- Tracy McGrady revealed he intentionally blew his pre-draft workout with the Celtics because Rick Pitino was their head coach
- McGrady didn’t want to play for Pitino because he was too tough
- The Celtics would twice pass on McGrady in the 1997 NBA Draft
After dominating the 1980s along with the Showtime Lakers, the Boston Celtics struggled in the 1990s. A chance to turn things around though came in the 1997 NBA Draft, where they held the third and the sixth pick.
One of the players they had an eye on was Tracy McGrady but it was reported that he didn’t say much during his pre-draft interview with them. It led to the Celtics passing on him and during an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Podcast, McGrady revealed he intentionally blew that interview. The reason for it was Celtics head coach Rick Pitino.
“I just remember in college, I was being recruited by Kentucky and I just knew how hard and how tough Rick Pitino was,” McGrady said. “So, Rick Pitino had left and become Boston coach and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to play for Rick Pitino.’ The reason being my workout, that was probably my hardest pre-draft workout ever out of all the teams that I worked. Boston was something else.
“Wouldn’t mind playing for Boston I just didn’t want to play for Rick Pitino at that time because he was just too tough, man,” McGrady continued. “It was just finding a way to, I guess, to hurt myself and them not drafting me by not talking. I did fine with my interviews with everyone else but Boston, not so much.”
“I wouldn’t say I tanked it, I just didn’t do a great job of being who I was (laughs),” McGrady said when asked if he admits to tanking the interview. “That’s what I’ll say.”
(starts at 15:58 mark):
Pitino had just become the Celtics’ head coach in 1997 and his reputation as being a hard taskmaster meant McGrady had reservations about going there. The workout basically confirmed his worst fears and he decided to blow the interview.
The Celtics would select Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer with their two picks while McGrady went to the Toronto Raptors with the ninth pick. While the Billups pick eventually proved to be a good one as he went on to become an All-Star with the Pistons, the Mercer one certainly wasn’t.
He never even came close to being a star while T-Mac would go on to win two scoring titles and ended his career with seven All-Star selections.
The Celtics Under Pitino Were A Mess
To say Pitino’s tenure with the Celtics was disappointing would be an understatement. To go with his head coaching duties, he was team president as well, and under him, the Celtics had a 102-146 record in just over three seasons. They never made the playoffs and Pitino would resign in 2001.
Just a year later, the Celtics made the Eastern Conference Finals where they would lose to the New Jersey Nets in six games. They made the playoffs in each of the first four seasons following his departure and it wasn’t too surprising that Pitino never made it back to the NBA following this stint with the Celtics.
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