Tony Gwynn passed away today at the age of 54, thus ending a battle with cancer dating back to 2010.
Gwynn was very private about his medical struggles but he had attributed them to years of chewing tobacco use.
Gwynn was a player of legendary proportion. A 15 time all-star, 5 time gold glove winner, 7 time silver slugger and an insane 8 time NL batting champ. Tony played the game like few could.
He was also an amazing ambassador to the game and his work off the field truly showed what a great person he was. Tony received the Roberto Clemente Award in 1999 for best exemplifying the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.
Gwynn’s number 19 was retired with the padres and in 2007 he was elected the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his very first ballot with a whopping 97.6 percent of the vote.
Part of me cried a little today. Today marks the retirement of Tracy McGrady, this month marked the retirement of Allen Iverson as well. Goodbye Tracy McGrady. Goodbye Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson aka “The Answer”, a former first round pick for the Philadelphia 76ers, lived up to his high draft pick. Allen is historically one of the 76ers greatest players to ever wear their uniform, add to that his ROTY (Rookie of the Year) award, a NBA MVP, multiple:scoring titles, All Star selections and NBA First Team selections, lastly a 2001 Finals appearance; A.I has quite a nice resume for any NBA player.
“The Answer” will probably be best remembered for his “practice” rant that signaled his end in a 76ers uniform. Past that rant though, he’ll be remembered for his killer cross over, his one handed put back dunk, and his amazing Game 1 Finals performance in 2001.
Allen’s legacy will be an interesting one. He revolutionized the Point Guard position, proved a little guy can hang with the best, and brought about a cultural revolution in the NBA (tattoos, corn rows, oversized jerseys); on the flip side though he will be remembered for being selfish, a cancer to teams, and a coach killer.
Tracy McGrady aka T Mac was a former 9th round draft pick for the Toronto Raptors. He may have played up to his superstar potential but never achieved the success others did. T Mac was a prolific scorer and earned multiple scoring titles, All Star selections and NBA First Team selections as well; sadly T Mac never took his own team to the Finals, let alone past the first round of the playoffs.
T Mac will be best remembered for the classic performance he put on against the Spurs where he scored 13 points in 35 seconds! McGrady will also be remembered for his amazing dunks and his offensive dominance.
Tracy McGrady’s legacy is also an interesting one. He had the superstar potential to be one of the best, in his prime years he easily was the best. Sadly due to injuries he never was able to win it all.
This month marks the end of two of the great players in the NBA. While these two men have no rings between the two, their names are still talked about today and I will tell my kids about Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady. I hope to see both in the NBA Hall Of Fame as soon as they’re eligible.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
