Tracy McGreedy: A Case Study In Patience
Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait. This popular platitude does not always apply in the NBA however. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird both respectively ignited two of the most beloved dynasties in NBA history in their rookie seasons. As a rookie Bill Russell likewise sparked the most dominant dynasty in sports history, and Kobe Bryant was drafted at the ripe age of 18 to help the Lakers contend for a title and start a three-year reign of dominance that put him on pace to eclipse Bill Russell’s championship ring collection. So its understandable how some young athletes expect to win right away, but being a dominant player on a perennial contender in your rookie year is a rarity. More often a player must wallow in mediocrity for several seasons before the team which drafted them can contend for a title. Just ask Michael Jordon who suffered through several first round eliminations before the Chicago Bulls final emerged as the most popular dynasty in NBA history, or Isaiah Thomas who watch Bird and Magic win titles for the better part of a decade before his Detroit Pistons finally managed to pull out a pair of titles, or David Robinson who suffered through years of disappointing playoff losses before finally being paired with Tim Duncan and his way to his first of two championships. The path to glory is not always so short a one’s rookie campaign. Somebody though should have told Tracy McGrady that, and that patience is a virtue and that good things come to those who wait.
It wasn’t common for high school players to be drafted straight to the NBA when Kevin Garnett was forced to go that route due to academic issues, but it soon became a regular occurrence that seldom saw such young players emerge as a dominant force in the NBA at only 18 years of age. Moses Malone played solid ball his rookie year, and Shawn Kemp, like Kevin Garnett, was a solid and a fairly consistent performing in his rookie year, but none of them, not even Kobe Bryant, were all-stars straight out of high school. Tracy McGrady though seemed dumb founded when he was not put on a pedestal by the Toronto Raptors in his rookie year after he was drafted out of high school.
In his rookie year McGrady displayed many of the flaws rookies often display. His personal fouls remained at career highs until he turned 21, his assists-to-turnover ratio displayed his inefficiency, his points-per-36 minutes remained at what would be career lows for his first three seasons and his field-goal percentage, though decent, was nothing to write home about (and quite frankly still isn’t). The three years he should have spent in college, he spent in a Raptors uniform, but the Raptors saw his potential and they knew something McGrady didn’t: Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait.
In his third season as a Raptor, McGrady saw the Raptors’ brass hand the reigns of the team over to Vince Carter, and no doubt scoffed at the fact that this sophomore was getting more minutes and more shots that he who was a three year veteran of the NBA. But what McGrady failed to realize was that Carter came into the league ready to compete at an all star level because rather than jumping in to the NBA out of high school, he went to one of the best college programs in the country to learn the game and hone his skills, because Carter knew something that McGrady didn’t: Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait, and those who spend a couple years in college before entering the NBA.
Indeed, Carter could have been a four year veteran in the NBA by that season had he jumped into the deep waters of the NBA out of high school, but he tested his abilities in the shallow end of the pool first by playing college ball first. And so when he entered the deep-end he could easily out-swim McGrady. Though Carter was only a sophomore, he was already playing at the level of a perennial all-star while McGrady was still treading water. McGrady wanted time with the ball, he wanted more shots, he wanted more minutes, he wanted to be the man. But there were things he didn’t want. He didn’t want wait, he didn’t want to earn it, and he didn’t want the team to give the ball to the better player. He didn’t know that patience is a virtue and that good things come to those who wait, and to those who play with their teammates, rather than competing with them.
That year the Raptors made their first playoff appearance and lost a hard fought series to New York Knicks, but there was promise. The promise of team success with young, talented players who were still getting better. But there wasn’t the promise of being the go-to-guy for McGrady, that honour he would have to earn. For that honour he would have to prove himself and play better than his cousin Vince Carter and rather than stay on a team that was winning, McGrady chose to bolt and head to Orlando to play for the Magic, a team who needed a franchise player. In Orlando he finally came into his own, he finally improved his assist-to-turnover ratio and he finally improved his fouls-per-minute ratio, and got what he wanted: personal praise. Yes, McGrady was awarded with the Most Improved Player Award, but while he was enjoying that his Magic were knocked out in the first round while his former team pushed the eventual Eastern Conference champs to seven games and pushed their way into the second round for the first time in franchise history. McGrady traded team success for personal glory, and had he displayed a little patience, he may not have found as much personal glory, but he would have been making a deeper playoff run and may have been the difference between the Raptors losing in game 7 by a basket, and moving on to the NBA finals (the Bucks would have been the only team standing in the Raptors’ way). Had McGrady waited, had McGrady showed a little loyalty to the team who took the risk to draft him out of highschool, and took the time to help develop him, then he may have been in the NBA finals at the age of 21, a full 6 seasons sooner than Jordan had made it, and he would heave learned that patience is indeed a virtue and that good things come to those who wait, and to those who show loyalty and commitment.
