishing

With only a 34 and 48 record the Rockets franchise was able to bounce back in the 06 to 07 season as Yao Ming had a breakout year asserting himself as Houston’s number one scoring option T-Mac was still a legitimate weapon but with his back issues still lingering he

Saw a significant drop in his regular season production with that being said together Yao and McGrady led the Rockets to a 52 and 30 record good enough for the fifth seed in the west playoffs prior to the start of their first round series with Utah McGrady was being

Interviewed by ESPN’s own Stephen A Smith and in the interview Stephen A didn’t waste any time acknowledging the elephant in the room Tac inability to lead his team past the first round up until this point a confident yet agitated McGrady responded with this it’s on me if we don’t get out of first

Round it’s on me wait a minute if we don’t get out of first round this it’s on me it’s pretty incredible to see such a bull statement from a superstar like McGrady it’s not often that athletes bet on themselves with such ownership and such such a sense of responsibility the

Pressure was immense and almost everyone in the basketball world was waiting to see how it unfolded through the first six games McGrady was getting his numbers but he was doing it at a high volume of shots as he wasn’t shooting the ball very efficiently at all fortunately he was actually getting help

From a solid Supporting Cast and as a result the series was tied at three games a piece heading into the seventh and deciding game the pressure for him had never been more intense than it wasn’t in this game and under these extreme circumstances McGrady produced finishing game seven with 29 Points 13

Assists five rebounds and three blocks on 48% shooting unfortunately it still wasn’t enough as Utah Stars had individual performances for the ages after this close defeat McGrady had been eliminated from the first round in all six appearances of his career a clearly emotional McGrady was trying hard to

Keep his composure in the press conference after afterwards but as soon as the questions started to come Tac simply left without answering the question saying emotionally this was beyond devastating Not only was it yet another first round defeat but McGrady’s team had a two-game series lead in 2003 2005 and 2007 and

Went on to lose each and every series the following year Houston would get a rematch with the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs but tragically Yao Ming’s season was shut down 2 months before the playoffs began due to a stress fracture in his left foot this

Meant that a short-handed McGrady had to do his best to carry the offense for the Rockets But ultimately despite a pretty solid series performance McGrady was eliminated for the seventh time from the first round as the Jazz comfortably closed it out in six games from this point on Tracy’s career wouldn’t be

About his early playoff exits but rather about his early regular season exits due to his severe back injuries over the next four seasons McGrady’s game declined to a role players level of contribution and he missed 139 regular season games and wouldn’t get another true Taste of playoff basketball

Eventually in 2013 he was signed by the San Antonio Spurs and was activated just in time for the playoffs he only saw roughly 25 total garbage time minutes in that postseason and never scored a single point as he was only a shell of what he once was but technically it did

At least allow him to play beyond the first round of the playoffs since the Spurs went all the way to the NBA finals That season before eventually being eliminated in seven games by the big 3’s Miami Heat with that he had played his final minutes of NBA basketball in only

His early 30s so as you can see T-Mac had one of the most tragic and confusing legacies that the game has ever seen although Legends like Kobe Bryant have have praised him for being the most difficult player he’s ever had to guard Tac is also the star who could in

Advance in the playoffs no matter how many opportunities he was presented with so what do you guys think was McGrady unable to advance in the playoffs simply because of all of the bad circumstances like injuries and lacking supporting casts or was there something about him as a player that kept him from getting

It done let me know your thoughts in the comment section below thanks for watching as always make sure to like And subscribe for more basketball content and I’ll see you guys in the next video

A breakdown of the roller coaster career of Tracy McGrady, and the curse that kept him from being one of the greatest ever.

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The game of Basketball has been my passion since I was 5 years old. I grew up as a kid watching my dad’s recorded VHS tapes of playoff games through the 70s and 80s, and collected all the Basketball cards. Something about the game and what it represents just hooked me from a very young age.
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