Back In The Day NBA

Agent Explains How Tracy McGrady Went From Unranked High School Player To Hall Of Famer

Shandel Richardson

Apr 5, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Former Houston Rockets player Tracy McGrady is honored during the game against the Denver Nuggets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 5, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Former Houston Rockets player Tracy McGrady is honored during the game against the Denver Nuggets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Tracy McGrady was arguably one of the NBA's best players during the mid-2000s.

He ranked up there with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as the dominant superstars. While the others were stars before they had a driver's license, McGrady was a late bloomer.

A Facebook post by "Entirely NBA" shows an interview with NBA agent Chris Luchey explaining how McGrady wasn't invited to the ABCD/adidas basketball camp in high school.

"He's unranked," Luchey said. "We don't even know who this guy is. Now, the players got their jersey numbers and it goes up to like 218. So he's like 218 or whatever his jersey number is. So you're lke flipping through the books like, `Who's this guy? Who's 218 or whatever his jersey number is?"

Chris Luchey on how Tracy McGrady put himself on the MAP 🤯 Would Tracy have been TOP 10 ALL-TIME without injuries? #fyp...

Posted by Entirely NBA on Thursday, June 27, 2024

Luchey notes Lamar Odom was the top player in the 1997 high school class. McGrady did more than put his name on the map. He played well enough to go from unranked to the No. 1 player by the end of the camp.

"First of all, he has a fantastic game," Luchey said. "His explosiveness his aggressiveness, he's attackign the rim ... Here's this kid from Florida, coming in, not a lot of exposure."

McGrady was then chosen by the Toronto Raptors in the lottery of the `97 NBA draft. Two years later, Odom was the No. 4 pick of the Los Angeles Clippers. Although they were link by the camp, McGrady had a far more productive individual career before landing in the Hall of Fame.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day NBA. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson

SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com