By JOSHUA NATOLI
Sports Editor
Have you ever seen a grown man cry? If you have not, a good place to start would have been my apartment last week. Ok, well I wasn’t crying, but I was indeed very upset. Why, you ask? I happened to have had the unfortunate pleasure of waking up to the news that my favorite player of all-time, not just in the NBA, but across all sports, Tracy McGrady, retired.
Now, I know to most of you that seems a little on the ridiculous side. Why would I be so sad a player retired? It’s not like I ever knew him personally. I have never even seen him in person. But, trust me; it was much more than that. When I first picked up a basketball at ten  years old I fell in love with all aspects of the game. I played in two, sometimes three local leagues at a time; I played all the NBA video games, and watched on TV as well. While I was a genuine fan of the sport and many of its stars, only one stuck out to me, T-Mac. McGrady was a player who could do it all. He lived above the rim, scored with more ease than anyone I had seen, passed efficiently, and defended anyone from Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and even the seven-foot tall Dirk Nowitzki.
A seven-time All-Star, McGrady was drafted directly out of high school by the Toronto Raptors with the ninth overall pick in 1997. He was awarded Most Improved Player, voted to the All-NBA First Team twice and lives among LeBron James and Larry Bird as the only players in league history to score 15,000 points, grab 4500 rebounds, dish out 3500 assists, and net 500 three-pointers within their first eleven seasons. He also put together one of the single greatest seasons in NBA history when he averaged 32.1 points per game to go along with 5.5 assists, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals.
I was hooked. When playing NBA Live I would only play with the Orlando Magic just to use T-Mac. I collected four of his jerseys from three different teams, which now hang above my bed. I had two pairs of his signature Adidas sneakers, which made me feel like I could play more like McGrady whenever I stepped on the court. I stuck by my favorite player through many tough breaks, such as a trade to the Houston Rockets after a dismal season, back injury after back injury, and bouncing between the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, and San Antonio Spurs before finally settling on retirement. You could say this period of fandom could be compared to a die-hard Lil’ Wayne fan sticking by Weezy through the past the two years of subpar music he has been releasing.
I’d have to admit there have been rather sad attempts I have made to keep a fresh image of McGrady dominating on the floor. Watching old highlight tapes of T-Mac dominating the league certainly help, while attempts by myself to make use of him in NBA 2K13 usually lead to mocking by my roommates.
McGrady still is and always will be my favorite athlete; however Indiana Pacers swingman Paul George is growing on me fast, perhaps because he plays a very similar style of basketball to T-Mac. George is becoming a very efficient scorer and ball handler to go along with his shutdown defense. He also knows how to throw down just like McGrady. Needless to say that when George tweeted McGrady praising him about his career I was left with a warm fuzzy feeling in my gut.
Laugh all you want at me, for I do not care. I am a die-hard T-Mac fan and there’s nothing you, career-threatening injuries, or retirement can do to stop it. Thank you for the memories, Tracy McGrady.
