Basketball Association. He is a seven-time NBA All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection,

and a two-time NBA scoring champion. McGrady played as a swingman.

McGrady entered the NBA straight from high school after being selected in the 1997 NBA

Draft with the ninth overall pick in the first round by the Toronto Raptors. He played in

the NBA for the Raptors, Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons,

Atlanta Hawks, and San Antonio Spurs. He then played for the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese

Basketball Association before signing with San Antonio. In 2013, he announced his retirement

from the NBA, but indicated that he would consider opportunities to play overseas.

McGrady was ranked #75 on SLAM Magazine's "Top 75 Players of All-Time" in 2003. McGrady's

style of play has been compared to that of George Gervin.

Early years McGrady was born in Bartow, Florida. He played

high school basketball and baseball at Auburndale High School in Auburndale, Florida for three

years. He then transferred to Mount Zion Christian Academy, in Durham, North Carolina. McGrady

created a national buzz after his performance in the Adidas ABCD Camp, where the best high

school players in the U.S. are invited annually. He was named High School Player of the Year

by USA Today. McGrady has stated that if he had not gone straight to the NBA from high

school, he would have attended Kentucky. Professional career

Toronto Raptors McGrady was selected with the ninth overall

pick by the Toronto Raptors in the 1997 NBA Draft. For most of the 1997-98 season, he

received little playing time, averaging only 13 minutes per game under coach Darrell Walker.

McGrady has described his rookie year as "hell", feeling lonely in Toronto and sleeping for

up to 20 hours a day. Late in the season, Walker resigned and McGrady began playing

more under new coach Butch Carter on the condition that McGrady improve his work ethic.

Before the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, the Raptors drafted McGrady's distant cousin

Vince Carter. The two became inseparable; teammate Dee Brown once said, "They say they're

cousins... But Siamese twins is more like it." By the 1999-00 season, the duo had developed

a reputation for their athleticism, giving memorable performances at the All-Star Weekend

Slam Dunk Contest. McGrady, now playing significant minutes, was a contender for the Sixth Man

of the Year Award before being elevated to Toronto's starting backcourt in late March.

Behind McGrady and Carter's play, the Raptors finished the season with a 45-37 record, qualifying

for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. For the year, McGrady averaged 15.4

points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and a career-high 1.9 blocks per game. In the first round of

the postseason, the Raptors were swept by the New York Knicks.

Orlando Magic After the 2000 Playoffs, McGrady became a

free agent, signing a six-year, $67.5 million contract with the Orlando Magic. He elected

to join the Magic in part because he disliked his secondary role playing behind Vince Carter,

in part so that he could return home to Florida, and in part to play with their other newly

acquired free agent, Grant Hill. Hill would play in only four games during the 2000-01

season and 47 games total throughout his tenure with the team, forcing McGrady into a larger

leadership and scoring role than anticipated. Defying the expectations of many, he emerged

as one of the best players in the NBA, with Milwaukee Bucks General Manager Ernie Grunfeld

going so far as to call him "one of the top five talents in the league". McGrady's play

earned him his first All-Star Game appearance, and with final averages of 26.8 points, 7.5

rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game, he was selected to his first All-NBA Team, being

named to the All-NBA Second Team. He was also voted the league's Most Improved Player. With

a 43-39 record, the Magic entered the playoffs as the East's seventh seed, matched up with

the Bucks. In Game 3 of the series, McGrady notched 42 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists,

a performance that Bill Simmons later called "his superstar audition tape". Orlando were

eliminated by the Bucks in four games. For the 2001-02 season, McGrady averaged 25.6

points, 7.9 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game, earning his second All-NBA Team selection,

this time to the All-NBA First Team. The Magic were again ousted in the first round of the

playoffs, losing in four games to the Charlotte Hornets. In the 2002-03 season, McGrady won

his first scoring title and, with averages of 32.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists

per game, became one of seven players in NBA history to achieve a 30 player efficiency

rating in a single season. In the playoffs, McGrady made headlines when he prematurely

assumed that Orlando were guaranteed to advance to the second round after establishing a 3-1

lead over the Detroit Pistons, replying in an interview, "It feels good to get in the

second round." Despite holding the series lead, the Magic lost the series in seven games.

The 2003-04 season was a tumultuous year for McGrady; Magic coach Doc Rivers was fired

after a 1-10 start to the year and there were reports of friction between McGrady and Orlando

General Manager John Weisbrod. Throughout the season, Orlando struggled because of a

series of injuries, finishing the year with the worst record in the East despite McGrady

winning his second consecutive scoring title. Late in the season, McGrady scored a career-high

62 points in a winning effort versus the Washington Wizards. His final averages were 28 points,

6 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. Houston Rockets

On June 29, 2004, McGrady, Juwan Howard, Tyronn Lue, and Reece Gaines were traded to the Houston

Rockets in a seven-player deal that sent Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, and Kelvin Cato to

the Magic. Initially viewed as a fair trade, it has come to be seen as one of the more

lopsided trades in NBA history. McGrady would play in several All-Star games as a Rocket;

Orlando traded Francis after less than two seasons.

In his first year with the Rockets, McGrady teamed with 7' 6" center Yao Ming to form

one of the more potent duos in the Western Conference. They started slowly, struggling

to find a point guard to complement McGrady's skill set in the backcourt until Bob Sura

returned from an injury. The Rockets traded Lue for Jon Barry for 3-point shooting off

the bench. The Rockets also acquired David Wesley from the Hornets to bolster their backcourt

defense, particularly on smaller guards. With these new trades, McGrady was moved to SF,

with a starting lineup of Bob Sura, David Wesley, Juwan Howard, and Yao Ming. The Rockets

then ran the offense through McGrady, used the inside game of Yao, and used the perimeter

game of Howard's baseline jumper and 3-point shooting effectively. On December 9, 2004,

McGrady scored 13 points in the last 35 seconds of a game against the San Antonio Spurs: four

consecutive 3 pointers, including a steal and the game-winning 3 pointer with 1.7 seconds

left that led to the 81-80 Rockets win. The Rockets finished the 2004–05 season 51–31

as the 5th seed in the playoffs.

