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Del Harris: West wanted McGrady as part of Kobe-Shaq Lakers

Lisa Blumenfeld / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Former Los Angeles Lakers general manager Jerry West was awestruck with recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tracy McGrady's potential ahead of the 1997 NBA draft, and was keen on making a push to land him at the time.

Pairing McGrady - who wowed West during his predraft workout - with a young Kobe Bryant and superstar center Shaquille O'Neal was the ultimate goal.

"I don’t think anybody can look at an 18-year-old and say he’s a Hall of Famer," former Lakers head coach Del Harris said to The New York Times' Marc Stein. "You couldn’t even do that with Jordan. And Kobe was a young 18 in his first season. He was still in a pretty normal teenage body, compared to when LeBron James came in and had a man’s body.

"McGrady came in the next year with a more mature body and worked out so well that Jerry kind of tooled around with the idea that maybe we should just go ahead and make a deal for whatever it took to get this guy - even though it’d be a step back in the short term - to have two guys like this on the same team."

Owner Jerry Buss wasn't on board, though. With the organization starving for its first championship since 1988, rolling with two teenagers was something he couldn't wrap his mind around.

Harris went on to add that he, himself, didn't want the Lakers to part with a proven All-Star wing in Eddie Jones to acquire McGrady's draft rights. The Toronto Raptors drafted McGrady ninth overall, while the Lakers only had a pair of late second-round picks to work with.

Phil Jackson took over as coach in 1999, guiding Bryant, Shaq, and the Lakers to 67 victories and the first of three-straight championships. It wasn't until McGrady left Toronto that he truly blossomed into a star, taking home multiple scoring titles and numerous All-Star and All-NBA Team nods before calling it quits in 2013.

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