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The Raptors used to be so bad that Michael Jordan wouldn't even trash talk them

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Aug 13 2023, 4:15 pm
The Raptors used to be so bad that Michael Jordan wouldn't even trash talk them
NBA.com

The Toronto Raptors, by all accounts, aren’t expected to be very good next season.

But they probably are still quite far away from the notoriously tough years the team had in the late 1990s.

In their first four seasons from 1995-1999, the team went 90-206, with their highest win total in a season at just 30, missing the playoffs in all four years.

And according to one of the first star players who ever suited up in Toronto, the greatest player of his generation didn’t want to spend much time talking trash to the Raptors.

Despite being one of the most notorious trash talkers of all time, Michael Jordan didn’t see much reason to talk smack to Toronto, as per former Raptor Tracy McGrady.

When McGrady’s Raptors were facing off against Jordan’s Bulls, it was in his rookie season of 1997-98, the same year as depicted in ESPN’s famous The Last Dance documentary, where Jordan won his sixth and final NBA title that season with Chicago.

“We weren’t a very good team at that time, so I’m sure he was like, ‘There’s no need to even waste my trash talking on this sorry ass team,'” McGrady said in a recent interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.Ā 

The Raptors went 0-4 against the 1997-98 Bulls, with McGrady averaging 11.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the three games he did suit up for.

“T-Mac” was ultimately one of the all-time “what-ifs” in Raptors history, as he became a seven-time All-Star following his sign-and-trade away from the team to the Orlando Magic in the 2000 offseason.

McGrady’s second and third All-Star Games were Jordan’s last two, which is when the all-time trash-talker saved some of his best material.

“Now on All-Star Weekend? Of course, Mike talked sh*t because we’re all there together, McGrady said. “There’s a lot of locker room sidebar conversations and chattin’ about certain things, but I can’t really pinpoint what those conversations were about, but you DO hear the chatter with Mike and him talking sh*t to guys.”

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