Tracy McGrady has a long career of what-ifs. Everyone agrees that McGrady was one of the best of his time, but his peak was cut short because of injuries. Many people still wonder how good McGrady would have been on a title-contending team, but he went through a career of never making it out of the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Despite that, the former scoring champion is happy with his career. One way that McGrady would have been a guaranteed winner is if a proposed draft-day trade went through that would send McGrady to the Chicago Bulls and send Scottie Pippen to the Boston Celtics. The story went that Michael Jordan allegedly vetoed the trade, but it was revealed to be a decision by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
McGrady recently revealed that the Bulls made the right decision by not trading for him in an interview with HoopsHype.
Wow .
Tracy McGrady was nearly traded to Chicago in exchange for Scottie Pippen in 1997 but Michael Jordan vetoed the trade#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/LmaIuGtoES
— James (@BKFinest8) April 20, 2020
Jerry Krause had an obsession with me. At 18 years old and at 20 years old, when I became a free agent, he had an obsession. Did I think about what would’ve happened if I became a Bull as a rookie? Yeah, I thought about it. Did I feel like they should’ve made that trade? Absolutely not. They were still winning championships. If you bring in a rookie and take away a Top 50 player for a rookie. I wasn’t ready at that time to step up in that role. I don’t want to be stupid about this. They made the right choice. MJ (Michael Jordan) made the right call of really putting an ax to that, keeping that same group together, and went on to win another championship.
I had the opportunity in 2000 when I was a free agent, but like Toronto and any other team that was recruiting me, they were recruiting against me going to play back home in Orlando. That was a tough challenge.
McGrady would end up never donning the red colors of the Chicago Bulls in his career. However, he did make his impact on the game and is remembered for his incredible ability at his peak. Sadly, it didn’t end up with McGrady having a glittering trophy case full of honors.
