The history of the NBA is littered with examples of elite players teaming up with one another. Whether it be in their primes or with young stars joining older legends, this is something that has happened time and again in the league. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal grew together across nearly a decade with the Lakers, while Charles Barkley joined a 76ers team as a rookie that had an aging Julius Erving and Moses Malone.
These tandems are sometimes successful, and sometimes they’re not. But it’s not often that a player turns down the opportunity to play with another star. If they didn’t know how good that player would be, that’s one thing, but it’s still insane to think about NBA fans missing out on some incredible duos. One of those could have been Orlando putting prime Tracy McGrady next to rookie Dwight Howard, but T-Mac had other ideas.
Dwight Howard Was Hurt That Tracy McGrady Didn’t Want To Play With Him
Dwight Howard was picked 1st overall straight out of high school and was touted to be the next dominant big man. For a large part of his early career, he lived up to that billing as well. However, when he joined the Orlando Magic, they had just lost one of the league’s best scorers and a bonafide superstar in Tracy McGrady. And even though playing alongside Howard might have tempted someone else to stay, McGrady wasn’t interested in playing alongside someone fresh out of high school.
Speaking to Shannon Sharpe on his podcast, Howard spoke about the situation, revealing that he was hurt by McGrady’s decision.
“Oh my god. It really hurt me that T-Mac said that he didn’t wanna play with nobody from high school. And I’m like, didn’t you say you came from high school? How you not gon’ play with somebody from high school? So much stuff I could have just learned from him and from Grant Hill. And I can understand it now that I’m older, you wanna play with an older person because of the mindset.”
McGrady went on to the Rockets, where he enjoyed some more good seasons before injuries took their toll on him. Howard became a legend in his own right, taking the Magic to the NBA Finals. Both players now have something in common, having been snubbed from the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team. It would have been quite wild to see T-Mac and Dwight play together for sure, maybe they could have gotten a ring.
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