"The disrespect to Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard has to stop!!!" - Kendrick Perkins miffed with the 2 legends not getting named in the NBA 75 team

Kendrick Perkins believes that Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard deserved to be on the NBA 75 team [Photo: OpenCourt-Basketball]

Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard did not make the NBA’s 75th-anniversary team. Their exclusion, though, has caused a little uproar among some basketball fans and sports analysts. McGrady and Howard, according to them, have built bodies of work that should have been enough to include them into the team.

Former NBA player and ESPN basketball analyst Kendrick Perkins, who played against both McGrady and Howard, has furiously disagreed with the two players’ exclusion. After seeing the parade of players making the league’s best 75, Perkins loudly shouted out his support for T-Mac and D12.

Here’s how Perkins weighed in on the Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard controversy:

“The disrespect to Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard has to stop!!! Carry the hell on…”

The disrespect to Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard has to stop!!! Carry the hell on…

While it’s easy for anyone to push someone’s name into the exclusive list, naming the players that should be removed is significantly harder to do. If McGrady and Howard had to be inserted into the roster, Perkins should also have named those who didn’t deserve a spot on the team.

McGrady’s peak was one of the best in the NBA from 2001 to 2008. He was a two-time scoring champ and made the All-NBA team for seven straight seasons.

McGrady jumped from prep to pro and showed vast improvements in his game, earning the Most Improved Player of the Year award in the 2000-01 season.

After moving out of Vince Carter’s shadow with the Toronto Raptors, McGrady started a string of seven incredibly impressive seasons. He was an elite scorer who could get hot in a blink of an eye. His height, length, and versatile game was a tough cover for the NBA’s best defensive players.

Howard, on the other hand, is the bigger snub between the two. His resume is impeccable and better than many on the NBA’s 75 team. He was a 3x winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award and a 5x member of the All-NBA Defensive team. “Superman” led the league in rebounding 5x and blocks twice.

Dwight Howard has more All-NBA selections (8) than any other player left off the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

Howard has as many All-NBA selections as Dave DeBusschere, Kevin McHale, Earl Monroe, Dennis Rodman, Nate Thurmond, Wes Unseld, Lenny Wilkens, and James Worthy combined.

If both had remained healthy for the rest of their careers, they would have been a shoo-in to make the coveted team. As it stands, the debate and controversy could still go on for years to come.

Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard are two of the bigger what-ifs in NBA history

Some superstars were regretably left off the list of the top 75 players in NBA history [Photo: Fadeaway World]

Despite their All-Star credentials, Tracy McGrady and Dwight Howard could have had better careers if not for injuries that robbed them of their capabilities.

McGrady’s back and knee injuries compromised his ability to get off shots in a variety of ways. Without his explosiveness, he slowly wilted and painfully became a role player just as he was about to hit his prime years physically.

Howard, on the other hand, fell from franchise player to journeyman due to brutal back injuries. For a big man who regularly jostled with the strongest interior players, his debilitating back injuries made him a shell of his former self.

Based on what they have shown when healthy, there’s little doubt that T-Mac and Howard should have enjoyed more illustrious careers.