George Díaz: Magic honoree T-Mac laments ‘Big 3’ miss.
Like Hemingway’s “The Old Man and The Sea,” the epic tale of the one that got away makes for a compelling narrative in the history of the Orlando Magic franchise.
Step into the waaaaay-back time machine in the summer of 2000, when all-stars Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill signed with the Magic.
But, oh, about the Big One who got away…
Tim Duncan. It could have easily happened if not for a number of logistical hiccups: David Robinson cutting short his Hawaii vacation to rein back Duncan into the San Antonio Spurs family, and then-Magic coach Doc Rivers’ insistence that no family members could travel on the team plane — a rule made because of an issue with Duncan’s highmaintenance girlfriend at the time.
“I want to slap the [bleep] out
of Doc Rivers’ ass,” McGrady said Tuesday afternoon when I brought up Duncan and the “what if ” scenario.
“After all these years I just found this out during the All-Star break. Doc Rivers. Wait ’til I see him.”
T-Mac was fired up (though good-naturedly) for obvious reasons. It had a little more to do with the fact that the Magic welcomed him into their Hall of Fame on Tuesday, joining the team’s Mount Rushmore of superstars, Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Anderson and Penny Hardaway. Well-deserved T-Mac. McGrady played in 295 games (294 starts) during his four seasons with the Magic (2000-04), averaging 28.1 points, 7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. He was a two-time AllNBA First Team selection.
He also scored 62 points against the Washington Wizards on March 10, 2004, in what remains a franchise record.
But imagine what happens if Duncan had come. Then-Magic general manager John Gabriel and his assistant Scott Herring had done their due diligence financially. They had 14 players with oneyear contracts, giving them enough flexibility for three max contracts in what would have been the original incarnation of the Big Three in NBA history.
Orlando dared to dream big, making T-shirts with the likenesses of Duncan and Hill wearing Magic jerseys with the tagline “Imagine…” The sales pitch was easy: “Come on down guys, and let’s build a dominant franchise for the next decade.”
“We knew what it was like to live sparsely,” Gabriel said Tuesday. “We crunched the numbers, and we could come up with all three.”
Instead, they got one and a half. McGrady was superb. Hill, dealing with complications from an ankle injury, played 57 games in four years.
“We talk about it all the time,” McGrady said, alluding to Hill. “You guys can put the story together of what could have happened if Grant Hill was healthy. … It’s tough when you have one all-star and a bunch of scrappy bluecollar guys.”
The Magic advanced to the playoffs in three of McGrady’s four years in Orlando. But without a second star, they made one-and-done cameos.
Unfortunately it all unraveled with McGrady during that fourth season. Some blamed McGrady’s fragile and delicate ego. Others (hands up for me) would argue that in another one of the Magic’s botched moves, they hired a hockey guy (John Weisbrod) to become GM and run a basketball team.
McGrady, at the time, told the Orlando Sentinel the Magic made no genuine effort to keep him and “kind of wanted me out.” The Magic traded him shortly after draft night in 2004, bringing the mercurial Steve Francis to town.
The Magic had just drafted a high school superstar in hopes of reshaping the franchise to its glory days.
His name? Dwight Howard.
“I don’t indulge in the past,” McGrady said, shortly before he was sucked back in Tuesday.
It’s OK. It’s human nature to think of what could have been had the history of the Orlando Magic played out in an alternate universe where families are allowed on planes, and Mr. Robinson stays in Hawaii.
As for people like me, I still have those T-shirts in a drawer somewhere.
Imagine that.