Before the 1997-98 season, the Bulls were looking to trade for Scottie Pippen. The trade would’ve eventually led to Pippen landing in Boston and Tracy McGrady would’ve suited up with Michael Jordan. McGrady believed that Jordan himself had vetoed the trade to protect Scottie. Though this trade did not happen.

Luckily for McGrady, his career changed after he signed an endorsement deal. Playing for the Bulls would’ve been fantastic, but to bring in fortunes for the family is a dream of every young athlete. Tracy also had to quit college basketball for this deal.

Michael Jordan was not involved in this trade discussion

After interviews and discussions with the players and managers, it was revealed that Jordan was not at all involved in this trade discussion.  Jerry Reinsdorf, Bulls’ manager vetoed the trade. McGrady landed in Toronto, right out of high school. Adidas offered Tracy $12 million after he showed off his game at the Adidas camp.

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Tracy wanted to go to Kentucky to play college basketball, as the living of college athletes fascinated him in Kentucky. Though when he was offered a fortune by Adidas, he couldn’t resist. When Tracy was informed of the Adidas deal by his coach, he forgot about playing for college.

“… but he’s like, I have a offer from Adidas. They want you really bad. And when he started in front of me… it’s… at that time at 18 years old, it’s not a hard decision… Right from where we came from that’s, it’s like man forget college bro. They just offered me $12 million like… what? I can’t turn that down.”

Coming out of high school, McGrady couldn’t think of anything else. He signed the deal and went on to play in the league.

McGrady went through a lot of struggles

For Tracy, living on a day to day wasn’t so easy. For living in his house nice and warm, McGrady had to deal with a lot of stuff. When he received the offer from Adidas, he was relieved of his exhausting duties.

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“I ain’t got to be laying on the couch and hearing rat traps being popped. I ain’t got to turn on the stove… the warm up the house that night. You got to go get some kerosene to put on that heater, I ain’t got to do none of that stuff no more.”, said McGrady.

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Tracy also told that he had to raise his feet up while on the toilet because of the rats. McGrady’s life wasn’t easy at all, but by putting his work in every day and staying determined, Tracy went straight to the NBA.