NBA legend Tracy McGrady is one of the most prolific scorers of all time to retire without winning a title.
During the prime of his career, Tracy McGrady was often viewed in the same league as the late NBA great Kobe Bryant, at least in terms of their scoring abilities.
However, the Mamba retired with five NBA Championships to his name as compared to T-Mac’s zero. The Orlando Magic legend recently made headlines when he claimed he wouldn’t have retied ringless, if only he had the chance to play alongside Shaquille O’Neal.
Well, O’Neal responded to McGrady’s astronomical claim and surprisingly agreed with him.
During the prime of his NBA career, there were hardly any players who could say they were better than O’Neal. He utilized his prime perfectly by helping the LA Lakers win three NBA Championships.
Bryant was O’Neal’s second-in-command during the three-peat. While it’s not a shot at Bryant, Shaq believes if he had T-Mac as his secondary superstar, the result would have been similar.
“Let me go on and say this on record. T-Mac was a bad m_____f_____. Yeah, but see, you got to understand, when T-Mac out there by himself, he didn’t really have room to operate.
“Our guy [Bryant] had room to operate because I got three people on me. T-Mac double, triple, quadruple team,” O’Neal said on the Off The Record podcast.
“Kenny Smith said this all the time, ‘Kobe didn’t get double, triple-teamed a lot. He was free to roam around and do all the stuff.’ So what T-Mac said, I believe to be true,” he added.
While the Diesel agreed with McGrady’s statement, he didn’t discredit Kobe’s role. He agreed that the Mamba was not your ‘average passenger.’
Coming back to the topic at hand, O’Neal further talked about it and announced that he would indeed have won three NBA Championships in a row with McGrady if he were on the Lakers.
He also reminded fans how McGrady scored 13 points in 33 seconds against the San Antonio Spurs in 2004.
“T-Mac was a bad boy, too. But he ain’t really have enough room to operate. So I agree with what T-Mac said.
“Probably get a lot of flak, but I always say to myself, I could have gotten three in a row with T-Mac,” Shaq stated.
But to make things interesting, the 4x NBA champion took things up a notch and pointed out he would have won six NBA titles if he played with Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.
“I think I could have gotten two with Vince [Carter]. Oh, I know, I get six with Steph,” O’Neal concluded.
