After tonight, Tracy McGrady will officially be an NBA Hall of Famer. The seven-time all-star will be enshrined Friday, headlining a group that includes WNBA legend Rebecca Lobo, long-time Kansas coach Bill Self, Indiana Pacers all-time great George McGinnis, and former Harlem Globetrotter Mannie Jackson, the first African-American owner in sports.
McGrady enjoyed his best years in the NBA as a member of the Orlando Magic, where he won back-to-back scoring titles in 2003 and ’04 and holds the franchise record for most points in a game (62) and the Houston Rockets, where he teamed up with 2016 inductee Yao Ming to reach the playoffs five times.
He’s also one of the first and most successful players of his generation to make the leap from high school to the NBA, drafted ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors in 1997. McGrady only spent three seasons in Toronto, between the ages of 18-20, and while his tenure north of the border saw plenty of team success, including the Raptors’ first playoff appearances in the franchise’s brief history, it wasn’t until he signed a free agent deal with Orlando free of cousin Vince Carter’s shadow that McGrady’s game truly blossomed.
What tends to get lost in that narrative, however, is what McGrady showed while donning a Raptors uniform. Of course, his killer performance competing against (and passing to) Carter at the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest has hardly been forgotten. But for many fans, particularly the younger generation who came of age during the DeMar DeRozan/Kyle Lowry/”We the North” era, let’s not forget just how electric he was in his earliest years in the NBA.
The NBA released a career mixtape for McGrady ahead of tonight’s induction and, simply put, it’s jaw-dropping. But I invite you to take a moment to appreciate the first two minutes of the video below, in which McGrady’s Raptor days are featured, and marvel at one of the more exciting young players to ever play in Toronto:
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony begins at 7:30 PM ET and can be seen on NBATV.
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