Tracy McGrady aka TMAC retirement speech

[AlphaWolf24]

[QUOTE]There are times in life that a new road presents itself and it appears this time has come for me now. I am so proud of what I have accomplished these past 15 years playing in the NBA. It was a dream entering the league as I just turned 18 years old. I worked hard and poured my heart and soul into this game. I consider myself a student of the game as I have watched, studied and played with and against the best players in the world. The NBA was my University and I learned so much. The gratitude I feel is really immeasurable. I have experienced the best moments a player can experience and have had some dark ones too. Both equally important in helping shape me into the man I am today.

As I leave the league for now, there have been so many profound people who inspired me along my way. I have to say thank you for guiding me and having an enormous influence on the way I played basketball. Isaiah Thomas, Rich Devos, Leslie Alexander and John Gabriel, you believed in me and I thank you. Jeff Van Gundy, you exemplified the brilliance of what a great coach is. Steven A. Smith, you gave us players a voice and for that I thank you. Doug Christy, Charles Oakley, Dee Brown, Mugsy Bogues, Antonio Davis, Dell Curry, Kevin Willis, you all showed a young kid from Auburndale Florida how to be a better player. Kobe, you made me work harder and it was an honor to play against you. And Yao, we shared an experience together that will always be with me, thank you. Sonny & Pam Vaccarro showed me how there is loyalty and genuine friendship in this business. Arn Tellem and Tim Hoy, 15 years and you are still my agents. Thank you for guiding me throughout my career. When all is said and done, there is so many that made an impact on my life. I am one blessed man to have the love and never ending support of my wife CleRenda and the best 4 kids a man can ask for. But most important, I give glory and thanks to God. It is thru Him that I have been so blessed and I am forever thankful.

As I enter this next chapter, I am excited to play for Qingdao Eagles in China. I have been to China several times in the last few years and I love the people and the country. It will be an honor to play for them. Thank you to every fan that has followed me and believed in me. Injuries and all, I wouldn

[RRR3]

:( gonna miss T-Mac. Thanks for sharing dude :cheers:

[Zackmorris]

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[R.I.P.]

China is not retirement.

[ripthekik]

:applause:
Hopefully Yao'll show him a good time in China.

[neilio23]

Did he actually spell Doug Christie's name incorrectly?

Thanks for sharing this. It's nice to see him thank a lot of the veterans he played with in his early years.

[Beatlezz]

http://i48.tinypic.com/9s5mpl_th.gifhttp://i48.tinypic.com/9s5mpl_th.gif

[AlphaWolf24]

"Kobe you made me work harder..it was an honor"

TMAC vs Kobe 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugkFcXpRan4

[sick_brah07]

"Kobe you made me work harder..it was an honor"

TMAC vs Kobe 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugkFcXpRan4


Agh yehh sweet........ Which pixel is Kobe

[LongLiveTheKing]

I'm going miss T-Mac on of my favorite players ever. I wish he was never injured :(

[DStebb716]

will definitely miss tmac. when he came to the knicks and dropped 26 i didn't know what to think. he looked so good but his prime was clearly well over

[Haymaker]

Tmac always shit on his pants when he played Kobe.

[yanix]

sounds like a suicide note

[NewYorkNoPicks]

Is this real? Where did you find it? I havent heard any announcements elsewhere

[HylianNightmare]

i'm old

[fsvr54]

Going to go down as the Chinese League GOAT.

[Rockets(T-mac)]

i'm oldSame feeling, when Duncan, Kobe, KG retire, it'll be the end of the era of players I grew-up watching.

[alwaysunny]

Same feeling, when Duncan, Kobe, KG retire, it'll be the end of the era of players I grew-up watching.

Me too, although I'm probably younger than you because I started watching in 2000 rather than in the 90s when all of them were drafted. Crazy how most of them are still on top of their game even with all these talented newcomers. 2000s will always be my golden era.

[MiamiThrice]

I wonder if T-Mac will be able to win a playoff series in the Chinese Basketball Association.

[oh the horror]

Wow...I remember so many of them coming into the league...Caught an article about McGrady coming out of HS back in the day.


Him, Kobe, Ray Allen, Kidd, Duncan, Camby, Garnett.....I remember ALL of them being drafted....most of these fellas make up more than half of my basketball viewing life.

[Finn T-Mac]

So this was T-Macs retirement speech and still the poster was able to BOLD THE TEXT ABOUT KOBE. :facepalm

[TheBigVeto]

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

TMAC you were a beast son..

If he really said the bolded statement, then he failed. Big time.

[Finn T-Mac]

McGrady was my favorite player during his time in the NBA and thankful that I was able to see him play before all those injuries. I played with the same numbler #1 and coincidelly around the same time I started to have injuries that basically ended my career, so did he. Well NBA rolls on and the season is almost here.

