Tracy McGrady: There used to be a debate for who was NBA's best player, me or Kobe Bryant

Clutch Points: “It was like 3 minutes left in the game. Police came to Kobe like ‘Alright, let’s get you outta here’… He was like ‘Nah, I’m not going nowhere’… He finished the game, hit the game winner.” DeMar DeRozan on Kobe in the Drew League (via @uninterrupted) pic.twitter.com/eCNce0cO2t -via Twitter @ClutchPointsApp / July 26, 2023

The Los Angeles Dodgers will be giving away Kobe Bryant-themed baseball jerseys as part of their Lakers Night promotion, the team announced. The black baseball-style uniforms feature the Dodgers’ traditional script logo across the chest with Bryant’s No. 8 on the front and his No. 24 on the back. The material is printed to look like the scales of a snake’s skin, similar to the commemorative jerseys the Los Angeles Lakers wore in Bryant’s memory in the NBA bubble. -via ESPN / July 25, 2023

The black Bryant jerseys, featuring Lakers gold trim and accents, will be distributed when the Dodgers host the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 1 for fans who purchase their entry through a special event ticket package on the team’s website. -via ESPN / July 25, 2023

Tracy McGrady: “You look at some of the greats that have come through this game. And I’m not saying Magic Johnson was lucky, but Magic Johnson played with a lot of freaking Hall of Famers. I’m not saying Larry Bird was lucky either. He played with a lot of Hall of Famers as well. Jordan wasn’t so lucky of playing with a lot of Hall of Famers. He just had a great sidekick in Scottie Pippen. But if you look at Jordan before Scottie Pippen became Scottie Pippen, Jordan was just a great individual player. Like, Jordan wasn’t getting out of the first round or going deep into the playoffs before Scottie Pippen became Scottie Pippen.” -via YouTube / July 26, 2023

So, related to that, within the last few months we’ve heard both Patrick Beverley and DeMar DeRozan basically say that half of the players in the NBA don’t really love the game. Did you think the same in your time? Tracy McGrady: I agree to that. You have some guys that are talented, and they do it because the money is good. In my era, you used to have guys that make it to the league, and they’ll be shitty for two or three years, but on their contract year? Oh, they’re gonna have their career highs, right? And then they just fall back and they get their money, and then they relax. You don’t love the game if you approach it that way. It’s been going on since I entered the league, and it’s still going on. -via GQ.com / July 25, 2023

And that’s because? Tracy McGrady: It’s more exciting to me. I like college basketball because they play hard. And it’s competitive basketball. I’m not saying the NBA is not competitive, but it’s too much of everybody shooting threes. You’re jacking up and taking terrible basketball shots. I don’t see that on the college level. -via GQ.com / July 25, 2023