Written by Staff Writer
By Iain Smyth, CNN
As he begins a documentary series called ‘Brothers On Court’, retired NBA superstar Tracy McGrady has admitted that he once asked his son to lure Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry into a pick-up game in an attempt to ‘recruit’ the guard.
A former all-star, three-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA first team, McGrady joined the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent earlier this summer.
“I can honestly say I asked my son to recruit ‘Stephen Curry’ just to bring him down here and play pick-up,” McGrady told CNN’s “Outside the Lines” at the BET Experience in Los Angeles last week.
“So I’m calling him up, ‘come on down to the basketball court. If you like the game, we can do this.
“Get with me for a little bit, I’ll get you a taste of the real thing and see how you like it. You just need to come down here one time with me and we’ll see how you like it.”
McGrady’s son Emmanuel then moved in to recruit the shooter from the Auburn Hills, Michigan suburbs, for a special master NBA game.
“It was really bad, the pick-up game. Nobody really wanted to play me. I got across the game line (basketball’s foul line) and all I could see was Steph. I said ‘come down here, come down here, let’s see how you like it’ and Steph was like ‘nah I don’t like basketball.’
“But he never said ‘I don’t want to play’. It’s going to be a hell of a run, so he better not forget it or he’s going to find out what the real thing is about.
McGrady revealed that when his son walked in to Curry’s house, the player graciously shared a pleasantries with him before the pair set off on a driving loop, together.
“It was just a great run and he took a picture with my son on his phone. That’s just how kind he is.”
McGrady was referring to a picture in which Curry poses alongside the father-son duo sporting Warriors jerseys while playing a charity game organized by former San Antonio Spurs star Brent Barry.
“I told my son ‘I think the real game would be this year, when we play each other. It’s better than the charity game so we might be able to get him down to a basketball court’.
“So it was a good run and when he played against me he played good. I told him we need to get you down here sometime, and he said ‘yes I’d love to’. You know how we are.”