Tracy McGrady made some big comments on the ‘Knuckleheads’ podcast when he said that the Chicago Bulls almost traded for his draft rights in a move to split up Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in 1997. According to T-Mac, Jordan vetoed the trade when GM Jerry Krause pitched it to him and threatened retirement.
The comments have caused a lot of chatter around this possible trade and Jordan’s involvement in it. Former Chicago Bulls President Jerry Reinsdorf clarified that MJ had nothing to do with it and it was Reinsdorf who vetoed the trade. However, he wanted to confirm whether Jordan spoke to Jerry Krause about the trade and revealed what the six-time champion had to say.
“After this podcast, I contacted Michael Jordan and asked if there was any truth and his reply to me was, ‘B.S’. That’s the case. I don’t even know if Michael was aware of it. He certainly never communicated to us, never threatened to retire. The only reason that trade didn’t go through was that I felt our fans wanted a sixth championship, and I wanted to win a sixth championship.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAdbBVjYwAk
Reinsdorf would also open up on the proposed trade package that would have brought Tracy McGrady to Chicago and sent Pippen to the Boston Celtics.
I had a chance to trade Scottie Pippen to the Boston Celtics for two very high picks, I think they had picks number 3 and 6. If we had done that deal, we would have taken Tracy McGrady and Ron Mercer. But my decision came down to this, what would our fans want us to do? I concluded our fans wanted us to win a sixth championship even if it meant we were going to be bad later.
Thankfully, Reinsdorf’s decision would pay off with the second three-peat that the Bulls managed to complete the same season. The team would break up the season after and the Bulls had a decade-long struggle to become relevant again, but it was worth it for that incredible 1997-98 Bulls team.
