Tracy McGrady reveals Rick Pitino’s presence with Celtics caused him to not talk in pre-draft interview
The Celtics could have drafted the Basketball Hall of Famer twice in 1997, holding two top 10 picks that year.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Celtics were close to either drafting star players or moving on from future players they drafted too soon on several occasions.
One of the players they missed out on in the draft was Tracy McGrady in 1997. But it turns out, that was by the Basketball Hall of Famer’s design.
In an interview on the “Ryen Russillo Podcast,” McGrady detailed how Rick Pitino’s presence in Boston caused him to take a different approach during his pre-draft interview with the Celtics, who held the No. 3 and No. 6 overall picks in that year’s draft.
“I just remember in college, I was being recruited by Kentucky and I knew how hard and how tough Rick Pitino was,” McGrady began. “Rick Pitino had left and become Boston’s coach, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to play for Rick Pitino.’ The reason being because [the Celtics were] probably my hardest pre-draft workout ever. I wouldn’t mind playing for Boston, but I didn’t want to play for Rick Pitino at that time because he was too tough, man.”
Pitino, who coached Kentucky for eight seasons, became the Celtics’ head coach and team president in May 1997. Around that time, McGrady opted to declare for the NBA Draft out of high school instead of going to Kentucky and other interested schools.
As McGrady wasn’t a fan of Pitino, he opted to take matters into his own hands and tried to find a way to discourage the Celtics from drafting him.
“It was just finding a way to, I guess, to hurt myself and get them not to draft me by not talking,” McGrady said. “I did fine with my interviews with everyone else but Boston, not so much.”
When Russillo pressed McGrady on whether he was just being a shy 18-year-old that might not have been ready for the moment yet or if he was deliberately tanking it, McGrady said it was more of the latter. But he didn’t want to say he was tanking the interview, either.
“I wouldn’t say I tanked, it but I didn’t do a great job of being who I was,” McGrady said with a hearty laugh. “That’s what I’ll say … I’m 18 years old. I had some instructions coming down. I was influenced.”
McGrady’s approach worked. Russillo said he heard the Celtics wanted to take McGrady prior to the interview but were scared off because of his unwillingness to talk in the interview.
So, Boston passed on McGrady twice. The Celtics did get an All-Star guard with the No. 3 overall pick, drafting Chauncey Billups. But they traded him to the Raptors before his rookie season ended.
Three picks later, the Celtics took forward Ron Mercer. He lasted just two seasons in Boston before getting traded to Denver in the 1999 offseason.
The entire 1997 NBA Draft is filled with what-ifs for the Celtics. In addition to passing on McGrady and trading Billups less than a year after drafting him, Boston missed out on getting the No. 1 overall pick despite holding the second-best odds to do so. San Antonio won the lottery instead, selecting Tim Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick.
Duncan, Billups, and McGrady ended up being the only three All-Star players from that draft class. And as for Pitino, his time in Boston ended in 2001 when he resigned midseason.
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