Tracy McGrady walked onto NBC Sports' NBA Showtime ahead of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on May 18, 2026, and made the pitch in plain terms: this was the basketball people should be watching. Broadcasting from Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, McGrady said the matchup had the kind of skill and shot creation that separates ordinary playoff games from something closer to a showcase.
“Let me say this to all my hoopers out there: If you want to watch some real hooping, the Western Conference Finals, with what they have on both of these teams – they have a bunch of hoopers. Guys that can create their own shots, the skill level is high. This is the type of basketball you want to watch,” McGrady said on the on-site edition of NBA Showtime, which Maria Taylor hosted with McGrady and Carmelo Anthony as analysts.
The timing gave his praise extra weight. NBC aired the Western Conference Finals for the first time since Game 7 on June 2, 2002, and the series also debuted on Peacock on May 18. In Oklahoma City, the league’s Western Conference No. 1 seed and defending champion was opening the round against the No. 2 San Antonio Spurs, with Mike Tirico, Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford on the call for Spurs-Thunder. The setting was built for theater, and the broadcast leaned into it.
One day before tipoff, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became only the 14th player in NBA history to win back-to-back MVP awards, adding another layer to a series already carrying star power. On the studio desk, though, the focus quickly narrowed to the matchup inside the matchup: Chet Holmgren against Victor Wembanyama.
That was the thread McGrady and Anthony kept pulling. McGrady called it “the shiny object in this series,” adding that both teams had depth but that the main battle was clear: “Chet has to match Wemby.” Anthony agreed, calling it “the marquee matchup of the series” and asking whether Holmgren could make Wembanyama work. “He has to be aggressive,” Anthony said.
The exchange framed the series the way the league wants it framed: not as a rematch, not as a ratings play, but as a meeting of players with the kind of individual skill that still sells a postseason round. McGrady went one step further and said this was the best kind of basketball to watch now, saying the last series that fit the bill was “since Golden State-Houston (in 2018), absolutely.”
That comparison matters because the modern NBA rarely settles into a single shape. Stars are spread across the floor. Matchups shift quickly. But Oklahoma City and San Antonio arrived with enough depth, enough creation and enough size at the top of the floor to make the opening night broadcast sound less like a pregame show than a warning: this series could be decided by the players who force the toughest answers. What happens next is simple enough. The audience gets Game 1, and Holmgren and Wembanyama get the first public test that will define how this series is remembered.
