He looks like a guy who doesn't have a care in the world, which is probably true. He is 21 and has $92.8 million coming to him and he's living in a fabulous mansion. He's got nothing but loyal friends and family around him and he's playing just a stone's throw from where he grew up.

	McGrady wasn't the man in Toronto, but with Hill out, he is in Orlando.

"It's like I'm in heaven now, man," Tracy McGrady says. "I'm loving this organization. I'm loving Doc (Rivers, the head coach). I'm loving my teammates. And it's just a great feeling when you're on the court, at practice, working hard."

With Grant Hill's surgically repaired ankle still giving him fits, there's more pressure than ever on McGrady to be all that, to be the player he clearly thinks he is: a superstar, capable of carrying a team to a championship.The Magic believe in that belief. Orlando has to.

"I'm hoping he's gonna be okay," Rivers says. "But ... that's difficult. And the expectations are difficult for Tracy McGrady. He's 21 years old and he's never made an All-Star team, and they're expecting him to carry you tomorrow to the promised land. Now, I'm gonna be honest. I think he has the ability to do that. And I think he will do that. But if he doesn't right off the bat, I'm not gonna be disappointed.

"But I think he will."

Says sparkplug Darrell Armstrong: "I expect a lot out of him. I expect an all-around game out of him. The same with Grant. Because those guys can really create something for our team and for other guys to get open shots and things like that."

Not to mention the fact that they each got $93 million. And for all the talk about harmony in the Land of the Mouse, you have to wonder if there isn't just a little resentment of Hill and McGrady for breaking the bank, when their now-teammates broke their backs last season in futile pursuit of the playoffs. So far, so good.

Says center John Amaechi: "I think what we've learned, really, is that what we heard about Grant was true, and I'd heard nothing about Tracy, but everything so far has been overwhelming positive. Certainly athletically, he's ridiculous. He has more skills athletically than I've ever seen. If I had one percent of his athletic ability, I would be a much, much better player."

Says Hill: "There was a little bit of concern (about his teammates' reaction). I think what they had here was special, although it didn't necessarily translate into winning a championship. But just playing basketball the right way, and being in an environment that was a winning environment. And unfortunately some of the pieces had to go, and some did. And you know, I may have -- I did, I guess -- contribute to that."

But Rivers and his returning players have welcomed Hill and McGrady with open arms. And he's not plussed by the whispers that McGrady wasn't a particularly good defensive player in Toronto, that he wasn't as consistent as you'd like a franchise player to be, that he floated through games.

"Well, I think one of the reasons, maybe -- if that's true -- is he wasn't one of the go-to guys early on," Rivers says. "He was one of the guys standing out on the perimeter. And maybe that bored him. He will not be bored here. Because he's gonna get his share of the basketball."

McGrady expects to be a dominant defender.

"I want to be known as a defensive stopper," he says. "Guys gonna be terrified to go against me. That's what I want. If somebody's killing one of my men out on the court, I want to take that challenge. I want to get the opportunity to stop him."

Imagine McGrady playing alongside Eddie Jones in Miami, or Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. But there was no doubt about where McGrady was going. Even though he was pursued over the summer by Alonzo Mourning, and Jerry Krause, and an entire country that couldn't believe he'd leave.

"Well, I like that (Orlando is) kinda slow," McGrady says. "The city's kinda slow. It's not as fast as Toronto. I mean, definitely, how can you beat no state income taxes? How can you beat the weather? I mean, it's a first-class organization. I mean, those three things right there, and when I got that Grant Hill was coming here, I mean, it's just a lot. I mean, you take advantage of opportunities like that."

But you wonder. You remember that Shaq and Penny came to central Florida with big dreams, and couldn't wait, for whatever reason, to get out of town. Each said the same thing. Small town. Real small town.

Armstrong, who was a rookie in the 1994-95 season when the Magic made the Finals, says things will be different for McGrady than they were for Hardaway.

"A lot of things was written about" Hardaway, Armstrong says. "But we didn't have no really veteran leadership. (Now) I'm a veteran. Grant's a veteran. You got guys who's been here in the league ... now we can sit and talk to them. But Penny didn't have that when he was here. Everybody was young. Everybody was rolling with nice rides. 'What kind of ride you riding in today?' Things like that."

	Armstrong

	Hill

Hill says if he went home to Northern Virginia, his high-profile parents would drive him crazy. But he thinks McGrady can handle coming home.

