Tracy McGrady, NBA Hall of Famer

We continue this exact Yelp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Make sure you check out a new docu-series, Bonded by Ball, inside the OBL. And it comes out on Showtime Friday.

And the man that runs one's basketball league is the seven-time All-Star, the Hall of Famer, and that of course is Tracy McGrady. T-Mac, great to see you again. How you been? Doing well, man. Good to be on your platform. Thank you for having me. Well, thank you so much. I remember when you joined us a year ago in our New York City studios and you were telling us about the league.

I see it on social media all the time. Just give us an update how the league's been going. Yeah, the league is going well. So we just completed our four-part docu-media series with Showtime that is actually airing this Friday, July 28th on Showtime platform and Paramount+. This is highlighting one-on-one basketball through my lens and really telling the stories of some of the guys that participated in the OBL season. It was our proof of concept season. We got some great feedback about it and I'm excited for you guys to see what we put together with Showtime.

It's remarkable. What has been being a part of this league really taught you when you start to reflect and try to make it better moving forward? Yeah, there's a lot of guys out here that just want an opportunity, man. That's what it really has taught me. They just want an opportunity to really showcase their ability.

They got a lot of love and play with a lot of passion for this game of basketball and I'm the one to give it to them. This is why this platform was created. A lot of guys were extremely grateful for having this platform.

It changed some of their lives and that's what it's really all about. And I see people sitting on the throne. That's what I love the most. I think that's the best social media platform when you get the guys in the big chair. Be the king for the day, baby, for sure.

No doubt. What's your end vision with this, Tracy McGrady? So my vision is for us to really identify what our structure is going to be in North America. Once we identify that, then to have a league running simultaneously in various countries, right, to have those leagues, they identify who's their greatest player and then we come together and form a World Cup to create and identify who's the world's greatest one-on-one basketball player.

That is the overall goal for what we want to build. If you could use the NBA, and I'll throw this fun question at you, Tracy McGrady, right now and take two active players and put them up against one another one-on-one, who would your two players be? Kevin Durant and definitely it would be KD, and I think the other will probably be Devin Booker. Oh, on the same team too. That would be fun.

That would get maybe a little contentious in the gym. Yeah, because I appreciate both of their skill set, which is pretty unique and elite. Mine would be, and a lot of it is because I haven't seen much of him, right?

He's a rookie. I've only really seen much of the summer league. Is Victor Wenbinyama with how much of an athletic freak he is going up against the Greek freak and Giannis Antetokounmpa?

I think that would be fun. I think it will be. I think Giannis will overpower and give him a few years to put on some weight might be a different story, but I think right now he's too light. So you know the Spurs a little bit and that's been one of the criticisms and Victor Wenbinyama was there at the draft and he said, I'm not going to bulk up.

That's not something he's intending on doing. What could you kind of expect the early returns year one with Pop for Victor Wenbinyama? I think the kid is going to have a solid season. I think he probably will win defensive player of the year. Probably as a rookie, I think he has the potential to do that. He's seven.

The kid is 75. He's long. He's athletic.

I think you know when it comes down to it, he needs to put on a few sides. I don't know why they don't want to put any weight on, but I think putting 10 or 15 pounds on him of muscle will help him out tremendously. I don't think it'll slow him down at all, but I expect him to be rookie of the year. Tracy McGrady here with us once again.

The docu series comes out via Showtime on Friday bonded by ball inside the OPL talking about the ones basketball league before we get back to the NBA. I know you had a big baseball background. You've said before growing up, people knew you more as a baseball player compared to a basketball player. If you never went down the road of going to the NBA and being a basketball player, how do you think would be talking about you right now as a baseball player?

I think it would have been a great conversation of me playing Major League Baseball, you know, as a pitcher. I had the potential. The talent was there. Just needed, you know, some some coaching the right right coaching around me and anything was possible. You know that. Like I said, the talent was definitely there.

