TMAC gets to lifting

from the Orlando Sentinel

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">
It is 6:30 a.m. -- just a crack after dawn -- and Wayne Hall is pounding on Tracy McGrady's front door.

Hall already has phoned ahead twice, at 6 and 6:15 a.m. to provide two wake-up calls, yet there is no movement inside the house, which is not a big surprise and not any problem, either.

Hall has the key to the door, the code to dismantle the security system and the authority to cause havoc inside.

"Time to go to work," Hall bellows when he walks through the house and finds McGrady still in bed. "You still want to be the best?"

McGrady reluctantly arises, his eyes still closed. Another day of off-season workouts is about to begin. McGrady grumbles. Hall smiles.

They will run in the early morning, play basketball in the afternoon, then lift weights in the evening.

The Man behind The Man is doing his job, turning summer vacation into a no-pain, no-gain proposition.

He won't coach a game, score a point or make a decision for the Orlando Magic, but Hall has helped shape the course of the franchise more than anyone knows, shaping one of basketball's finest players.

"If not for Wayne, I'm not nearly as good a player as I am today," McGrady says after one weight-lifting session last week at the former Disney Institute. "We're like a team. He's my motivator. Without him, I'm being lazy, taking a nap somewhere else. I certainly wouldn't be here working."

Although he refers to himself as McGrady's personal trainer, Hall has become considerably more. He also is a close friend, confidant, adviser, nutritionist, psychologist, driver and always on call.

When McGrady leaves for Germany later this week to fulfill a shoe-contract obligation with adidas, Hall will be with him, making sure his workouts continue on schedule. When McGrady goes to New York next month on other business, Hall will be there, too. When McGrady goes to Puerto Rico with the USA Basketball team for an Olympic qualifying event, Hall will be right alongside.

It's more than a job. It's an adventure.

Hall, 35, is a former body builder and power lifter who first met McGrady in 1996, when McGrady was a senior at Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C. Hall owed and managed a small workout facility nearby.

Mount Zion Coach Joel Hopkins was trying to find someone, anyone, to help his basketball players with weight training -- without payment. After every other trainer in town declined, Hall agreed because he was just starting out, a former high school basketball player who still loved the game.

"I never really expected to get paid -- and didn't. And then when Tracy was drafted and went off to Toronto, I thought I'd never see him again," Hall says. "But he started coming back his second year, the year of the lockout, probably because his girlfriend lived here. And we just kind of clicked."

Neither McGrady nor Hall bothered with college, both learning by on-the-job training. McGrady had a rocky start to his NBA career with Toronto. Hall started his personal-training business in his garage apartment in Durham. He later borrowed money to open his Hall of Fitness with $80 in his bank account.

By 2000, McGrady had signed a $93 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade agreement with the Magic. A week later, he convinced Hall to join him in Orlando as his personal trainer. Hall sold his thriving facility in Durham for $400,000 and moved to Central Florida.

McGrady/Hall is a love/sometimes-hate relationship. McGrady, despite becoming an NBA superstar and possibly its best all-around player, is not a self-starter and admittedly unmotivated many times. There are many times when he wants to make Hall disappear.

Yet he is wise enough to retain him, smart enough to know how important he is to his success.

The respect they have for each other is immense.

McGrady will go to great lengths to avoid workouts. Hall, though, will go to even greater lengths to make sure he does those workouts. McGrady can outfox and outplay almost anyone in the NBA, but he can't outrun Hall.

"Tracy will come up with a lot of excuses. He has a headache. He's hungry. He's tired. It's too hot, and sometimes I have to pull him by the arm," Hall says.

"Most of the time, I have to pick him up for workouts. If I leave it up to him to meet me at the gym, it could be hours before he gets there. He knows all the detours, the side roads to slow him down."

It's Hall who usually comes with McGrady to home games at TD Waterhouse Centre. And it's Hall who escorts him out. And their routine rarely changed last season. They went out to eat after games, relaxed, then drove to Disney's Wide World of Sports, where McGrady and Hall lifted weights by themselves.

It's a big reason McGrady had no problems with his troublesome back, a serious concern the previous season. And the regular weightlifting, he says, is why he finished the season as strong as he started it, allowing him to lead the league in scoring.

Because Hall is not employed by the Magic, who have their own strength and conditioning coach on staff, he is not permitted to train McGrady at RDV Sportsplex, where the Magic train.

The Magic stopped that practice when it became unmanageable at the end of the Shaquille O'Neal/Penny Hardaway era.

Although it's often inconvenient, McGrady and Hall train at a variety of other places so they can train together.

They have the keys to the weight room at the Wide World of Sports, where they often go after midnight. They lift at the former Disney Institute, too.

Sometimes they lift weights at a workout facility at Park Central apartments near Mall at Millenia. And sometimes they work on basketball at St. Luke's Church. Last summer, they occasionally played at O'Neal's home.

