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When Vince Carter And Tracy McGrady Found Out They Are Cousins

In just one year, the Toronto Raptors were able to acquire two future Hall of Famers, which is insane:

On June 25, 1997, Toronto selected Tracy McGrady with their 9th pick in the NBA Draft.

One year later, on June 24, 1998, the Raptors acquired McGrady’s cousin, Vince Carter through a draft-day trade involving Carter and Antawn Jamison.

But, Carter and McGrady didn’t even know they were cousins until shortly before teaming up in Toronto. It was the year before, when Carter and McGrady would play pick-up ball in Carolina, shortly before McGrady was drafted to the Raptors. Carter revealed the story when he was guest on Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes’ ‘All The Smoke’ podcast, and it is hilarious.

“My junior year, is when I find out T-Mac was my cousin. He comes out and he goes to the draft and he’s coming in to work out – we’re going to play some pick-up. Nobody will let him use his locker. Now, we played AAU ball together…. so we used to watch each other play. Never knew we were cousins. We’re playing pick-up in Carolina all week. I said ‘ey buddy, use my locker, whatever, store your stuff…’ all week, cause I knew him from back in the crib. 

On Thursday he said ‘bro, I ain’t gon’ be here Friday, cause I’m going for a family reunion.’ ‘Alright cool, whatever, I see you next week when you get back.’ Just like that. I wasn’t going, cause I was in school. I was back in school playing pick-up. He’s sits at the table with my grandmother and they get to talk. She’s like ‘oh, so you went to school in North Carolina? My grandson plays college ball.’ He [T-Mac] is like ‘oh for real? who is your grandson?’ She said ‘Vince Carter!’

I get a call from my grandma’s phone; ‘Wassup cuz, wassup cuz’. ‘Who the hell is this?’ ‘This is Mac man, it’s T-mac! Wassup cuz?!’ And that’s how we found out we were cousins.”

Then, After McGrady was drafted to Toronto, he told Carter that he should continue to dominate, and he would make sure that the Raptors were going to draft him.