It was just a matter of, you know, me having that the right, you know, coaches and the right structure around me to pursue that that career. Talking to the Hall of Famer T back Tracy McGrady here on CBS Sports Radio. I saw what you said the other day about James Harden.

I absolutely agree with you. I have no heck, no clue what the heck he's doing. I think he's going to stay in Philly because it looks like no one else really wants him right now. And I wonder how that situation is going to go down when he doesn't want to be there and I'll probably still be there.

Game one. Yeah, that that's going to be a tough pill for him to swallow if he's trying to get out, you know, of that situation and then there's no, no, no, no takers for him. You got to go back got to go in that locker room on trying to leave those guys like now they set you back in the locker room.

Do they question your ability of being there with them like it's a lot of questions that needs to be answered. And James is the only one that can really answer those and then maybe his teammates may know why he wants to get out, we don't know about it. It can't be basketball, it can't be because you're on a championship continuing team. So it's got to be something deeper that we don't know about and hopefully his teammates understand where he's coming from. And my biggest fear if I'm running the Sixers is when does Joel Embiid I know he's kind of threw it out there, a few weeks ago and then said oh he was just trolling but he's got a few more years left on the contract I wonder when he wants to get on out of there and try to force his way out to go be in a better position to win a championship. Yeah, they lose Joel Embiid they're really in trouble that has set them back, you know, they got to continue to put the pieces around and keep that kid happy, you know that's your MVP you can't can't allow him to walk away. Do you think, Damian Lillard, Tracy McGrady, eventually winds up in in port in Miami, leave in Portland.

I don't know Zach, I really don't know. For dame's sake, I hope it happens, you know, I'm a dame fan, I think what he's done important the last 11 years of being a great ambassador on and off the basketball court representative well. He doesn't have that many years left to play at the level that he's been playing at.

I hope he gets the opportunity to play for a championship and that being in mind, I hope it happens. I saw what Paul Pierce said with you and Rachel Nichols and I compare Paul Pierce kinda to like my uncle Freddy, where you just say wild things and we all just accept it and go. All right, yeah sure but whatever uncle Freddy whatever Paul Pierce has to say, Miami not get out of the first round up they have Damian Lillard, what the heck was Paul talking about.

Oh, Paul had to be trolling that day it was early in the morning, you're out in Las Vegas as you see we both had on shades it was an early morning for us. He was trolling, there's no way he really truly believe that. And let's be real, he hates the Miami heat that has to from that too. Yes, he does.

As you can see his fuel dispute with the way is just continuously going on. So before we let you run we'll talk about one's basketball league once again in just a second, but talking about Paul's team that he's most well known for the Celtics they give Jalen Brown that monster $304 million contract that's always great for a player, but you being a former player and knowing the type of player Jalen Brown is what did you think about that when you saw it yesterday. I actually think it's well deserved Jalen put up, you know, huge numbers his team, you know was very successful, not to work where they wanted to be. I don't think you know they met their goals but they've been successful over the years and he's been a huge, you know contributed to that well deserved is just, it's where the money is now man it's a lot of money going around but it's top heavy for those top tier guys, and then the bottom guys, you know, you look at what Westbrook signed for. He's not know $2 million a year player, you know I'm saying so it's, I'm happy for him.

Get it. And then before we let you run if people haven't checked out one's basketball league yet just what could they expect and, and why do you want people to give it a try. Yeah, I think, you know, everybody can't play in the NBA right you know you only have 450 players each year in the NBA everybody can be on the G League roster. But there are, you know guys out here of talent that you don't know about that you should know about. They have a unique skill set and one on one basketball, their competitors, I think, the platform that we created with OBL is a platform where you will be able to sit for two and a half hours of watching great competitive basketball have some guys that you should know about in their skill set so teaming up with Showtime to do a four point four part docu series is really highlighting one on one and highlighting the guys that participated in one on one, and their unique skill set and their their stories off the basketball court as well so it's great, you should you guys should check it out again, dropping this Friday July 28 on Showtime and paramount plus really do appreciate the time always great to catch up with you. Thanks for doing this.