When a player retires, both the fans and the media start the process to evaluate his career and decide where the player stands among his peers and the players of the past if merited.
With Tracy McGrady’s recent retirement, his career provides an interesting case study in whether talent alone can put a player’s career among elite company.
His career is an example of how a single player can help a team excel in the regular season but in the post season the level of competition ensures that a complete team is needed to hold up the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The biggest negative for McGrady is that it took him until his last season to get out of the first round of the playoffs. While one hundred percent accurate, critics tend to overlook the fact that the person expected to carry the team with him, was often injured during their tenure on the same team with McGrady.
Injuries took their toll on both Grant Hill and Yao Ming and they were not always available come playoff times and their contracts hindered what the team could do in order to help him.
But during the regular season his career was filled with games where he put a team on his back and carried them to victory.
One such example came during the 2004-2005 season where he lead the Houston Rockets to victory over the San Antonio Spurs by scoring 13 points in the last 35 seconds.
Here is T-Mac telling it how that night was in his own words.
So Spurs’ fans, what is your evaluation of McGrady’s career? Is he Hall of Fame worthy?