[miller-time]

always hoped he would have a mini-comeback. i knew he wasn't going to be like old tmac, but it would have been nice to see a few big games and a decent statistical season.

gl tmac

[Dragonyeuw]

This guy was one of the most gifted players ever. Too bad his body couldn't hold up....

[Bigsmoke]

i was never a fan of that guy but i wish him the best over there.

[9512]

you know you are old when you remember T Mac referred to a young potential All Star. It was only the 3rd year of HS players drafted out of HS (since KG in 95).

Back then he signed an adidas deal of 12 mill (6 year) and people thought it was not worth it. That was still the era of doubting unproven HS players getting money before earning it.

He's had some great years but as everyone mentioned injuries hurt his cause.

[HardwoodLegend]

Tmac always shit on his pants when he played Kobe.

No he didn't. They were always tit for tat pretty much evenly matched.

The difference being in those early ORL vs. LAL years, Kobe would often coast and ride Shaq's dominance through the first half or three quarters. Then, when T-Mac's energy was falling late in the game from having to carry his team to even give them a fighting chance at a win, Kobe would switch over on him and start putting forth more effort since he had more gas in the tank.

And, it would create this illusion that "OMGz Kobe is so clutch while T-Mac chokes!" when in reality it was just Kobe playing opossum the whole time and waiting for T-Mac to gas out.

[HardwoodLegend]

Did he actually spell Doug Christie's name incorrectly?

He also misspelled Muggsy.

[AlphaWolf24]

So this was T-Macs retirement speech and still the poster was able to BOLD THE TEXT ABOUT KOBE. :facepalm


Then you bieng a TMAC apologist should have made the Thread....

but you didn't have the knowlege...so sit back and ..

http://i.imgur.com/eGInc.gif

[AlphaWolf24]

If he really said the bolded statement, then he failed. Big time.


he did..and you can also...

http://i.imgur.com/eGInc.gif



dang these Kobe haterz...

[AlphaWolf24]

No he didn't. They were always tit for tat pretty much evenly matched.

The difference being in those early ORL vs. LAL years, Kobe would often coast and ride Shaq's dominance through the first half or three quarters. Then, when T-Mac's energy was falling late in the game from having to carry his team to even give them a fighting chance at a win, Kobe would switch over on him and start putting forth more effort since he had more gas in the tank.

And, it would create this illusion that "OMGz Kobe is so clutch while T-Mac chokes!" when in reality it was just Kobe playing opossum the whole time and waiting for T-Mac to gas out.


- :rolleyes: another one....how the **** is Kobe coasting if he's the one playing the best full court defense on the court?

- again....how does one coast if you are still playing top shelf defense , facilitating the offense and letting the game come onto one self?

- Kobe played the same way then as he does now....did he just coast every game....the 2 greatest SG's of alltime played the same way....Jordan and Kobe.....Facilitate early on / pick your spots and take over the 4th quarter, allwhile still playing elite perimiter defense....

that is not coasting...that is basketball.

- you expect Kobe to score 62 points everytime he played TMAC??....

- TMAC even played the same way when he teamed up with Yao....and even if Kobe tried to look to score early he would still merk TMAC and prolly put up a double nickel.....even though he often merked TMAC anyways when they matched up

- dang these Kobe slighters know no boundries....Sleepy would see ( outta his 1 1/2 eyes) Kobe coming and stain his draws...


http://i.imgur.com/eGInc.gif

[hon]

http://abasketballjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Tracy-McGrady-Leaves-NBA-Plays-IN-China.jpg


I hope he enjoys dim sum...

[HardwoodLegend]

- :rolleyes: another one....how the **** is Kobe coasting if he's the one playing the best full court defense on the court?

- again....how does one coast if you are still playing top shelf defense , facilitating the offense and letting the game come onto one self?

- Kobe played the same way then as he does now....did he just coast every game....the 2 greatest SG's of alltime played the same way....Jordan and Kobe.....Facilitate early on / pick your spots and take over the 4th quarter, allwhile still playing elite perimiter defense....

that is not coasting...that is basketball.

- you expect Kobe to score 62 points everytime he played TMAC??....

- TMAC even played the same way when he teamed up with Yao....and even if Kobe tried to look to score early he would still merk TMAC and prolly put up a double nickel.....even though he often merked TMAC anyways when they matched up

- dang these Kobe slighters know no boundries....Sleepy would see ( outta his 1 1/2 eyes) Kobe coming and stain his draws...


http://i.imgur.com/eGInc.gif

Elite perimeter defense?

Why wasn't he guarding T-Mac the whole time during that game? He only switched over to him in the 4th quarter.

Clearly you're too dumb to catch on to the strategy. It was all geared towards waiting for T-Mac to gas out from shouldering all that responsibility for his team and capitalize.

And, no, Kobe did not merk T-Mac often in their head-to-head matchups. That's revisionist history at its finest.