The NBA has seen its fair share of dazzling players who leave a lasting impression on fans. While some achieve ultimate glory by winning the NBA Championship, others, like Tracy McGrady, have phenomenal careers without ever grabbing that coveted title.
T-Mac, with his scoring prowess and swag, ruled over the league in the early 2000s. In a league filled with stars like Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Shaquille O’Neal, Tracy McGrady stood out and delivered night after night on his way to his undeniable NBA legacy. Recently, he disclosed what his career highlight was, and the answer can be surprising.
Tracy McGrady opens up about his highlight moment in his NBA career
Tracy McGrady went toe-to-toe with NBA greats like his close friend Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Dirk Nowitzki and shined on multiple occasions. But his path to greatness was something of an unknown quantity, which makes his rise to stardom all that special.
Born in the suburbs of Bartow, Florida, which was the “worst drug infested neighborhood,” as described by the veteran on “The Pivot Podcast,” McGrady’s family faced difficulties making ends meet.
McGrady recently spoke about his greatest achievement on his Instagram handle. For him, the highlight of his career is getting drafted and eventually accumulating the wealth he did in his 15 years of career, which brought happiness to his family after years of hardship.
He added that no one in his family had a college education or earned over $40,000 but his draft “changed the trajectory” of his family. Talking about his family, who were his motivation, McGrady said that his grandmother was a janitor, his mother was a housekeeper at Disney and his father worked at a fertilizing plant.
Looking back at his career, T-Mac valued his family over all his best moments in the NBA which can easily make an hour-long montage.
Tracy McGrady shared his proudest achievement
T-Mac expressed that the proudest achievements for him are when his contemporaries acknowledge his skills and abilities. “The respect from my peers means more to me than anything else. They were letting the world know and saying, ‘man that dude right there was cold-blooded, he was nice, he was that dude'” said the 7-time NBA All-Star.
Justifying his point, the 44-year-old continued, “To me, because when you talk about all these accomplishments in terms of championships and you know, Western Conference and going deeper it takes a team, it takes an organization to do all of that.”
McGrady had exceptional scoring abilities which won him the title of NBA scoring champion twice in 2003 and 2004. The former Houston Rockets jersey no. 1 said, placing respect from his peers above everything, “when I get the respect from the guys that competed against me every single night than nothing else really matters.” He averaged 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists in his entire 15-season-long career, playing for seven NBA franchises.
Despite adding multiple accolades to his name, the clutch legend could not manage to get his hands on the NBA championship title but that does not discard his brilliance on and off the court.
