There was quite a bit of speculation before the NBA trade deadline on February 18th on where superstar Tracy McGrady would be when all the dust had settled.

The Houston Rockets had McGrady on the trading block for quite some time in the first half of the regular season, but no team willing to make the trade for the two-time scoring champion considering his tendency to be injury prone and the $23 million dollars remaining on his contract.

Fortunately, when the trade deadline rolled around the New York Knicks were willing to take a chance on McGrady and agreed to trade Larry Hughes, Jared Jefferies and Jordan Hill for the former Houston Rockets superstar.

Even though the Knicks had to get another team involved in the Sacramento Kings, who traded Kevin Martin to Houston and Sergio Rodriguez to New York, the Knicks were able to pull off the deal and quite possibly be the team that benefited the most from the three way deal.

With Tracy McGrady in the lineup, the New York Knicks get the star power back in Madison Square Garden that might be enough to put people back in the stands and could appeal to some big name free agents in the summer to come play in New York.

Obviously the Knicks have their sights set on signing LeBron James in the offseason and with the acquisition of McGrady and the fact that he said he would take less money to sign someone like LeBron or Dwyane Wade in the offseason, New York could quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference next season.

In the meantime, the Knicks have to see if their little gamble has paid off bringing in Tracy McGrady and his first test was against the up and coming Oklahoma City Thunder led by MVP candidate Kevin Durant.

In the first quarter against Durant and company, the Knicks were firing on all cylinders, sloppy play at times, but playing well with McGrady leading the way. As time pressed on, the Knicks and Thunder battled back and forth all the way up to the end of the fourth quarter which ultimately ended with a tie score of 105 a piece and the two teams headed into overtime.

In OT, the Thunder took over and ended up spoiling McGrady’s debut in a Knicks uniform and went on to win 121-118. Kevin Durant finished with a game high 36 points and Russell Westbrook who came just one rebound away from a triple-double with 31 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.

It was pretty obvious throughout the game that Tracy McGrady was still shaking off some rust, but he definitely played better than most people anticipated with 26 points on 10 of 17 shooting. So despite McGrady’s debut with the Knicks ending in a loss, so far the trade looks like it will be working out in New York’s favor as long as he can stay healthy.

Along with McGrady, David Lee had a great game with 30 points (12-16), 10 rebounds and three blocks and Eddie House had a great performance in his Knicks debut with 24 points shooting four for eight from beyond the arc.