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Former Clippers Star Reveals a Unique Skill He Learned From Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady: “I’ve Never Told That Story Dude”

Published 12/31/2021, 10:00 AM EST

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It is a common narrative that Kobe Bryant made basketball beautiful. With his skills, footwork, and timing, to most fans, it felt like the game made them feel alive. He has left fans mesmerized even today. No true NBA fans discuss the greatest player of all time without mentioning Kobe in the conversation. Another truly dominant shooting guard from the same generation was Tracy McGrady. He may not have won an NBA championship ring, but every NBA fan knows his scoring ability was almost unguardable.

Therefore, the generation of NBA players that followed Bryant and T-Mac often picked up on moves they saw them do first. Like Jamal Crawford, the former Los Angeles Clippers star who claims he emulated his hang dribble pull-up move from what he saw Bryant and McGrady do. This is what he said when he revealed how he learned the move from them.

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Former Knicks star reveals what he learned from Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady

Jamal Crawford who now hosts NBA Hooper vision invited T-Mac on his broadcast of the Bucks vs Magic game. Subsequently, he revealed a story about Tracy McGrady that he had never revealed before. He started off with “I’m going to tell you a story about T-Mac that I’ve never told nobody..”.

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And he spoke about the time he worked out with Tracy McGrady. While McGrady made things look easy on the court, Crawford revealed how hard he worked behind the curtains. Following which he said, “Mac was the first person, him and Kobe, rest in peace, were the first people I had ever seen hang dribble pull up.”

Further, he said, “So I start watching and watching and I mastered doing it with left hand, but Mac was using his right hand. That’s weird for a right-hander. So I’m like Mac how’re you doing it? So he showed me how to do it. And I’m like damn. But his work ethic was insane because I didn’t know it was like that. Track work, everything, I’ve never told that story dude.”

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Why is Tracy McGrady one of the greatest shooting guards of all time?

Tracy McGrady was arguably as individually skilled as Kobe. However, he was unfortunately much more injury-prone. His scoring ability was incredibly and as a 6 ft 8-inch guard, he had an added advantage with his height. He even scored 13 points in the last 35 seconds of a game to complete an incredible comeback against the Spurs.

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So if it were not for his injury-prone health, could he have had a career as successful as Kobe Bryant? Let us know what you think about it.

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Written by:

Chaitanya Dadhwal

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Chaitanya Dadhwal is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. Even though his journalism is driven by his desire to understand both sides of an argument and give a neutral perspective, he is biased towards Houston Rockets and Arsenal, and he has shown exactly how loyal he can be through tough times. Currently a Law student at Jindal Global Law School, he aims to have his own sports management firm one day and enjoys rap music during his time off.
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