Begging, the story of McGrady's childhood to NBA

Hello, my friend! The kindness of two "mothers"

In McGrady's memory, there are not many memories about his father. Even what the man looks like, he has no clear impression. This is because after he was born, this man disappeared as clean as air after bringing a brief freshness and joy to a teenager as a father. At that time, for Melanie Williford, who only graduated from high school and had few survival skills, it took considerable courage to raise the boy in her arms alone, but her mother's nature prompted her to decide to raise this little life by herself. But the cruel reality is cold. Soon, Melanie had to take her son from Butterwood, Florida to Baender, farther north, to find her mother Roberta. A young single mother needs support, not only financially but also spiritually. From then on, melanie and Roberta, the mother and daughter, began to devote themselves to raising McGrady. In the process of his growth, they had a profound influence on him. Until today, McGrady has used a unified name for his mother and grandmother-mother.

Aubendale is a small town between Tampa and Orlando, only 90 minutes' drive from here. Baender is a truly livable city with elegant environment and pleasant climate. There are only about 9,000 people in this city, most of whom are white. It was here that McGrady was taken care of by two women. When I was a child, McGrady was very naughty. He often leads a group of children to run around a place called "mountain" by his neighbors, just like a "king of children" with leadership skills. Later, McGrady's menstruation gave him the nickname "pumpkin head", and later, all the people in Aubendale called him that.

McGrady's childhood in Aubendale was simple and hard. His two "mothers" have no more financial ability to provide him with rich living conditions, but they try their best to provide everything his son needs. Melanie goes to work at Disney World Hotel in Orlando by bus every day, where she works as a room cleaner. Sometimes she secretly takes her son to the hotel, where there are always many delicious foods that McGrady likes to eat to satisfy his appetite. Roberta also loved her "son" to the utmost, because she was working as a manager in a local fish pond in Baender, so the delicious McGrady often ate delicious lake fish at dinner. In order to let their son enjoy a happy childhood that a normal child can have, the two women tried their best. What impressed McGrady most was that Melanie and Roberta would scrimp and save and prepare a rare gift for their son's birthday, no matter how difficult the financial situation at home was. At the same time, McGrady can get more than 100 dollars in pocket money every year, which was not small at that time. With the efforts of two "mothers", McGrady grew up healthily and safely. If it hadn't been an accident, McGrady might have been satisfied with the ordinary life in Aubendale all his life-a boyfriend of his cousin was shot dead in the street, which made McGrady determined to have the opportunity to leave Aubendale and continue his life in a more civilized and modern place. Later, he finally realized his wish and even became a superstar named by many people, which was the greatest reward for the kindness of the two "mothers".

Penny's bewitch

In order to get rid of the situation of being trapped in the small town of Aubendale, McGrady began to look for ways to change his fate. At that time, becoming a professional athlete was a shortcut for blacks to enter the upper class, and McGrady was full of interest in sports. According to his interest, he first focused on baseball. It wasn't long before he became a minor celebrity in the Little League in Aubendale. His tall and thin figure, keen sense of the ball and strong hitting power make him a terrible killer in the eyes of his opponents. At that time, some scouts were also optimistic that McGrady would become a promising baseball star in the future, until another ball began to slowly wear away the attraction of baseball to him. At that time, McGrady was not completely uninterested in basketball. Occasionally, he would run a few laps on the basketball court with his classmates, but he never took it seriously, because subconsciously, he always thought baseball was his real passion, but at this time, a person changed McGrady's original intention, and he was Averny Hardaway.

1993, Anne Hardaway was selected as "Flower Show" by Golden State Warriors and traded to Orlando Magic in the draft. Then that autumn, what Hardaway did in his rookie season made McGrady crazy. Before that, no one had ever made him feel possessed by basketball for an instant. Orlando can be said to be McGrady's hometown, and Hardaway's unrepeatable feat and charm in Orlando magic made him the number one hero in McGrady's mind. As a result, McGrady's enthusiasm shifted from baseball to basketball at an unimaginable speed. He began to aim at Hardaway, imitating his tricks in the game and practicing every day until he was exhausted. At that time, his height had grown to 1.93 meters. However, in the first two years of Aubendale High School, McGrady was not very lucky. Coach Ty Willis is a man who doubts everything. He doesn't trust McGrady, and his use is ridiculous. However, in senior three, McGrady finally seized the opportunity to get angry. He averaged 23 points and 12 rebounds, which attracted the attention of many college coaches and scouts.

