5 next Orlando Magic legends to induct into Hall of Fame
Tracy McGrady is one of the best pure scorers in the past 26 years of NBA basketball, never mind just the Orlando Magic franchise.
That is a very bold statement, and to fully go in to providing the substantiating proof would require a lot more than just a slide in this presentation to make the compelling case that it is.
Even with that disclaimer, it is difficult to let the eye test say anything otherwise. Much like Kevin Durant in today’s NBA, defenders were very exposed every time he caught the ball anywhere 26-feet and inwards.
T-Mac had the range and elevation to ensure he was seldom blocked, all the while hitting tougher and tougher shots” many of which appeared to have no chance of coming out of his hands clean. But they did. And quite often those same shots which appeared to be such horrible selections consistently found the bottom of the net.
The Magic signed both McGrady and Grant Hill in the summer of 2000, but it was not the higher prized of those signings who would go on to become the irrepressible scorer and franchise-defining talent.
Instead, it was T-Mac who led the league in scoring in back-to-back seasons” averaging more than 32 points per game in the 2003 season. He was later dealt to the Houston Rockets after having endured one of the bleakest seasons in Magic history (21 wins in 2004).
McGrady would eventually begin a steady decline while in Houston, putting a damper on an otherwise outstanding NBA career.
While McGrady may not be remembered as an all-time great in NBA history, his precipice reached higher than perhaps any other Magic player in history, for so however brief that may have been.
Next: Anfernee Hardaway