Retrospective: Where does Victor Oladipo rank in Magic all-time shooting guards?
Tracy McGrady is arguably the greatest scorer in Orlando Magic history. T-Mac had his best years in Orlando and single-handedly kept the Magic relevant until the talent surrounding him was just so weak he could not do it anymore.
He wanted out, and the Magic obliged by trading him to Houston, while spending its No. 1 pick on Dwight Howard, ushering in a strange rebuild.
It was strange only in the aspect the Magic were unusually competitive for a team that just shed its superstar.
But that does not speak to just how dominant McGrady was.
In 2003, he led the league in scoring with 32.1 points per game, while playing nearly 40 minutes a night. He followed that up with a similar effort in 2004, seeing again 39-plus minutes a night while averaging a league-high 28 points per game.
But the Magic won just 21 games and fired Doc Rivers 11 games into the season after the team started out 1-10. It did not get better with Johnny Davis leading the team to 20 wins in the next 71 games.
McGrady could hardly be blamed with a roster that featured very little talent and no real second option to speak of (Drew Gooden? Pat Garrity? Juwan Howard? Even Tyronn Lue?). The next season in Houston he would see 40-plus minutes per game as the Rockets tried to build something around McGrady and Yao Ming.
But McGrady’s back and body were worn out from doing too much, too soon, and he began to decline and sit more games out. With the Magic, however, he was nothing short of amazing. McGrady hit shots that most players would never attempt, and so often a “Don’t take that!” was turned into a slack jaw at a highly impressive and contested mid range jumper.
He was a lot like Kevin Durant with even more athleticism as a 6-foot-9 shooting guard, and McGrady turned out to be the prize signing of the summer of 2000 (not fellow legend Grant Hill, whose career was chronically stunted due to injuries).
Next: Where does Elfrid Payton rank among point guards all-time?