However, with the growth of flying skills of the ball, it is not a pleasant thing. Because McGrady devoted all his energy to practicing, his studies were almost abandoned. He is also a lazy and passive student and is late for class almost every day. After being sued by the class teacher, McGrady was dismissed by the basketball team. As a direct result of this incident, all the national university teams that were very optimistic about McGrady stopped further investigation. At that time, only universities in Miami and Florida talked to him about scholarships, but they were unwilling to give McGrady more promises.

McGrady's predicament at this time is somewhat similar to his idol, Anne Hardaway. At that time, Hardaway also regarded learning as a daunting road. If his grandmother, Louise, hadn't followed his ass and urged him to study, Penny might not have won the scholarship to her hometown University of Memphis at all. At this time, although McGrady also wanted to enter the university to receive the hammer training of NCAA like Hardaway, the reality still played a modest joke on him. Fortunately, God never shuts one door but he opens another. When McGrady was wandering, he was lucky to get help from a noble person. Without this man, I'm afraid he wouldn't have entered the NBA smoothly, and he wouldn't have competed with his idol, Anne Hardaway. McGrady later said that this is a precious memory that he will never forget.

Eye of Smith

When McGrady came to the crossroads of life, an important figure appeared. He is AAU's coach Alves Smith. Smith, another street scout working for Adidas, discovered McGrady's excellent skills and gave the 1996-year-old boy a ticket to attend ABCD summer training camp. The organizer of ABCD Basketball Camp is the famous sports brand Adi. Training camp enjoys a long reputation in the United States, because it has produced many famous young basketball stars. For McGrady, it is exciting to get such a precious performance opportunity.

When McGrady arrived at the training camp of fairey Dickinson University in New Jersey, he was stunned by what he saw. The campus playground was crowded with outstanding American high school players at that time, the most famous of which was Lamar Odom, a talented teenager with a silky sense of ball and capable of playing all five positions on the court. However, McGrady, the same age as Odom, is unknown. At the scene, almost no one noticed the existence of this tall and thin young man, and no one cared where he came from and what he could do. McGrady watched Odom being chased and taken care of, thinking about how to enjoy the same level of courtesy. A few hours later, his wish came true.

At that time, McGrady asked to fight Odom one-on-one, and after several rounds, he beat this boy who was known as a genius to the sky. Only in less than an hour, McGrady changed from an unknown person to a shining star. However, things are not over yet. In the subsequent All-Star Game in training camp, McGrady performed a dunk in a flying windmill. It was this performance that completely confirmed McGrady's honorary status as "America's top high school player".

After McGrady became famous overnight, Smith was glad that he didn't listen to McGrady's information provided by O 'Baender High School, otherwise he might miss a real future star. After learning about McGrady's difficult situation at that time, Smith decided to help McGrady transfer to Monte Christian College High School, which is located in Dulhan, North Carolina and has a long history and strong basketball strength. Smith believes that McGrady, who has been gifted with superman, will definitely become better after being honed and built by this school. In this way, McGrady successfully got rid of the dilemma of no ball to play in Aubendale. Without Alves Smith, it is hard to say that the road behind McGrady will go so smoothly.

Monte Christian College High School is a missionary school, so the requirements for students are very strict. Never fight, swear, hear or sing music, wear ornaments, have a girlfriend, or even miss a church prayer, and you will be punished accordingly. The reputation of this high school basketball level is largely attributed to the team coach joel hopkins. This is an iron-blooded coach, famous for his strict training, bad temper and inarticulate speech. He likes to call himself "Black Bobby Knight", and many high school players quit because they can't stand his cruel and terrible training classes. McGrady had heard many "legends" about Hopkins before he entered school. At that time, he didn't take it to heart, but after his first personal experience, McGrady finally realized the power of Hopkins.

This devil coach really deserves his reputation. In Hopkins' training class, if someone doesn't lose a layer of skin in the next class, he won't let you stand out of the training ground. But McGrady didn't complain. When some of his teammates complained about the coach behind his back, he made a very clever and extremely correct decision-he also practiced sleepless nights without the supervision of coach Hopkins, which meant that he would not pay the price of his life for it. And this is exactly what Hopkins wanted, and a pair of disciples who agreed with each other began to approach slowly. How close are two people? Seven days a week, they will get together for four or five nights to watch the live broadcast of NBA games, which is unprecedented in the history of Monte Christian College High School.

