When T-Mac talks, people listen
By Brian Schmitz | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 13, 2003
Orlando Magic guard Tracy McGrady is learning that just about any controversial issue a superstar addresses can end up in bold, sometimes bawdy, headlines.
McGrady recently told a "laddie" magazine for its November issue that he believes "5 percent" of NBA players are gay and added he had witnessed incidents of homosexual behavior.
Also in the interview, McGrady criticized Magic management for not involving him in the signing of free-agent forward Juwan Howard.
McGrady made his comments to Stuff magazine writer Bill Schulz, whose questions were far more raucous than McGrady's answers.
In a question-and-answer interview at McGrady's Isleworth mansion in July, Schulz asked McGrady, "Here's a pertinent question: How many homosexuals are currently playing in the NBA?"
"I think about 5 percent," McGrady said.
Schulz then said, " Wow. That's a huge amount for such a macho profession. Have you observed any specific incidents that allow you to make that statement?"
"Yeah," McGrady said.
Schulz went on to another subject when McGrady would not expand his answer. However, he did not include himself among the 5 percent.
McGrady could not be reached Friday for comment on the article. Magic General Manager John Gabriel would not comment.
Gabriel, however, did address McGrady's comments to the magazine about being kept out of the loop when the Magic signed Howard.
McGrady told Stuff, "To tell you the truth, I didn't know it until it hit the news. I didn't have a clue about it, which I think is crazy, because I should know all the moves they make if I'm the key guy for this team.
"You should involve me in everything. I'm finding out from friends that we signed Juwan Howard, and I'm thinking I should have been one of the first to know. I'm really happy to have him on the team, though. He's going to contribute offensively and defensively. And he brings veteran leadership."
Said Gabriel, "I think we [the team and McGrady] had a grasp on the situation.
"I know we share the same goals of winning more each year," Gabriel said. "Our goal is his goal: To put the best team on the floor, and in particular, take as much pressure off him as we can. We did that with the signing of Howard."
Schulz said by phone from New York on Friday that McGrady made his comments to Stuff the day after the Magic signed Howard.
Schulz also asked McGrady about Kobe Bryant's sexual-assault case (McGrady did not want to comment), about smoking marijuana ("I don't smoke. . . . I know guys who smoke and then still go out and drop 30 points") and if he ever slept with an older woman (he nodded, writes Schulz).
Schulz then asked him another question laced with sexual innuendoes that McGrady basically dismissed.
Schulz said his Q & A with McGrady appears in November's issue, but a few excerpts from the interview appeared in a gossip column in Friday's New York Post. The Orlando Sentinel acquired an advance of the entire interview.
Schulz said the tenor of his magazine's interviews are designed to be jaunty, daring and funny. "That's pretty much par for the course. We get a lot of stuff out of them by asking funny, dorky questions. It ain't Newsweek," Schulz said.
"I tried to have fun with it. The guy [McGrady] was expressionless after I asked him something or he was two seconds away from hitting me. I couldn't tell.
"I'm hoping Tracy takes it with a sense of humor."
McGrady took heat earlier this summer for his comments about Bryant's case. His broad-based, innocuous quote, "If you're married, stick with your wife," was widely misconstrued as McGrady criticizing Bryant's lifestyle. McGrady, who made the comments in Orlando, went on a national ESPN radio show to clarify his comments.