He played most of his career with the Adelaide 36ers of the National Basketball League (NBL), winning the 1986 championship with the team.
Game 2 of the series saw Adelaide's only defeat of the season at home with the Bullets pulling off an upset 104–83 win.
Early on, McKay earned the nickname "Mad Max" for sometimes not being able to control his emotions on the basketball court (he was labelled a 'hot head' by some commentators, most notably by Brisbane based television commentator Gary Fleet after his clashes with Leroy Loggins during the 1986 Grand Final series).
[1] Mike McKay first won selection for the Australian Boomers in 1989 and went on to represent his country at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
He was also a member of the Boomers who reached the quarter-finals at both the 1990 and 1994 FIBA Basketball World Cup, finishing 7th in 1990 in Argentina and 5th in 1994 in Canada.