Def Swami wrote:In addition to the draw of playing with Grant Hill, McGrady chose to play for the Magic as a free agent in 2000 because he grew up about an hour outside Orlando in Auburndale, he grew up watching the Magic, and he chose to wear the #1 because Penny Hardaway was his favorite player. This guy was a fan. And just like every other fan of this team, the front office just sucked his soul away over the course of many years and gross incompetence.
T-Mac wanted out because the front office was a clown show. He was openly feuding with Weisbroad in the media. Weisbroad kept throwing out these not so subtle jabs at how McGrady was a "selfish" player and needed to be a better teammate. All the while McGrady is leading the league in scoring and trying to carry rosters featuring Andrew DeClerq, Pat Garrity, Old Shawn Kemp, Old Horace Grant, Old Patrick Ewing, Jacque Vaughn, Troy Hudson, draft busts Jeryl Sasser, Reece Gaines, and Steven Hunter.
I think there was no return after the team traded our second best player, his best friend, and former ROY, Mike Miller (and a FRP!!) for Drew Gooden and Goran Giricek.
It's amazing to me that we finished above .500 in the first 3 McGrady seasons. Even more so in retrospect with how bad those rosters were. Even as a young die-hard fan at the time, I didn't blame McGrady for being upset and wanting out. I still don't. I think if there was a better relationship between McGrady and the front office, perhaps they could have convinced McGrady on a future after the '03-'04 season, especially with promise of a #1 draft pick coming in and Grant Hill actually coming back (tough sell, I get it). There were too many bridges burned on a personal level for McGrady to ever want to stay.
This is a rose-colored recollection. We won 41 games the year before McGrady arrived. We topped out at 44 wins with McGrady. We won 21 games in his last season in Orlando.
I get that the roster wasn't talented, but our failures were McGrady's failures. We drafted Reece Gaines and Jeryl Sasser because Doc wanted them. Word was that we liked Tony Parker, but Doc Rivers wanted a big point guard. We gave up a 1st-round pick to salary dump Outlaw. We released Darrell Armstrong. These were our team leaders and we ditched them because Doc wanted McGrady to become the team's leader. His reward? A ten-game losing streak that got him fired before ultimately stretching into a 19-game losing streak. McGrady was a terrible leader and he was an awful teammate. He routinely threw his teammates under the bus in post-game interviews. Horace Grant challenged McGrady for his lack of professionalism on a team flight. Doc Rivers stepped in, it almost came to blows, and Grant was unceremoniously released.
People still trash Weisbrod for his role, but he was just a hatchet man. His tenure lasted little more than a year and he was only the GM for the last 15 games of McGrady's tenure. He was absolutely right about McGrady. Gabriel came up with a brilliant plan to chase Hill and Duncan. We narrowly missed on Duncan and had to settle on McGrady. Hill was damaged goods. That's all fine. His real mistake was catering to Rivers' desire to turn McGrady into something he wasn't. He was an immense talent, but he lacked the character required to become a great basketball player.
"Xatticus has always been, in my humble opinion best poster here. Should write articles or something."
-pepe1991
