Championships are a tough accomplishment to obtain in any sport. In the NBA, only 15 of 450 players get to call themselves “champs” in any given season and for most, it is a luxury that can often escape their entire career, regardless of how illustrious their careers might have been.
For Tracy McGrady, it's the one thing missing from his resume, a feat that 1997 draftmates Chauncey Billups and Tim Duncan have reached throughout their careers.
The Florida native is very much aware of the symbolic importance of that ring, and in retrospect knows his induction into the Hall of Fame would have been “elevated” much more if he had one.
“Absolutely, because that’s why we play the game,” McGrady said, according to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. “We play the game to win a championship. That is the ultimate goal. It’s not to make the Hall of Fame. Winning. That’s all it is. It’s all about winning.”
“Listen, if me and where my career went, let’s just say the numbers and everything is the way it is after my career, if I was to win a championship, ah man, I’d be elevated even more. It’s just the truth. I’d be elevated even more.”
McGrady was the victim of circumstance — being drafted to play behind his cousins Vince Carter in Toronto, signing a six-year deal with the Orlando Magic only to miss out on the talent that was Grant Hill, and ultimately suffer injuries of his own at the end of his stint with the Houston Rockets.
Had things played out differently, T-Mac had all the talent to make a deep run in the playoffs, but he'll ultimately go to the story books as a ringless Hall of Famer.
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