Tracy McGrady was one of the most gifted scorers to ever grace an NBA floor. During his prime, he had two scoring titles and was a 7-time All-Star. He could create his own shot against any defender, and he is widely respected by a lot of current and former players.
The era McGrady played in was very physical and intense when compared to today's offensive-dominated game. As you could imagine, a slender McGrady suffered mightily from the physical nature of the league back then, having to deal with numerous injuries that killed his game and shortened his career.
When speaking to Ashley Nicole Moss of Sports Illustrated, Tracy McGrady stated that he wishes he could play in today's NBA. McGrady pointed out that he averaged 32 PPG in a "tough, physical, tight" era, and rhetorically was asked about what he would do in today's game.
"I would love to be in today's game. The lack of physicality, the amount of 3s these guys get to shoot, the space that they play with, it's just a positionless basketball game right now," McGrady said. "A guy like myself and Kevin Durant could play the 5 position. You couldn't do that in my era, you would get crushed. I definitely would have loved to play in this era because of the rule changes. I'm an offensive player, I'm a 1 on 1 player. I averaged 32 (points) in a tough, physical, tight, paint era. So imagine what I would do in today’s game."
A scorer like McGrady would have had a field day, especially before the NBA changed the controversial foul rule that has benefited both Trae Young and James Harden.
Even though McGrady won't ever be able to play in this era, we've seen someone who is fairly similar to him in Kevin Durant, who is arguably a longer and more slender version of McGrady. T-Mac would have been well suited to the version of basketball that is played today, and he was clearly far ahead of his time. Just imagine if both him and Yao played together in this current NBA.
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