Tracy McGrady was one of the biggest superstars in the NBA during the 2000s decade. McGrady electrified the crowds with his uncanny scoring ability and explosive dunks.
Before he became T-Mac, Tracy was one of the players who successfully made the jump from high school to the NBA. However, that leap was only possible with McGrady's performance at the 1996 ABCD basketball camp.
Ex-ABCD camp director Chris Luchey talked about T-Mac's incredible turnaround from nobody to being 'the guy' in that camp.
"People don't understand that T-Mac essentially wasn't invited to the camp. T-Mac went to Mount Zion," said Luchey on the Entirely NBA's podcast. "Elvis and those guys kinda pushed and pushed Sonny. And it's always like this. We always had 50 guys, 'Oh man, he should be in the camp. He's the best, he deserves it.' And maybe Sonny, with his big heart, 10 of those guys will get in. So Tracy McGrady gets in the camp. He's unranked. We don't even know who this guy is."
'The Dunk' during the All-Star game
Luchey says that despite his obscurity, McGrady had a fantastic camp. He displayed remarkable explosiveness and aggression while relentlessly attacking the basket with his daredevil moves. Tracy was also able to prove his worth against the best high school player in the nation at that time, Lamar Odom .
Because of his performance, T-Mac joined Odom as one of the 20 players in the camp to be named to the All-Star game. And it was during that game that McGrady announced his arrival on the national scene.
"The All-Star game, there is 'The Dunk'. Tracy McGrady comes through…He comes through with the most explosive dunk, comes down the lane, there's Lamar Odom, there's all these athletic…Zendon Hamilton, there's all these athletic guys. Tracy comes through with a windmill dunk, and boom, it like set the atmosphere…the whole arena just erupts. And so seeing a guy coming from that far unranked to being some had him one, two, three, four, whatever number player in the class, that's never been done," he added.
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The last player invited to the camp
During his appearance on the Tidal League podcast last year, McGrady talked about being the last player invited to that 1996 ABCD Camp . According to T-Mac, they gave him the jersey number 175 and pitted him against Odom in his first game there. But as he proudly said, he held his own.
"From that point on, like, who's this guy on the floor? Tracy McGrady, right? Eyes roll on me, go through this camp, wreck the camp. I go, in the summertime, from unknown to the number 1 player in the country. And if I wasn't ready for that opportunity, who knows where I would be," said Tracy.
A ready McGrady decided to skip college and enter the 1997 NBA Draft and was picked 9th overall by the Toronto Raptors. Odom went on to play one collegiate season for Rhode Island before getting picked in the 4th overall in 1999. L.O. won two titles with the Lakers and was the 2011 NBA Sixth Man of the Year. T-Mac never won a ring but ended up having a Hall of Fame career, unlike Lamar.
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