Sentinel: Weisbrod, McGrady didn't mesh

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Weisbrod, McGrady didn't mesh

The GM concedes that the team's ex-star wasn't his type of player so he didn't push for T-Mac to stay.

By Brian Schmitz | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 1, 2004


The only thing more blunt than the question was Orlando Magic General Manager John Weisbrod's answer. And it went a long way to explaining why Tracy McGrady was in Houston on Wednesday as a former employee of the club.

"Would it be fair to say that Tracy is not your type of player?"

"Yes," Weisbrod said.

A day after McGrady said the Magic wanted him out and didn't try to persuade him to stay, Weisbrod lashed back at the superstar he traded to the Rockets on Tuesday in a multiplayer deal.

"He definitely said that he wanted out. I think both sides of it are true," Weisbrod said. " I think he made up his mind around the all-star break [in February] that he was out. I think they communicated that to us immediately after the season was over so that is definitely true.

"The fact that we didn't go chasing him down to change his mind, that I didn't call him on his birthday, that's true, too."

Asked if he would treat future stars in the same manner, Weisbrod said, "I'm not going to chase them down, say pretty please with sugar on top."

McGrady acknowledged to the Sentinel on Tuesday that he had difficulties with Weisbrod, a hard-nosed, no-nonsense former NHL player who replaced John Gabriel in March. "I don't like the way he handles things," McGrady said.

Weisbrod could say vice versa. While calling McGrady "arguably, the most physically talented player in the league," Weisbrod said the team was not going to progress if T-Mac returned and resembled the frustrated, unhappy star he was last season. He decided that for all his brilliance, McGrady was not conducive to creating a winning environment.

"Was it going to happen here, and was it going to happen in a way that was constructive?" Weisbrod asked. "And were we going to take a step forward next year instead of a step back? I don't think we would of."

Weisbrod has talked about changing the culture of losing that suffocated the Magic during a 21-61 season. He said he felt McGrady contributed to it by not acting like a driven leader and a committed professional, although he agreed that previous management did little to surround T-Mac with enough talent during his four seasons. Weisbrod wants to rebuild the club with passionate competitors, "guys who want to cover Kobe Bryant," he said. "Maybe he [McGrady] will develop into that, but he's not now."

His reference to Bryant may or may not have been a Freudian slip. When the Magic played the Lakers on March 15, they led Los Angeles by 11 at halftime, and Bryant had scored only one point. He erupted for 37 in the second half while also aggressively guarding McGrady in the fourth period to will the Lakers to a 113-110 victory in overtime at Staples Center.

When the Magic exited their bus to the team hotel, McGrady suggested that Weisbrod send the tapes of Bryant's roughhouse tactics against him to league headquarters. Weisbrod bristled at the notion, and angrily chastised McGrady for not playing defense on Bryant and matching his intensity.

Weisbrod still was fuming when reached his room. He then cooled off, called McGrady and explained to him that he only wanted to help him become the best player he could be.

According to one player and several other sources, there were other incidences in which Weisbrod looked at McGrady and didn't see his type of player.

Two days after the Magic lost to the Lakers, they were drilled by Golden State 110-85. After the game, McGrady questioned what the Magic -- 32 games under .500 -- were playing for, rankling Weisbrod and the coaching staff.

Weeks later, when a doctor or trainer was examining McGrady's left knee, which he said had been ailing him, he asked McGrady where it hurt. "Where do you want it to hurt?" McGrady was to have said, and it got back to Weisbrod.

The last straw, however, might have been March 28, when the Dallas Mavericks came to Orlando for a game televised on ABC. McGrady was sitting out because of the tendinitis in his knee. When interviewed during the game, he chastised his teammates and didn't exactly give Coach Johnny Davis, who had taken over after Doc Rivers had been fired in November, a glowing endorsement.

Weisbrod got a tape of the interview, gathered the team and played it in the locker room. He asked McGrady to explain himself in front of his teammates. McGrady apologized, but sources say Weisbrod "benched" McGrady after the incident. He effectively ended McGrady's season, and his Magic career, three days later by placing him on the injured list, without determining whether he could come back with seven games remaining.

By this time, according to Weisbrod, McGrady already had one foot out the door after letting the Magic know he wanted to be traded.

The Magic received point guard Steve Francis, guard Cuttino Mobley and center Kelvin Cato from the Rockets. Weisbrod was asked if Orlando came close to receiving equal compensation for its superstar.

"I think it starts with how you define a superstar," Weisbrod said. "I think superstars are defined by winning and making people around them better and making teams better. I think that part of it might have my perception a little bit different than most. I feel like we definitely got what we wanted. I felt like we definitely got value."

Weisbrod said the Magic "were better than we were yesterday," and added, "I'm definitely excited about our identity being different. Our identity was Tracy and supporting cast. I would like the identity of our teams going forward to be about team. It's a team sport."

Brian Schmitz can be reached at bschmitz@orlandosentinel.com.