McGrady saw several years of moderate success in Orlando, and was even within one game of pushing his team into the second round when the Magic went up on the Detroit Pistons 3-1, but even though he had three chances to close out the series, he failed to do so and eventually saw his team enter the NBA Draft Lottery with the worst record in the league and the best odds. And when the Magic announced their intentions to draft a player straight out of high school, McGrady demanded that they trade the pick for some veteran help or trade him, because he didn’t have time to wait for a high school player to develop into a consistent contributor, and nor did he care to be a part of a rebuilding process. Not that he minded when the Raptors used their number one pick to draft him out of high school, and not the he minded being a part of Orlando’s rebuilding process when it gave him the opportunity to show the league what he had, but that was different, those were instances that offered McGrady something he didn’t have, they were instances when others were being patience for him, but patience was not something he could return to the teams that offered it to him. McGrady had not yet learned that patience is a virtue and that good things comes to those who wait, and also to those who don’t take hypocritical stances on drafting players out of high school.
In Houston McGrady finally got to play alongside another franchise player in Yao Ming, and after only two seasons McGrady found himself on the outside of the playoffs looking in, hoping the Rockets did well in the lottery rather than the playoffs, and followed that by several first round eliminations, while his former team, the Orlando Magic, rode on the shoulders of their straight-out-of-high-school center Dwight Howard, and were carried into the second round in ‘08 while the Rocket watched the second round of the playoffs at home. The ‘09 season saw those Orlando Magic players push their way all the way to the NBA finals while Tracy McGrady sat out of the NBA playoffs, only to watch his Houston Rockets play better without him than they had with him, pushing into the second round of the playoffs. Had McGrady stayed in Orlando, he would have gotten to played with the best rebounder in the league and likely would have seen the second round on the playoffs, and he would have learned the patience is a virtue and that good things come to those who wait, instead of learning that every team he’s played for has played better without him, teams like the Raptors, who lost McGrady and got to the second round of the playoffs, or the Orlando Magic who lost McGrady, and got to the NBA finals, or even the Houston Rockets who lost McGrady to injury, and found themselves pushing the NBA champion L.A. Lakers to 7 games and entering the second round of the NBA playoffs for the first time since “The Dream” wore a Rockets jersey.
Throughout his career McGrady has shown that though he can score, and pass, and rebound and defend, he lacks the loyalty, commitment, and patience to win, and the fact that his teams play better when he is not around does not speak well for him.
Michael Jordan didn’t get out of the first round of the NBA playoffs until he was 24, and he stayed on the same team for four seasons to do it, and he didn’t get to the NBA finals until he was 27 and had to wait 7 seasons to do that. Isaiah Thomas waited even longer. It wasn’t until his third season that he got to play in the playoffs, and it wasn’t until his fourth season that he pushed past the first round. Had McGrady taken the route laid out by greats like Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas, he may have seen far more success in his career, but instead McGrady is entering his 30’s this upcoming season and has yet to win a first round series in his career, and is now seen as damaged goods, not only because his has had several injury plagued seasons, and not only because his teams have often played better without him on the court, and not only because he hasn’t ever gotten his field-goal percentage up to where it should be, but also because he has undermined his teams in the past by demanding a trade in Orlando and by announcing his ‘09 season was over on his website before talking to his team about it. Even at 30 it seems McGrady has not yet matured and if he hasn’t matured by now, he may never be the type of player that helps a team to play at a championship level.
This season McGrady is changing his jersey number to “3” in order to highlight issues in Darfur, a cause he has taken a personal interest in. Perhaps this is a sign that he is maturing and that he no longer sees his own personal success as the most important thing on the court. If that is the case he may prove yet to be one of the best players of his generation, but if he continues on his present course he will merely be a gifted athlete who failed to capitalize on his talent, like Dominique Wilkins and Allen Iverson before him, and it will only be in hindsight that he will realize that patience is a virtue and the good things come to those who wait as well as those who know that personal success can only be achieved by people who can commit to a team philosophy, no matter how gifted or talented one might be.