"Sometimes I wonder if they [Magic] know what he goes through to be T-Mac, and not just Mac," Hall says. "I wonder if a lot of people know. Do they understand what kind of player they would get if he didn't work so hard in the summer? But on the other hand, I'm not going to let another strength coach know what I know. Would Doc Rivers invite George Karl to watch his practices?"

It's through McGrady that Hall started workouts with Mike Miller, former teammate and good friend who was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies but still makes his summer home here. There are others on a part-time basis, such as Marquis Daniels of Auburn, who played at Edgewater High; and Nykesha Sales, formerly of the Orlando Miracle, was working out with Hall before her WNBA season began in Connecticut.

McGrady, though, is the only one who gets the full-service treatment, and he has an unspoken veto power on anyone who wants to work with Hall. One of those who asked but was denied is NBA Rookie of the Year Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns.

"This is business," McGrady says. "I don't want Wayne training some great player that I'm going to have to face. Let them find their own guy like I did."

McGrady, though, last week talked to O'Neal about training with Hall later this summer. O'Neal, in the past, has spent little time training in the off-season.

Hall sounded excited about the opportunity, but he was waiting for O'Neal to contact him about starting.

"The only people I'll train are the people that Tracy gives the 'yes' to," Hall says. "He's kind of selfish about that, and he should be. If you have a secret, you don't just give your secret away."

And unlike many personal trainers, Hall practices the things he preaches to McGrady -- about training, diet, shooting the basketball, working harder than everyone else. From his days as a power lifter, Hall still can bench-press 500 pounds and squat 700 pounds. And more than once, he has beaten McGrady in basketball shooting games.

"How could I expect Tracy, or anyone else, to listen to me if I couldn't back up what I was saying?" Hall says. "I know what I'm talking about."

That loyalty swings both ways with Hall and McGrady. It was Hall who started with McGrady in high school -- when he lifted like a 98-pound weakling and never paid him. And it's McGrady who considers Hall vital to his continued development as an NBA star.

After this season, McGrady gave Hall one of his jerseys with the inscription: "If not for you, T-Mac doesn't exist."

And they both believe it.[
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Great article

this part is the best

It is 6:30 a.m. -- just a crack after dawn -- and Wayne Hall is pounding on Tracy McGrady's front door.

Hall already has phoned ahead twice, at 6 and 6:15 a.m. to provide two wake-up calls, yet there is no movement inside the house, which is not a big surprise and not any problem, either.

Hall has the key to the door, the code to dismantle the security system and the authority to cause havoc inside.

"Time to go to work," Hall bellows when he walks through the house and finds McGrady still in bed. "You still want to be the best?"

McGrady reluctantly arises, his eyes still closed. Another day of off-season workouts is about to begin. McGrady grumbles. Hall smiles.


I have new added respect for him now...NBA finals havn't finished yet and he is working out already..and getting up at 6.30 to train...props

 

no surprise there...T-MAC prolly don't go to bed at night so he gave Hall a key so he could get in and wake him....pretty cool....lol

 

enough for the guy to have a key to his house....

 

damn i was just gettin on to post this article..
the one difference about tmac and kobe is their work ethics.. kobe loves to train.. tmac on the other hand bitches and complains about it

 

thats a great article.....i think hall is probably doing pretty well for himself and getting to travel all around with Tmac would be pretty cool

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting "grizzoistight":</div><div class="quote_post">damn i was just gettin on to post this article..
the one difference about tmac and kobe is their work ethics.. kobe loves to train.. tmac on the other hand bitches and complains about it</div>
Tmac improves his game each year more than anyone (IMO)..I think he's gonna distance himself next year.

 

I just think Tmac has more room to improve than Kobe. I can't picture Kobe gettin any better, but there are things Tmac can improve on, like D

 

Both will improve...as they are only 24..but not a whole lot.

 

Kobes shoulder injury might set him back this offseason...

 

it really doesn't matter as much about the work ethic. well it does, but i mean kobe wants to work, while tmac doesn't, but he has a friend that makes him work over the summer, so they both work hard over the summer, so there's really no difference, because they both work hard, and i think tmac will distance himself, because kobe won't get to work as hard with his shoulder.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting "grizzoistight":</div><div class="quote_post">damn i was just gettin on to post this article..
the one difference about tmac and kobe is their work ethics.. kobe loves to train.. tmac on the other hand bitches and complains about it</div>

what makes u say that? u dont think kobe grumbles and tosses around when he wakes up? everyone does when they wake up thats what makes u human. kobe just LOVES to work out when the cameras on him

 

like in those damn sprite commercials. they make it as if he's the only guy in the nba who works that hard.

 

so funny. i bet they had to do like 8 MILLION takes of the segment with him boxing before they could get one with him not getting knocked around

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting "olskoolFunktitude":</div><div class="quote_post">so funny. i bet they had to do like 8 MILLION takes of the segment with him boxing before they could get one with him not getting knocked around</div>

so true so true, lol