T-Mac has either had a change of heart—or at least a change in tone. Back in June, Tracy McGrady stirred controversy when he suggested he could have stepped into Kobe Bryant’s place alongside Shaquille O’Neal. The debate centered on “ring culture,” but many fans felt McGrady had disrespected the Black Mamba. The crew on Gil’s Arena in particular shot down any scenario where McGrady could replicate Kobe’s championship success with Shaq. Now, almost four months and several extensions of that claim later, T-Mac returned to the show to set the record straight.

To be clear, McGrady isn’t apologizing or walking back his comments—he’s simply clarifying. He insists his words were misinterpreted, stressing that he never said he’d have matched Kobe’s three-peat. Instead, he meant that pairing with a prime Shaq would have delivered him a ring, not multiple rings.

Throughout the debate, Gilbert Arenas continued to defend McGrady, but Nick Young went ballistic over anyone backing the original claim. This time, McGrady addressed Swaggy P directly: “When we’re talking basketball, we’re talking hypotheticals all the time, all the time, right? And it was around the ring culture of what we was talking about. And we’re talking early 2000s.”

McGrady said that the critics had picked apart the worst moments of his career to refute his point when he was only talking about his prime years. T-Mac’s prime went parallel with Shaq’s, in the early ’00s with seven All-Star appearances and incredible stats at Orlando. And he claims O’Neal’s championship chances with him would’ve been as good as it was with Bryant.

And anyone who felt he disrespected the late Kobe Bryant, he puts the responsibility on them for twisting his words. “Ain’t nobody replacing Kobe… And people forget that I’m one of the biggest advocates out here, defending when Kobe is disrespected. And if anybody took disrespect to what I said, it’s on you, right? ‘Cause I didn’t mean it. It wasn’t no disrespect to my brother Bean. Top five, wherever y’all have him. For me, he’s one of the greatest, and I put him in that top five all-time.”

Again, McGrady won’t accept accusations that he disrespected Kobe in any shape or form. He’d just like a little acknowledgement – as Gil did – that there was a time in his career, he was as competitive as the Bean.

T-Mac still isn’t winning the Kobe Bryant argument

Tracy McGrady came on First Take four months ago and stirred a storm by saying, “Replace me with Kobe with Shaq, I don’t win a championship?” McGrady asked. “You don’t think I can carry the Lakers to a championship? I’ve never had the opportunity. I felt like if I was put in that position to win a championship, I damn sure would show up and do what I do in the playoffs to elevate my team to that level.”

Nobody in their wildest scenario would place McGrady in Bryant’s spot. So fans and analysts didn’t like this comment. Gilbert Arenas though had a different take. “I could see if he said he was better, or that he could’ve done the same thing Kobe did. But he didn’t say none of that, man,” Arenas had claimed and told fans to stop taking him out of context.

Nick Young though screamed his disagreement in the arena. He even called T-Mac a “loser.” He was rather subdued in front of the man himself today even though McGrady accepted his opinion gracefully.

McGrady though cited Dwyane Wade as an example of how it was possible to win a chip with prime Shaquille O’Neal. “Based off of what Shaq and who he was at that moment in time… at that moment in time… throw me in there. It ain’t… that’s no disrespect to Bean. Not at all. Not no disrespect to Bean. That man he’s a dog. The man is one of the greatest top five players ever. Ever. But we’re talking about that small, minute time. Swaggy. I would have won one.”

His clarification did little to convince fans. Most still don’t feel he’s at par with Kobe Bryant to support this claim.