Tracy McGrady was one of the best NBA players of his generation.
Although he could never quite get the pieces to align in the playoffs, from a talent perspective, few matched up to McGrady.
Because of that, McGrady is uniquely qualified to speak on other players – both past and present.
And that’s precisely what he did this week.
During a recent chat with Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington, McGrady got brutally honest in his assessment of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.
“That’s a tough question,” McGrady said of Curry’s all-time NBA rank.
“Because he has his career individually and with what he’s accomplished with his team is tough. Because you’ve gotta think, he won a championship, right, against LeBron [James] that didn’t have Kyrie [Irving], that didn’t have Kevin Love. He didn’t win the [Finals] MVP, right?
“Then he loses a 3-1 lead to LeBron, gets K.D., K.D. comes and wins two championships, so that gives Steph three championship but K.D. wins the two MVPs, right?
“We know Steph is like the 3-point God. But when it comes to putting him with [Michael Jordan] and these guys that won that level of championships; Kobe [Bryant] and Magic Johnson, I don’t know where to rank him. I know he’s pretty high,” McGrady continued.
“But I think those guys are in a different class than Steph Curry based off of [all of that]. They’re on championship teams. K.D. came and joined the Warriors and became the best player and helped Steph win two more championships. But Steph wasn’t the best player on that team.”
Yikes.
Draymond Green recently tried to make the case that Curry was actually more valuable to the Warriors than Durant during their stretch together. That led to a little dust-up between him and Durant.
Jeremy Lin tried to do something similar.
But the Finals MVPs don’t lie.
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 9, 2022
Durant won them for a reason.
And if the Warriors lose to the Boston Celtics this year, it will only bolster McGrady’s overall point about Curry and his all-time historical ranking.
Related: Video Of Draymond Green’s Dirty Play On Jayson Tatum Goes Viral
Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
