These two guys are all heart. All heart.

Yes! The Celtics might still win next year’s championship after all! T-Mac is back on the market!

Despite preliminary interest from the Bulls, who were said to be close to offering T-Mac a contract, T-Mac failed to impress the Bulls brass when he met with them yesterday.

Despite an on-court audition for team officials Monday that one source said raised no significant concerns about his physical condition, McGrady apparently has not convinced the Bulls that he is willing to embrace a secondary role, which is one of two key prerequisites the two-time scoring champ must satisfy to secure a deal from Chicago.

One source close to the process told ESPN.com that the prospect of Chicago signing McGrady was downgraded to “unlikely” after the workout and interview, with the Bulls saying they wanted more time to consider other options. Another source confirmed that the post-workout meeting between McGrady and Bulls’ decision-makers did not clinch a deal, as McGrady had hoped.

Rule #1 of interviews with NBA teams: If a team wants to make sure you’ll play a bench role, don’t say what McGrady said when they ask you if you’d come off the bench.

“I won’t have a problem, but that’s not what I’m really shooting for,” McGrady said. “I think, yeah, if I was the player that I was in a Knicks uniform [at the end of last season], I would have no problem coming off the bench. But I’ve worked extremely hard and I’m far from being that player. Trust me.

“It’s up to me in training camp,” McGrady continued, “to prove I’m a starter.”

What a rookie. If I was T-Mac, I would have sweet-talked them. I would have told them I’d be willing to take whatever role possible, because I loved Chicago and desperately wanted to play alongside Derrick Rose. And then BAM, the second I inked my guaranteed contract I would have started complaining about not starting.

The truth is, T-Mac’s playing the game all wrong. And because of that, teams will have serious doubts about employing him.