"I Don't See Nobody": Tracy McGrady Shuts Down Comparisons of "Prime T-Mac" to Current NBA Stars

Two decades ago, NBA fans were treated to the mind-blowing exploits of Tracy McGrady on a weekly basis. As a franchise player of the Orlando Magic and the Houston Rockets, T-Mac wowed spectators with his spectacular handles and insanely acrobatic dunks.

On a recent episode of the Gil’s Arena podcast, McGrady was asked if there was any athlete among the current generation of NBA stars who resembled “prime T-Mac.”

“In today’s game? I don’t see nobody,” he said.

T-Mac went on to name-drop Kevin Durant, but he acknowledged that the Phoenix Suns forward is “older.” The comparison is not without merit, though: McGrady and Durant are both former scoring champions who are difficult to contain because of their size as well as their skill set.

After McGrady’s bold declaration, podcast host Gilbert Arenas suggested that Paul George (specifically, the Indiana Pacers version of PG13) could be a viable comparison as well. McGrady shut that analogy down as well, then went on to explain why he was so picky with labeling another T-Mac among today’s players.

“I took midrange shots. A lot of these guys don’t,” he said. “If [Jayson] Tatum was a guy that took those midrange shots, I would say Tatum.”

McGrady, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017, immediately gave a qualifier for that particular comparison. “Not the fluidity. I was fast, bro. If he played that in-between game, then yeah.”

While fans can go back and forth on the actual similarities between Tatum and McGrady, both players certainly have their fair share of dazzling highlights over the years. Tatum orchestrated the Celtics’ conquest of the 2024 NBA Finals alongside Jaylen Brown, while McGrady became a crunch-time legend when he scored 13 points in 35 seconds to lead the Rockets to victory in a December 2004 game.

T-Mac is generations apart from the likes of George and Tatum, but his legacy of athleticism continues to this day. Ultimately, his struggle to find a present-day comparison could mean that there was literally no one who performed on the hard court like him.