TORONTO — Tracy McGrady has become the Knicks’ one-man lobbying machine on 2010 free agency.
After Raptors president Bryan Colangelo said yesterday he feels staying put is Chris Bosh’s most “viable option,” McGrady, the former Toronto resident, touted reasons why Bosh would want to escape Canada.
Bosh, the impending free-agent power forward, missed last night’s game vs. the Knicks with a stomach flu that forced him to the hospital. But the undersized Knicks (21-40) still couldn’t capitalize, falling 102-96 at Air Canada Centre and earning their 40th loss with the Nets on tap tonight at the Garden.
McGrady, booed throughout the evening, was drafted by the Raptors and spent his first three seasons as a Canadian resident — apparently not all of it good.
T-Mac, who had a rough outing with six turnovers and 13 points while playing the point, definitely can see Bosh moving on. McGrady also has spoken eloquently about LeBron James joining the Knicks, and T-Mac would love to join forces with the two of them in New York.
“He’s been here for quite some time now,” McGrady said. “He’s personally been successful. The team hasn’t done that much. Maybe he wants to start out fresh with another franchise. Or maybe he’s doing it for [income] tax reasons. It’s different reasons why a guy wouldn’t want to play here [in Canada].”
The moment McGrady uttered the remark, a Knicks public relations official — almost on cue — told reporters the locker room was closed, perhaps before an international incident occurred.
T-Mac’s remarks made the rounds of the Canadian blogosphere yesterday, and he got booed more than usual last night, especially during introductions and the first time he touched the ball.
“Get over it,” McGrady said. “Get over it. What? It’s 11 years, something like that? Get over it.”
Before the game, Colangelo sounded comfortable in his ability to keep Bosh in Toronto.
“A handful of teams have the ability to sign him outright,” Colangelo said. “We still remain the most viable option for him to get him the most money and most years. That’s not changing.”
The Raptors can offer their own free agents the maximum salary for six years. The Knicks can offer five years. However, Bosh could force a sign-and-trade to the Knicks and in that scenario still get a six-year contract.
Colangelo said the Raptors’ desire to keep him was evidenced by their lack of conversations with other teams about trading Bosh at the deadline.
“Our intention is to keep him long term,” Colangelo said. “We’ve made changes to our team with him in mind, and knowing there would be flexibility on his part, with the intention to retain him and have him re-sign here.”
“The [trade] rumors were conjured up by people thinking we would panic and make a deal because of speculation he was leaving,” Colangelo added.
Asked if he felt very strongly Bosh is going nowhere, Colangelo backed off slightly, “I’m not going to predict anything. I don’t know if Chris knows what he’s going to do right now. There’s a few other key free agents I think don’t know what they’re doing right now. ”
With Bosh sidelined by an ankle injury before the flu came on, the Raptors (32-28) had lost four straight entering last night. But they virtually are assured of heading to the playoffs after a slow start. During one stretch, Toronto won 24 of 35 games.
“It’s not just a viable alternative for Chris [to stay] for the dollars that will be available,” Colangelo said. “It’s a viable alternative with respect to the basketball team.”
McGrady admitted coming to Toronto as a teenager was scary.
“It was very tough,” McGrady said. “Eighteen years old. I wasn’t even legal when I came up here, up here in a foreign country, being in a cold environment. That was tough. My first year was definitely a challenging moment in my life to adapt to.”