Stuff
Issue: October, 2005
Assignment: Q&A with NBA stars Tracy McGrady and Dwayne Wade, packed within an NBA Preview
DEK: The Heat’s Dwayne Wade and the Rocket’s Tracy McGrady talk basketball just like you and your buddies—except they actually know what they’re talking about.
Stuff: Throughout last year’s playoffs, San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen was accused of playing dirty. Was he?
Dwayne Wade: He just gets away with more than other guys, is all. I don’t think he’s dirty. He has a reputation of being a defensive stopper, so he can get in and crowd you, get his hands on you’re a little more. That can effect your shot, but it’s not dirty.
Tracy McGrady: Bruce Bowen does a great job of getting in people’s heads. He’s got a lot of tricks up his sleeve and is real physical—always holding, grabbing, he don’t give you no space to breathe.
DW: I’ve been pretty successful against him, but he’s a tough defender.
TM: If you’re strong-minded, regardless of what he does, you’re not going to get caught up in his games. If you let him get in your head, he’ll kill you.
S: Now that Gary Payton’s coming to the end of his career, who’s going to pick up the mantle as the game’s biggest trash talker?
DW: There ain’t nobody like GP when it comes to trash talking. He’s still talking right now.
TM: The closest to him is Kevin Garnett, but he’s not usually talking to you, he’s just motivating himself. He’s outspoken and passionate, always yelling, but he’s not really talking trash. That’s just how he is.
S: Every team has practical joker. Who do you guys have to put up with on your team?
DW: Definitely Shaq. You come on the bus, and Shaq be throwing stuff at you.
TM: Jon Barry’s the worst on my team. He’s the class clown. Whenever there’s a heated situation where the coach gets real pissed, he’ll come up with something real stupid to get everyone’s attention and piss the coach off even more. There are some locker room stories, for sure, but that’s classified information.
DW: Yeah, that’s for us, only.
S: With all these European players coming into the league, do we have to worry about the “Soccer Flop” becoming a new style of defense?
TM: You know who started that was freaking Vlade Divac. He’s the king of that. But those guys, they ain’t soft or anything, they just trying to get a call. They’re trying to win ball games. That’s one thing I’ll give the European players. They competitive, and they go hard.
S: Darko Milicic: sleeping giant or historical footnote?
DW: We’ll have to see. He’s in a tough situation, playing on a team that’s competing for a championship every year.
TM: He’s playing behind Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace. I don’t give a damn who you are—you could average 50 points a game—you still not getting playing time behind those guys. Those guys are smart basketball players, they have big hearts, and no fear. One of these days, if he’s patient, he’ll get his chance.
DW: I hate to say it, but until he gets out of Detroit, you’ll never see his full potential.
S: You’re both featured in EA’s new NBA Live 2006 video game. What’s the one thing you can do in the game that you wish you could do in real life?
DW: Dunk over other people.
S: You can’t dunk over other people?
DW: Not like in the video game. Video game? I’m taking off on people. In a real game, I gotta pick and choose who I try to dunk on.
TM: I don’t believe that shit at all.
S: An online poll recently ranked Los Angeles as the world’s sluttiest city. As famous men who deal with women in cities all over the country would you agree?
DW: I’m not going there.
TM: I wouldn’t know.
[HANDLER]: Nice try, kid.
