July 16th, 2010 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
File this under “Mediocrity suits me fine”: One would think that a free agent ballplayer who has an established reputation in the National Basketball Association would want to be with a team that has a “fighter’s chance” of at least reaching the playoffs.
Don’t put Tracy McGrady in that category just yet. McGrady, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com, has scheduled a workout with the Los Angeles Clippers for next week.
As it turns out, the Clippers have a shortage at small forward (they should’ve kept Al Thornton, but I digress) and McGrady’s a free agent, so there you go. What’s interesting is that Los Angeles signed Ryan Gomes and drafted Al-Farouq Aminu with their 8th overall pick in the 2010 draft – go figure.
The Clippers’ rationale for the visit by McGrady? According to team general manager Neil Olshey:
“From a due diligence standpoint, if Tracy McGrady wants to come work out for you, for the price of a plane ticket and a dinner, how do you not bring him in?”
“Tracy and I have a good relationship.”
“We’ve known each other for a long time. He and Baron [Davis] have a good relationship. We obviously have a need for playmaking and scoring on the wings.
“You’re talking about one of the greatest offensive talents in our game, and if Tracy is motivated and he’s right, and he wants to be with us … how could you not bring him in and take a look?”
Is Olshey kidding? Look, there is one thing that the Clippers GM is not mentioning here – that McGrady is injury-prone. Between his back, shoulder and knee issues, he has played a whopping 65 games in the past three seasons.
I have no idea what role McGrady could play on the sinking ship known as the Los Angeles Clippers. It doesn’t matter to me that Olshey has known T-Mac since high school. the NBA is a results-driven, “what have you done for me lately” league. And as such, someone like McGrady should be careful as to who he wants to lace up his hightops with. After all, moving from the New York Knicks to the Los Angeles Clippers is hardly a guarantee that he will visit the playoffs.
But then again, perhaps McGrady and mediocrity deserve each other.
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Stephen Rhodes I just have one question for you, are you bipolar? I seriously doubt that Tmac is going to play for the Clippers. But if he did it would probably be for one year to show the rest of the league that he can still play. Maybe my cup is just HALF FULL, but I think he is using this to try to force another team of his choice into making a decision. By the way, he has the forth highest scoring average in the playoffs history. It was not that he did not try, his teammates were just not good enough.