Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith was not a fan of Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady’s comments earlier this summer when McGrady said “Anybody can win a championship. Everybody can't get in the Hall of Fame.”
Smith, an NBA champion but probably not-a-Hall-of-Famer, despite not being specifically mentioned, retaliated and called McGrady’s comments “dumb as hell.”
Tracy McGrady, who was inducted in Springfield on Friday, was asked by reporters about Smith’s comments and he finally got to respond.
“He sounds dumb as hell… It's not to take anything away from champions,” said McGrady, who failed to win a title over his illustrious 15-year NBA career. “It's not.”
“But it's a true statement when you have guys that go through an 82-game season and the playoffs, never play a game, and at the end of the season, they're also going to be part of the championship team – and win. And it's probably going to be some guys that will be out of the league next season, and won't get back into the league. Those guys ain't going to be wearing this orange jacket.”
McGrady also thinks Smith’s misinterpretation of his words was what led to the fiery response:
“He's mistaking ‘anybody' for being ‘everybody.' … If I were to say ‘everybody can win a championship, everybody can't get in the Hall of Fame,' he would have an argument, but I said ‘anybody.'”
As people who've done one of those things but not the other, it’s understandable that McGrady and Smith would have a disagreement about which of their achievements was the more substantive one.
But while McGrady’s explanation regarding his comments sounds rational, don’t expect someone who thinks as irrationally as Smith does at times to be swayed too easily. It'd probably be for the best if they just agreed to disagree.
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