Stephan Savoia / Associated Press
Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal know what it’s like to enter the NBA from high school.
They also know what it’s like to be among the best players in the NBA, bouncing off a number of different teams and seeing their primes vanish earlier than expected due to injury or abandonment in the game.
They are ready to share their knowledge with the next generation of professional hooper.
Second Marc Stein of the New York Times, McGrady and O’Neal intend to start a player representative agency in the fall and call it Seven1 Sports Group and Entertainment, which is a mixture of the shirt numbers they wore throughout their career (O’Neal was number 7 and McGrady was No. 1).
The plan is for McGrady to be the co-owner and a consultant and will likely leave his broadcasting role with ESPN. As for O’Neal, he plans to be a partner and take the National Basketball Players Association test in January to become a registered agent.
They also plan to compete with high profile agencies such as Klutch Sports, Excel Sports and BDA Sports for players observing the 2021 NBA draft.
Stein explained that the two former players had talked about making such a move in the past, but gained a new level of urgency in their conversations during the COVID-19 pandemic with additional time to stay home and meditate on the future.
“We think it’s necessary and we have a passion for it,” said McGrady. “We are around children every single day because we have programs for young people. It makes sense. We see the lack of information that these kids are receiving, so we would do a disservice to our people if we did not lend our experience of what we know and help guide them. This is a call we have. “
O’Neal has experience beyond his gaming days having worked with young players such as RJ Hampton and Tyrese Maxey at his Drive Nation sports complex in Irving, Texas.
“There is no magic wand for this,” said O’Neal. “We are not trying to say that we are the magic wand. But we will be different. You cannot name another couple of people who have had the level of success and the ups and downs that we have had in our careers.”
McGrady played from 1997-98 to 2011-12 and lived the highest levels on the list of the best players in the league as a two-time champion who was entered in the Hall of Fame.
He also experienced the minimum injury management that drastically reduced his zenith. In fact, he hasn’t played after 33 and has scored an average of single-digit scores in his last three years in the league.
O’Neal played from 1996-97 to 2013-14 and has also dealt with injuries during his career.
He has been a six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA, although, similar to McGrady, he averaged single-digit numbers in his last four seasons as he struggled to replicate his prime.
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