Sports: 'youth is served'

'youth is served'

High-flying cousins Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter could becoming the NBA's next big rivalry. They meet tonight.

By JAMAL THALJI

ORLANDO -- So this is what the future looks like.

Tracy McGrady. Vince Carter. Two athletic, prolific, high-flying, rim-shaking, human highlight reels battling each other for years to come.

"It's like trying to beat your big brother," McGrady said.

Cousin, actually.

As rivalries go, it may never touch the heights of Bird-Magic. But try to name a rivalry in today's NBA: Iverson-Marbury? Cuban-Refs? Kobe-Shaq?

Maybe this one has all the makings. The two are inexorably linked. They are related. They used to be teammates. Their separation was messy.

So it is no exaggeration to say that tonight's long-awaited reunion, when Carter's Toronto Raptors visit McGrady's Orlando Magic for a 7:30 Eastern Conference showdown, has been hotly anticipated.

Doesn't every star need a rival? Every league a rivalry?

"It's good for the game, I think, and it's good for Tracy," said Magic guard Dee Brown, who played with both in Toronto. "It's good to want to be the best player on the court. Vince did that from day one and hasn't slowed down, and now Tracy wants to do it.

"The game needs that, it needs rivalries like with what you saw with Magic and Bird."

McGrady-Carter, or Carter-McGrady, if you're from Canada or Carter's own Daytona Beach.

If only the combatants would make it easy on sports writers and declare it a rivalry. They won't.

"I wouldn't say a rivalry," McGrady said. "It's definitely a big game. It's just a great matchup. It's a great game to watch. You're seeing two past teammates and two great ballplayers going at each other. He's already there and I'm on the rise, and it's going to be a fun game to watch."

The normally sedate "T-Mac" can at least admit his excitement. Carter, though, is all business.

"I know people are going to try to blow it up, turn it into this big circus," he told the Toronto Sun. "They'll want to make it like it's this big rivalry between me and Tracy. But I'm not worried about it.

"In my mind, already, I'm focused on it being a game we have to win, nothing more. Yes, I'm looking forward to playing my cousin, absolutely. But winning the game is what it's all about."

But the heat already is stifling. Magic coach Doc Rivers doesn't want to touch the burner.

"You need me to inflame the whole thing, right?" Rivers said to reporters after Monday's practice. "Okay, let me see what I can come up with here ... I think Vince Carter is a terrific player, one of the best players I've ever seen."

Rivers has good reason to sidestep the whole McGrady-Carter issue. It needs no more kindling.

Both are homegrown products: McGrady from Auburndale, Carter from Daytona Beach. They are two of the greatest high school stars to emerge from Florida. They are cousins.

Both are all-stars, among the league's brightest. Carter, averaging 28.2 points, is a regular on the highlight shows for the Raptors; McGrady, averaging 26.3, is the surprise savior of a Magic franchise that threatened to tank when all-star Grant Hill was lost for the season to ankle surgery.

But the most important link to consider when the Raptors (22-19) and Magic (18-21) meet is this: They were teammates. Now they're not.

When McGrady left Toronto, he complained about living in Carter's shadow, though the two downplay it now. But that explains in part why McGrady's departure was so cooly received in Canada.

"It was all a miscommunication," McGrady said.

So, is McGrady-Carter the new rivalry of the new millennium? Some swear by it.

"Yeah, it's going to become that," said Orlando point guard Darrell Armstrong. "The good thing is they're distant cousins, so it's going to be a great show. Who's going to have the family junk talk for the summer time? You know everyone's going to be watching the game around Florida, from Daytona to Auburndale."

The hype is what concerns Rivers the most. He knows Carter can perform in the media crucible. But can McGrady?

"Vince has been through all this. Every time he plays is a big game and Vince Carter has shown up," Rivers said. "Tracy is learning how to do this, so it's always dangerous for us when Tracy gets into situations like that.

"Because the bottom line is, if he doesn't respond well to it, most likely we're not going to do very well."

There also is a win and a loss at stake, and for Rivers, a playoff-caliber test for an Orlando team that aspires to reach the post-season.

Rivers, though, said the matchup makes him wistful for the days when he had to chase young, high-flying superstars up and down the court.

"These are the games as a coach that you miss being a player," he said. "There's no doubt about that. It's a big game because of the whole Tracy-Vince thing.

"It's nice to have a game with meaning this early. The second game will mean a lot more, because it's in Toronto, and by that time we'll know if we're in the playoff race or not. I think that will mean a lot more than (tonight.)"

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.