No matter how much of a big shot a player is on his NBA team, his role immediately shifts the moment he puts on the familiar red, white, and blue uniform of Team USA. All of the NBA’s all-time greats have gone through it.
From Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird to Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James and Steph Curry, all of them have had to tuck their ego in for the greater good of the team and the stars and stripes.
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This was something that Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady had to learn the hard way when he suited up for the national team at the 2003 FIBA Americas Championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
While T-Mac was the NBA’s scoring champion during the 2002-03 season, an All-Star and a member of the All-NBA First Team, he discovered that all those achievements didn’t mean anything when you’re playing for Gregg Popovich on the national team.
You must take your ego out of it
As big a star as T-Mac was for the Orlando Magic in the early 2000s, he stood side by side with some of the NBA’s biggest superstars on that iteration of Team USA. Also on that team were Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Jermaine O’Neal, Elton Brand, Ray Allen and Tim Duncan, just to name a few.
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“It takes your ego out of it. You know what I mean? It brings you to a level like—you nice on your team, like you the man on your team, but hey man, we got future Hall of Famers. We got champions on this squad,” McGrady said on the “Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady” show.
Carter chimed in, saying that even though they knew they were the overwhelming favorite to win that tournament, they knew there was a standard they needed to uphold. Every game needed to be a show and a blowout; a close victory felt very much like a defeat in their book.
“We don’t want to lose this. We’re not trying to lose a game. We’re not even trying to let a team be close. A loss to us was 15 to 20 points. We’re still dominant. And that was kind of the mentality. Everybody bought into that. And Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich made sure of that with all those damn practices,” Air Canada recalled.
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Pop got on T-Mac
Gregg Popovich got the nod to coach that star-studded squad and brought with him his trademark take-no-prisoners approach. To Pop, it didn’t matter what a player’s stature in the NBA was; he was going to treat everyone the same. And if someone messed up, they certainly would hear about it.
“I didn’t know how Pop worked, right? This is me — I’m the leading scorer in the NBA, and I’m on this team with all you stars, superstars. And we in practice one day, I ain’t really understanding what Pop want. I don’t know what he want offensively,” McGrady narrated.
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“So we swinging the ball. That ball comes to me — I’m wide open. I shoot it. I’m wide open, so I shoot it. Pop looked at me and said, ‘Tracy, you think I’m speaking f—cking Russian?'” he continued.
Not used to getting yelled at, especially since he was the man in the NBA, McGrady felt he was at a crossroads at that particular moment.
“I wanted to go at him, but then I caught myself because I’m amongst, you know, you guys and what we trying to build. I’m like, all right, I see what’s going on. I see what he trying to do, right?He’s trying to build a culture and understanding. But no, this ain’t about you, bro. I know you wide open, but we trying to build something here,” T-Mac shared.
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“So I understood in that moment. I was upset, but then I was like, okay, I get it.”
There are many stories of Pop taking Spurs stars like Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to task for the slightest mistakes. Harsh as it may have been, that practice set the tone — if the players who are getting paid the big bucks could get dressed down, then everybody could as well. It was an approach Pop brought with him to Team USA, and it worked to great success as they won the 2003 FIBA Americas Championship with ease.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Apr 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.