Retired basketball legend takes aim at Michael Beasley for his off-court behaviour.
Tracey McGrady has voiced his own concerns about the behaviour of the current generation of stars in the NBA, calling them “knuckleheads”.
With Michael Beasley being thrown a career lifeline by the Miami Heat after being busted for marijuana and Lamar Odom entering and leaving rehab before being charged with DUI, McGrady said he has had enough.
The recently retired seven-time All-Star said he is sick of seeing players wasting their chance they have been given by playing in the best competition in the world.
“You’ve got some guys in the league now who are just knuckleheads,” McGrady said.
“What turns me off is guys doing the wrong thing. Just the legal part of it, hanging out, getting these DUIs, marijuana — all that crazy stuff, just doing the wrong thing, setting a bad example for the young guys … I don’t quite understand it.
“I take a guy like (Michael) Beasley. Had all the potential in the world but he’s not level-headed. He just doesn’t get it. And a very talented player.
“But where else are you going to make this type of money doing something you love to do every day, take care of your family and play basketball. I mean, are you serious?
“You get millions of dollars for it and you mess these opportunities up? I don’t get it.”
McGrady also recently revealed that if he had his time over again in the NBA he would have stayed with the Toronto Raptors, rather than made the big switch to become the face of the Orlando Magic.
“Had I been a little older and wiser and knew what was ahead of me, I would have stayed, no doubt, with those guys,” he said.
“But that was some of the best times of my life, man. Being with (Charles) Oakley and Kevin Willis and Antonio Davis, Muggsy (Bogues), Dell Curry, Dee Brown. Man. I still talk to a lot of those guys to this day. Because I appreciated how they looked out for me. They were all professionals.”
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