Diving deeper into the Tracy McGrady-Scottie Pippen trade scenario
A rather interesting recent retrospective rumor that emerged concerning The Last Dance docuseries is a potential trade that almost came about involving the Bulls sending Pippen off for a return that would include Mount Zion Christian Academy product and small forward Tracy McGrady. This move would almost seem too much like former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause to do while the team was still winning titles during the dynasty years.
On a recent episode of ESPN’s “The Jump”, McGrady dove deeper into how he was almost traded to the Bulls during the 1997 offseason (more specifically on 1997 NBA Draft night) in return for Pippen. This trade package likely would’ve included other pieces since the Bulls were trying to rebuild in the midst of the dynasty years.
McGrady was the ninth overall pick of the Toronto Raptors in the 1997 NBA Draft. He was taken in a rather shallow draft class that only included one other eventual Hall-of-Famer, San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan (who was the first overall pick out of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons basketball program).
In this potential trade scenario, the Raptors would be dealing McGrady and 6-foot-3 former Colorado Buffaloes point guard Chauncey Billups to the Bulls for a return of Pippen, their 1997 and 1998 first round draft picks (28th overall), and Harper. The latter of the three pieces to the Bulls end of the trade was gone by the turn of the century anyways.
For good measure, the Raptors toss in their 1998 first round pick, which would end up being used on productive big man Antawn Jamison. Keep in mind that this is a retrospective piece where player values are approximated based on where they were at the time. Billups and McGrady were both rookies then.