Monday Headlines: Tracy McGrady Edition

By John Morgan Francis@MonJorgan Jul 5, 2021, 6:40am EDT

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Flashback to 24 years ago... or even two weeks ago... when collegiate athletes weren’t allowed to profit from their own name/brand/excellence. Would recruiting have been different if they were? Especially 24 years ago? You can bet on it.

The rumor of Tracy McGrady playing for Kentucky had he made the choice to play college basketball has floated around for decades. Over the weekend that conversation was once confirmed by the Hall of Famer himself.

so tracy mcgrady yet again confirms that in 1997 he was dead set on going to kentucky, but the bag was too alluring

im fine

(source: @Hoophall) pic.twitter.com/CfRiA5S57V
— J. Kyle Mann (@jkylemann) July 2, 2021

I’m not here to say that McGrady would’ve definitely chosen the college route even if he could’ve made money, but the odds would have been better right?

Rick Bonnell of the Baltimore Sun wrote a story on McGrady in 1997, where it was confirmed McGrady inked a 12 million dollar shoe deal with Adidas following his signing with an agent.

I’ll go out on a limb and guess there wouldn’t have been any 12 million dollar endorsement deals on the table had he chosen college basketball. Besides, Bonnell also confirms that McGrady knew he was NBA bound when he realized he’d be a lottery pick.

Kentucky’s all-time ‘what-if’ team of Tracy McGrady, Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Kemp is filthy. https://t.co/uXtzRWfYFL
— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) July 4, 2021

Still, it’s a bitter-sweet thought of imagining McGrady playing on the 1998 championship team. You can add T-Mac to the list of Shawn Kemp and Dirk Nowitzki who headline the “what-if” Kentucky team.