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Sleepy All-Star earning respect

Tracy McGrady has taken over the Magic with low-key attitude.

By JAMAL THALJI

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 9, 2001

ORLANDO -- Don't be lulled to sleep by Tracy McGrady.

Don't watch the Magic's newest All-Star glide onto the court with that slow, smooth, too-cool-for-you gait and think he doesn't want to be there.

Don't gaze into the 21-year-old millionaire's tired-looking eyes, half covered by droopy eyelids, and think he doesn't want to be a star. Don't mistake the Auburndale native's laid-back ways for a lack of will. Ever since McGrady entered the league as a prep star in 1997, the 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward's looks have been terribly deceptive. And he knows it.

"Oh definitely," McGrady said. "It's my body language that makes people think I don't work hard on the court. That's just the way I approach the game on the court."

But 827,122 votes can't all be wrong. McGrady will make his first All-Star start Sunday at Washington's MCI Center. The fourth-year pro earned All-Star status by holding together a franchise that could have foundered when fellow free-agent acquisition Grant Hill was lost for the season to a broken ankle. McGrady has carried the Magic into the playoff race at the season's halfway point, leading Orlando on a six-game winning streak and transforming a sub-.500 team into the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 25-23 record.

Since being acquired by a trade with Toronto in the off-season, McGrady is the NBA's seventh-leading scorer, averaging 26.3, and is eighth in the league in minutes per game with 40.9.

But he looks like he's about to fall asleep at the drop of a pillow.

"He might fall asleep right here standing," joked Orlando point guard Darrell Armstrong.

But McGrady's intensity, his commitment to the game, can't be measured by the NBA's usual barometer: strutting, preening, fist-pumping and verbal jousts with foes and fans. He leads by example, interspersed with a few quiet words of encouragement to teammates. He prefers to let his game do the talking. If it doesn't look like he's working hard enough out there, look harder.

It was a lesson all of McGrady's new teammates had to learn in the off-season. His demeanor is so deceiving, his naps so frequent, even Magic coach Doc Rivers admitted it was unsettling at first.

"It was a tough read," Rivers said. "I would probably say it was a difficult read for (his teammates), too. ... But one of the things (former Toronto coach) Butch Carter did tell me is "I guarantee you his demeanor is not what you think.'

"He's an extremely intense player, which you would never know, you wouldn't see that by the way he plays on the floor. But just ask the guy he's just finished guarding how intense he is."

Armstrong said the ease of which the game comes to McGrady is a measure of talent, not an indictment of attitude. "He reminds me of Penny (Hardaway) a lot," Armstrong said. "He and Penny are so smooth that a lot of times it doesn't look like they're playing hard, but they are."

McGrady said it's his style, and no changes, or apologies, are forthcoming.

"That's the way I am on the court, that's just my game," he said. "I play a lazy-type of game. I really don't show that much emotion out there on the court. ... But I've tried to put a little bit more pep in my step and be a little more vocal on the court."

McGrady is an All-Star sleeper, whether on the bus, on the plane, in the training room, in hotel rooms, sometimes minutes before game time. There are few places where McGrady cannot get some shut-eye.

"Hey, I need my rest," McGrady said.

Rivers said it is an attribute many young players share. "I guess that's the new generation," the coach said. "I don't understand it, but to be honest I'm not even trying to understand it. I just tell them to be awake for the game."

So how many hours a day does McGrady sleep?

"You know what, I don't really know," he said. "But I'll add it up and I'll get back to you."

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