In fact, Hopkins knew about McGrady long before McGrady entered this high school. He thinks that McGrady is a young man with excellent basketball talent, and his only problem is the lack of necessary polishing, but Hoopes Jenkins has given him a lot of unexpected training and games. McGrady also understood the teacher's intentions and lived up to Hopkins' good intentions.

Oak Hill College in Virginia was one of the best high school teams in the United States at that time, and was once on the list of the top 25 high schools in USA-Today. After McGrady joined Mont Christian College High School, they attacked the powerful Ojak Mountain College team twice. He played all five positions on the court and contributed "triple doubles" data in almost every game. His all-around skill of both offensive and defensive makes the opponent team look at the ocean and sigh. Soon, all kinds of praise flooded in, which made McGrady a little high. In a routine training class, Hopkins singled out McGrady, and they had a heated argument on a technical link. They have their own opinions, and neither of them will give in. In the end, they even wrestled together, and one person was thrown to the ground, and the situation almost got out of control. Fortunately, reason prevailed over emotion, and McGrady, who calmed down, solemnly apologized to Hopkins. This incident made McGrady feel that he was beginning to become a real man, and the person who made him mature was of course joel hopkins.

In the McDonald's National High School League 1996-97 season, McGrady led the high school team of Monte Christian College to win the runner-up, and he was also selected as the best high school player of the year by USA-Today, while the Associated Press awarded him the award of "North Carolina High School Player of the Year". McGrady averaged 27.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 2.8 steals that season, so he became a hot potato for coaches and scouts of famous American schools to break their heads. However, McGrady's popularity at that time was still not as good as Odom, the old rival of ABCD training camp. Shane battier, Artest and Marcus Fizer are also chased by famous universities. There are many indications that McGrady will probably choose the University of Kentucky in Rick Pitino, but two benefactors of McGrady saw the doorway from the analysis of the draft situation of NBA super scout Marty Blake. In the list of players who signed up for the NBA draft from 65438 to 0997, there are not many players with strong competitiveness in the first round. Except for Tim Duncan and Keith Van Horne, others are difficult to count. Based on this situation, both Smith and Hopkins suggested that McGrady skip college and try his luck directly in the NBA, which made McGrady very tempted. Finally, he made a decision to participate in the NBA draft.

After the news of entering the NBA came out, many teams in the league expressed strong interest, and Bulls was the most sincere one. At that time, according to Jerry Krause's idea, the Bulls would send Scott Pippen to the Grizzlies in exchange for their fourth pick, so that they could choose McGrady. But just a few hours before the draft began, Michael Jordan stepped in and blocked the deal. He threw Klaus a word-if Pippen was traded by the team, he would choose to retire the next day. In this way, it is conceivable that even if Klaus, a big fat man, is given courage, he will not dare to risk making the "flying man" angry and flinch, because he will become the world's number one sinner. After the Bulls withdrew from this battle for McGrady, other teams increased their chances of winning. At this time, the Raptors began to show their determination to win McGrady.

Two years ago, isiah thomas, then the general manager, decided to include Kevin Garnett, a high school rookie, in the team, but in the end, the bamboo basket drew water with nothing. This time, he turned his attention to McGrady, who is also a high school student. On the day of the draft, isiah thomas watched the first eight teams choose their favorite players one after another, and his heart hung in his throat. Then he was ecstatic, and they left him the most wanted McGrady. So McGrady was hand-picked by isiah thomas, crossed the NCAA and realized his NBA dream. After the overall situation was decided, he discussed with Smith and Hopkins to make sure that at least one person should stay and spend the rookie season with him. Finally, Smith decided to stay with McGrady for another year. He did his best for McGrady. Under Smith's active mediation, Adidas offered the No.9 rookie a six-year contract worth $65.438+0.2 million. Although it can't be compared with the sponsorship contract earned by lebron james during his rookie season, it was quite attractive at that time.

Isiah Thomas, of course, wants McGrady and reserves a strong lineup with championship competitiveness for the Raptors. By that time, Damon Stoudemire and Marcus Camby were already in their places. In Thomas' mind, McGrady has many characteristics of a team's core player, and he took a fancy to this heroic high school student. Although what happened later proved that isiah thomas's hope for him became a heavy burden, McGrady might not be so brave in the future without the "smiling assassin". I hope I can help you! Have a nice day! Can you help with the adoption? Thank you very much