McGrady's hometown values just as impressive as his playing
AUBURNDALE, Fla. — This is Tracy McGrady’s hometown.
It’s one of those towns just outside of some other place you’ve probably never heard of.
Midway between Orlando and Tampa — only about a 45-minute drive from each — it nevertheless feels as if it’s in the middle of nowhere.
With his God-given athletic talents, McGrady would have been a special basketball player had he grown up in Chicago or Houston, or any major city.
But something about this environment helped mold the newest Rocket into one of the more giving professional athletes in the country.
McGrady’s impact on the court is highly visible — ferocious slam dunks, gravity-defying moves to the basket, feather-soft jumpers off the glass. What he does off it is less noticeable but infinitely more meaningful.
From Christmas gifts for needy children to funding an elementary school reading program to children’s hospital donations and visits, McGrady has made Auburndale proud that he calls it home.
"Not only are you guys in Houston getting a great basketball player, you’re getting a person with great character," said former Auburndale mayor Richard Hamann, who coached McGrady in Little League baseball and now runs the Please-U-Barber & Style Shop on Park Street.
The Auburndale Chamber of Commerce brags that this town is one you can stroll through "for that small-town nostalgic feeling where everybody knows your name."
Here, everybody knows Tracy McGrady by sight and by name — Tracy, not T-Mac. But generally speaking, here, everybody knows everybody.
It’s that kind of town.
Except for the many adolescent palm trees lining the highway, Auburndale looks like a small town in Central Texas.
On the outskirts, there are rolling hills with only grazing cows and rusty farm equipment occupying space.
The Bubba Mud Ranch sign at the corner of Highways 570 and 92 is more of an eye opener than the "Auburndale City Limit" one. There’s apparently live racing there on Saturday nights, and you just assume the place is rocking every weekend.
T-Mac’s gym
You know you’re in an unusual place because it seems the majority of the 11,000 or so residents believe the key component to directions is the store you should see when it’s time to turn, as opposed to the name of the street onto which you should set your sights.
Follow directions and you’ll see the bleachers and goal posts at Bruce Canova Stadium, the "Home of the Hounds."
Just past the North end zone you’ll see Tracy McGrady Gymnasium, once home to the area’s most famous athlete.
Dallas Johnson, 16, an athletic youngster built like he could outrun the wind, spends a lot of time in the gymnasium.
And Johnson, who will be a junior on the Auburndale High School basketball squad this fall, is like everyone else here.
"Yeah, I know Tracy McGrady," he said, eyes lighting up at the mere mention of the local hero.
Oddly, though, when given a blank slate to discuss how McGrady’s status as one of the NBA’s elite players has affected Auburndale youth, Johnson doesn’t mention that McGrady is a two-time league scoring champion. Or a four-time all-star. Or perhaps the most exciting basketball player in the world.
"He’s real big on helping out with the community," Johnson said. "He’s always here doing something. He gives to the school, the team, and he even sometimes comes to games.
"He doesn’t walk around like a big shot, just as a person who has something, and wants to share and help others. Everybody thinks he’s special. His being like that shows us what can come from Auburndale."
And McGrady keeps coming back to Auburndale.
A couple of days before the trade that brought him from the Orlando Magic to the Rockets, McGrady hosted a high school basketball tournament in his gymnasium featuring teams from around the country.
Two weeks before that, he held a three-day basketball camp for nearly 100 kids. The admission for the camp? Three cans of food to be donated to those in need.
And on the day the trade to the Rockets became official, he was slated to play in a men’s modified baseball league in his hometown.
The Hill
McGrady grew up not too far from Auburndale High but on the "other side of the tracks."
On "the Hill."
It’s an area that in many ways is more about taking than giving, and had McGrady elected to find the darker element, he, too, could have been a taker.
But McGrady steered clear of negative influences.
Of course, as recognizable as he was — partially because he was clearly an extraordinary athlete at an early age, and partially because this is Auburndale — McGrady couldn’t get into trouble without everyone knowing about it.
"He couldn’t do anything if he wanted to, but he never wanted to," said Obbe Maldonado, who has been McGrady’s running buddy since Little League. "All we did was play sports."
And he played them all well. A Pittsburgh Pirates scout told him if he was interested in baseball, the team would make him a first-round draft pick. McGrady even believes that during one NBA offseason he will pitch in the minor leagues.
"There is nothing he couldn’t do athletically," Hamann said. "He’s just the most gifted athlete to ever come out of Auburndale."
That doesn’t explain how McGrady developed his giving nature.
His grandmother Roberta Williford, who with his mother Melanise Williford raised McGrady, smiles when she says she doesn’t know.
"Well, I can’t say he was really giving as a child, because we didn’t have anything to give," Williford said, "but I’m so proud of the way he has turned out. He’ll do anything for kids. He’s a big kid himself.
"The thing is, he’s still a regular person. He’s not stuck up, and he tries to treat everybody nice. He just loves to give."
Honored by Sporting News as one of its "Good Guys in Sports" for his outstanding character and exemplary civic responsibility, McGrady was the pick of community representatives for the 2002-03 winner of the Rich & Helen DeVos Community Enrichment Award given by the Magic for outstanding community service.
More importantly, McGrady is hands-on with his time and charity work, preferring to lift a finger and not just lend a name to a cause.
The more than $350,000 he gave to various children’s groups and programs in Central Florida last year through the Tracy McGrady Foundation is one thing, but being out front for much of it is something else.
While lying in his hospital bed, Iran Brown, a then-13-year-old victim of the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings in 2002, was asked to name his favorite athlete. He named McGrady and said he would love to have his autograph.
Shortly after hearing this, McGrady not only sent the autograph, but he shipped a box of goodies, including a game jersey and even a taped get-well message to Brown
McGrady also promised to pay for Brown and his family to visit Orlando to take in Disney World and a Magic game when he felt up to it.
McGrady had missed three games with a severe lower back strain before Brown’s visit. But in storybook fashion, McGrady scored 46 points and led his team to victory.
"I had my man Iran here," McGrady explained after the game.
Next stop: Houston
One of the first major gifts the multimillionaire superstar bestowed was a new house for the family. It’s in Winter Haven, on the banks of Lake Jessie, so Roberta Williford can fish whenever she wants.
Thanks to McGrady’s generosity, she’ll also be invited to Houston for Rockets games whenever she likes, but that may not be too often. Definitely not as often as the short trips to Orlando to see the Magic.
"I really wanted him to stay in Orlando, close to home," Williford said. "But I knew the situation up there. He likes to win and this last year would make anybody want to leave."
McGrady can go wherever he likes — he’ll be in Houston on Monday to take in some Major League All-Star Game festivities and house hunt — but he’ll always have Auburndale in his heart, and vice versa.
"He’s going to love playing basketball in Houston, but oh, he’s all Auburndale, a country boy," Maldonado said.
Nearly moved to tears by the reception from Rockets fans upon his arrival, McGrady has quickly warmed to the city.
And thanks to their newest megastar, the Rockets, who swept Orlando in the 1995 NBA Finals, have a nice little addition to their fan base — the residents of Auburndale.
"Oh, I’m a Rockets fan now," Johnson said. "We gotta follow our guy."
Sounds like any community would be lucky to have him.
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