In the 1997-98 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls won their sixth championship.
But Tracy McGrady revealed something leading up to the NBA Draft on Thursday night that could’ve very well prevented the Bulls from winning that title, and greatly altered NBA history: McGrady was nearly traded to the Bulls during the 1997 draft, for Scottie Pippen.
And there’s more: Michael Jordan was the one that apparently nixed the trade.
McGrady told this story to Rachel Nichols and Ramona Shelburne on ESPN’s The Jump:
McGrady was drafted with the No. 9 overall pick by the Toronto Raptors as an 18-year-old, and was eased into his NBA career, averaging under 10 points per game each of his first two seasons. While T-Mac showed flashes in Toronto (averaged 15.4 points per game his third season), he didn’t really take off until his fourth season, which came with the Orlando Magic.
So, take out Pippen and add McGrady… the Bulls likely don’t win the 1998 NBA title. It took them seven games to beat Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and six games to beat Karl Malone, John Stockton, and the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals.
And remember, Jordan retired after the 1998 season. If the Bulls don’t get that title, is Jordan motivated to keep playing (with the Bulls)?
CBS Sports‘ Matt Moore dives further into the “what if” game with this topic:
McGrady went on to be an All-Star player whose career was cruelly cut short by injury, but if things had worked for the Bulls, who knows? Maybe Jordan comes back for an extra year and they win even more titles. Maybe McGrady winds up thriving and carrying the Bulls forward, avoiding the entire Baby Bulls era, which means that Tyson Chandler never winds up in New Orleans, which vaults Chris Paul to superstardom and eventually results in Chandler winding up on the Mavericks and helping them to secure a title. If McGrady isn’t there, how does the Vince Carter era go in Toronto? Does he never wind up on the Nets?
All of NBA history shifts if that trade goes through.
Moore mentions the Vince Carter era in Toronto, and here’s the thing with that one too: Carter may have never even ended up in Toronto if this McGrady-Pippen trade goes through. Carter didn’t enter the league until the 1998 draft, as the fifth overall pick by the Golden State Warriors. The Raptors drafted Antawn Jamison fourth overall, and traded him to the Warriors for Carter. So, had Pippen been on Toronto in 1997, it’s unlikely the Raptors would’ve been bad enough to be in position to draft Carter in 1998.
You could go on and on with things that could’ve happened differently in the NBA after the 1997 draft had Michael Jordan not vetoed this trade. Just another example of the enormous power MJ had in that era.
[CBS Sports; Sports Illustrated]