McGrady's stellar 30.7 ppg, 6.7 apg, and 7.4 rpg in the first round of the 2005 NBA Playoffs

helped Houston to a 2-0 lead in the series against the Dallas Mavericks. McGrady's signature

moment was in Game 2, where he blew past Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki and dunked over 7' 6"

Dallas center Shawn Bradley. McGrady also hit the gamewinner for a 113–111 victory.

But in Game 7, McGrady missed 6 of his first 7 shots, and the Rockets were never able to

match the intensity of the Mavericks, who beat them by 40 points and bounced them from

the playoffs. In the early 2005–06 season, McGrady missed

eight games because of back spasms. His back spasms resurfaced on January 8, 2006, and

he was taken at halftime in a game against the Denver Nuggets on a stretcher to the hospital;

he missed another five games and the back problems lurked thereafter. In the 2005–06

season, the Rockets were 2–15 in games he did not play in and 2–16 in games McGrady

did not finish. While McGrady was injured for five games with his back injury, the Rockets

did not win a single game. Other injuries include him falling on his back in a game

against the Indiana Pacers. Despite his back injuries, McGrady was voted into the 2006

All-Star Game in Houston. His Western Conference teammates constantly put the ball in his hands

to put him in contention for the All-Star MVP award in front of his Houston home crowd.

A controversy resulted in the final minute when McGrady attempted a jump shot that would

have given the West the lead and control of the game. Replays showed LeBron James, who

was guarding McGrady appearing to make contact with McGrady's elbow, causing the shot attempt

to fall way short of the basket. However, no foul was whistled, the East won, and LeBron

James was named All-Star MVP. In the 2006–07 season, McGrady started out

slowly, and after missing 7 games with back spasms he visited a doctor. In an interview

with TNT, McGrady said that he thought that his body was slowing down. He believed that

he could no longer be as explosive as he was in the past due to his back injury. Shortly

after another bout with back spasms, McGrady went to Waco, Texas where Dr. John Patterson

performed "Synergy Release Therapy" to cure his chronic back problems, particularly the

back spasms. However, since Yao Ming was having another breakout season, he was deferring

to Yao as the number one option. Since Yao went down with a leg injury, McGrady stepped

up his overall play, re-establishing himself as one of the game's premier players and by

doing so led Houston to the 5th best record in the league. On December 29, 2006, he became

the third-youngest player in NBA history to reach 14,000 points and 4,000 rebounds. In

the playoffs, the Rockets lost their first-round series to the Utah Jazz 4–3. McGrady had

said in an interview that if he and the Rockets failed to make it out of the first round again,

it was "on me". At his post-game press conference following the Game 7 defeat, McGrady, still

visibly emotional from the loss, said "I tried, man, I tried."

After the 2006–07 season, Jeff Van Gundy was fired as head coach. Rick Adelman was

hired as head coach as Rockets owner Leslie Alexander wanted a more uptempo offense to

use the offensive skills of Yao and McGrady. The 2007–08 season for the Rockets was decimated

by injuries; Yao was placed on injured reserve in February. Incredibly, the Rockets won 22

straight games. The Rockets finished as the 5th seed in the West and earned a rematch

with the Utah Jazz. However, by the time playoffs came, McGrady was already nursing shoulder

and knee injuries as he had bandages placed on his shoulder and his knee throughout the

playoff series. McGrady took pain-killing injections in and had fluid drained from both

his shoulder and knee to allow him to play. The Jazz again eliminated the Rockets in six

games, even though McGrady recorded 40 points and 10 rebounds in the decisive Game Six,

a 113–91 loss. In May 2008, McGrady underwent arthroscopic

surgery on both his left shoulder and left knee.

On February 18, 2009, McGrady announced on his website that he would have surgery on

his left knee and would miss the remainder of the 2008–09 season. He had already missed

18 games before the All-Star break, including a two-week stretch in January, and said before

the season that his knee was not healed from his off-season surgery. He decided to have

microfracture surgery in Chicago on February 24, 2009. The cartilage damage to be repaired

by the microfracture surgery was in a small area on a non-weight-bearing surface, and

the rest of his knee was otherwise healthy, according to the team doctor.

Despite McGrady being on injured reserve, the Rockets beat the Trail Blazers 4–2 in

the first round of the playoffs to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the

first time since 1997. The Rockets would compete in a memorable series against the eventual

NBA champion LA Lakers, before losing Game 7 in LA. Since McGrady was on the Rockets'

roster during the 2009 NBA Playoffs, he officially advanced past the first round of the playoffs

for the first time in his career. McGrady only played in six games with the

Rockets during the 2009–10 season, all in limited minutes as a reserve due to injuries,

before being traded to the New York Knicks in February.

New York Knicks

On February 18, 2010, McGrady was traded to the New York Knicks as part of a three-team

trade involving Houston, New York, and the Sacramento Kings. On February 20, 2010, McGrady

made his debut for the Knicks against the Oklahoma City Thunder, to a sold-out Madison

Square Garden, amid many "We Want T-Mac!" chants. He scored 26 points, grabbed 4 rebounds,

and dished 5 assists in 32 minutes of play as New York lost in overtime. This was McGrady's

first game since December 23, 2009 against the Orlando Magic. His first win as a member