"I think there's good and bad," Hill says. "And it can be a blessing or it can be a burden, depending upon your perspective, I guess ... I think Tracy has a lot of family and a lot of friends from this area, from the Orlando area. So Tracy's not going to want to do anything to embarrass himself, especially in the hometown, where his family and friends are."

McGrady says he's not worried about the scrutiny of living in Orlando. (Not that McGrady will actually be living among the masses. He bought the late golfer Payne Stewart's home in a gated community from Stewart's widow, Tracey.) He's purged everyone from his inner circle that isn't an abashed McGradyite. One wonders if he'll be able to handle all the expectations of going home, of getting the right people the best seats, of taking care of the needs of an extended family.

"That was one of the things I thought about," McGrady admitted. "But, I mean, if that was going to stop me from coming home, I've gotta be crazy. I took care of all that. I got my family the tickets that they need, and my friends, they're gonna be well taken care of. I'm gonna space it out. Just space it out and everybody's gonna be happy...

"Moms, she's in charge. She's taking care of that. I don't have time to worry about all of that. She understands that. My thing is to play ball. Gotta go through moms. If it's friends, I take care of friends, and they have my number. Only people I take care of, they have my cell phone number. Anybody else, I don't take care of them. Because I don't know them like that. The relationship ain't that close."

There's another relationship that may not be as close as we thought. Since McGrady signed with Orlando, he hasn't spoken with his cousin and ex-teammate, Vince Carter. Presumably, each has the other's number.

"I mean, I don't have no beef with Vince," McGrady says. "At all. It was a little ... I think I did another ESPN clip (he was interviewed for both ESPN the Magazine and a piece for television), and what I said was -- you know, I was joking around -- I was like 'I know all of Vince's moves; Vince better watch out, 'cause I'm coming for him.' And if you read the article, they said I winked my eye. I winked my eye. I was just joking around. And I guess the Toronto media turned that around, and it got back to Vince. And I don't know what was up.

"I don't have no beef with Vince. I tried to call him and I heard that my calls was gonna be unanswered, and I was like, 'what's up with that?' And, you know, that was the last I've heard of it. That's it."

Perhaps, McGrady is told, Carter merely is disappointed that he left.

	ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS
	THE TOP 10 1. San Antonio 2. L.A. Lakers 3. Philadelphia 4. Utah 5. Phoenix 6. Portland 7. Charlotte 8. Minnesota 9. Cleveland 10. Miami THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Golden State 26. Detroit 27. Denver 28. Atlanta 29. Chicago

"Yeah, but it's a business, man," McGrady says. "I've gotta look out for myself. Because you look at the kind of player he is, and you at where Toronto is, they're not in the States. Plus, you've got the higher taxes. And if you look at that team, I mean, I think that team is gonna be set back a couple of years when you have all the old veterans leave. And I'm looking at all of that. I'm looking out for myself. And I just had to do what was best for me. And coming home was the best thing."

In Orlando's perfect world, the Magic would roll the ball out and let McGrady, Hill and Armstrong play wherever they want, creating havoc on the wings, getting in passing lanes. But no one knows for sure how long Hill will be playing hurt. He didn't do much in the preseason and he could be out until the All-Star break.

"I know Grant holds a lot of things inside," McGrady says of his ailing teammate. "He don't want nobody to know that he's hurt right now. But I know he's hurt. He don't wanna show it. He wants to be out there on the court playing with us. But he can't. And that right there just shows me what type of player he is."

With or without Hill, somebody on the Magic has to rebound. Orlando had to move Ben Wallace to Detroit to get Hill, and it left a huge hole at power forward. Bo Outlaw and Andrew DeClercq will have to pick up the slack.

Or McGrady.

No problem, he says.

"I feel like my game is where I want it to be," McGrady says. "I feel my confidence is at a high level. I feel my performance is gonna be at a high level. And I feel that the guys on this team is gonna support me, gonna be stick behind me 110 percent. And I'm gonna do the same thing."

Lone Wolf
Joe Smith wants to re-sign with the Timberwolves.

The league doesn't want him to re-sign with the Timberwolves.

	Smith

Each has reasons, legitimate ones.

But the bottom line is, this league is always caterwauling about how it doesn't want to be the NFL, how it wants to foster more loyalty from its players toward their teams. And here comes a guy that's begging to stay in a smaller market, who isn't clamoring to play for the Knicks or Lakers, and the Commish insists on shooing him away.

Here is a modest proposal for making both sides happy.