Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Saturday, August 04, 2007
My New Hero!
Whoa, who would have ever thought I'd find someone that shared my views about the "shenanigans" that go on in the NBA. Below are two great articles written from a fellow blogger at http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/.
Word of the Day: The Stern Button
The 1984 NBA Finals: David Stern's first conspiracy
Word of the Day: The Stern Button
The 1984 NBA Finals: David Stern's first conspiracy
Monday, July 23, 2007
My Hero
One man out, one league in trouble
By Bill Simmons
On Friday afternoon in southern California, you could hear the cacophony of frustrated screenwriters pounding their desks in disgust. The Tim Donaghy scandal doubled as the easiest movie pitch ever.
Imagine how simple it would have been to sell that script. A white NBA referee with a gambling problem (Matt Damon) loses too much money to a bookie (Timothy Olyphant) who's connected with a dangerous family of mobsters (led by head boss Alec Baldwin). One of their muscle guys (Turtle from "Entourage") threatens to beat up the ref unless he gives them inside information. Which he does. Now they have him. They tell him to start throwing a couple of games or they'll go after his wife (Evangeline Lilly) and daughter (the little girl from "Little Miss Sunshine"). He agrees to affect the over/under of games by whistling more fouls than usual, which should drive the scores above the over/under because everyone will be shooting more free throws. For a couple of games, it works. Eventually, they want more. Fearing for his life, he crosses the line and helps fix a few outcomes without realizing the mobsters will never say, "All right, we're good, nice working with you."
Meanwhile, a renegade FBI agent (Ryan Gosling) overhears the ref discussing one of the games on a tapped phone line, then gets tipped off by a mob informant (Joe Pantoliano) that they turned an NBA referee. They track the weasel for a solid year, gather all the evidence they need, then break the news to the NBA commissioner (Ron Silver) and his staff that their league has been compromised. It's too late. Too much damage has been done. The referee resigns, the feds swoop in and that's that. The movie ends with a sobbing Damon going to jail, Gosling getting promoted and Silver glumly watching the tape of a pivotal playoff game from the previous spring, a horribly officiated game that could have potentially affected the championship ... and the sight of that same compromised referee jogging down the court, ready to blow the whistle at a key moment.
The end.
That should have been a movie. Now, it allegedly looks to have happened in real life. If true, it's the rarest of sports scandals, a shocker that shocked absolutely nobody but might end up becoming more significant than anyone imagines. After the most damaging NBA season in three decades, after a series of deep-rooted problems -- almost entirely self-inflicted -- that already had everyone concerned about the league's immediate future, we reached the tipping point with Tim Donaghy.
Guilty or innocent, we will never watch an NBA game the same way. He's going to hang over everything -- every referee, every shaky outcome, every bad call -- in ways the average fan doesn't fully realize yet. Maybe they'll throw Donaghy in jail, maybe they won't, but he'll linger over every court like a black cloud. You'll hear his name more than you think. You and your buddies will make "that guy looks like he's pulling a Donaghy!" jokes every time a referee is making calls against your favorite team. Hecklers will gleefully play the Donaghy card after every bad call against the home team. For honest referees still working games, it doesn't matter what happens from this point on -- their collective integrity will always be questioned, their collective track record won't matter, and that will be that.
So that's one problem. The second problem is more complex. When news of the scandal broke on Friday, as J.A. Adande pointed out in his column that day, every diehard NBA fan had the same reaction. They weren't thinking, "I can't believe it!" or "Oh my God, how could this happen?" They were thinking, "Which one was it?" This was like finding out that your grandfather who smoked three packs a day for 50 years just came down with lung cancer. It was sad but inevitable. It was only a matter of time. These guys never made enough money (as we learned from the airplane ticket scandal) and struggled at their jobs consistently enough that there was no way to tell the difference between blowing a call and intentionally blowing a call.
More than any other professional league, an NBA referee can directly affect the outcome of every game. We've seen it happen time and time again, only we always assumed that the refs in question were working for the best interests of the league, that they were following orders like Luca Brasi (even if there was no definitive proof) -- like the guys who worked Game 6 of the Kings-Lakers series in 2002, or Game 7 of the Suns-Sonics series in 1993, or the infamous Hubert Davis Game in 1994. After Dwyane Wade and Miami received some Vince McMahon-level assistance in Games 3 and 4 of the 2006 Finals, I wrote an angry column about the "officiating crisis" (my words) that prompted Mavs owner Mark Cuban (tired of being fined) to post the link on his blog along with the sentence, "I never have to say a word again." After Dallas squandered that series, Cuban was so traumatized by the officiating that he nearly sold the Mavericks before family and friends talked him out of it.
For anyone who loves the NBA, the officiating has always been the proverbial "elephant in the room." No league has endured more jokes along the lines of "I'm not sure where the NBA ends and the WWE begins." Whether it's because of bad luck, poor training, measly pay or the thanklessness of the profession itself -- maybe it's all of those things -- the NBA employs a handful of good referees and an astonishing number of bad ones. In the playoffs, there never seems to be enough quality officials to go around. If that wasn't bad enough, the league displayed a nasty "habit" (note: I'm using quotation marks because you could never prove anything more than a series of coincidences) of assigning better referees if they needed road teams to prevail (like a marquee team trailing 2-1 and playing Game 4 on the road) and weaker referees if they needed home teams to prevail (because weak referees are more likely to have their calls prejudiced by a raucous home crowd). This "habit" was miraculously cured this past spring, one year after the fallout of the 2006 Finals, when the officiating assignments became noticeably more haphazard and we ended up with just one Game 7 in four rounds. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not.
And that's before factoring in the public's perception (well-earned, by the way) that superstars receive more favorable calls than non-superstars. It's like Chris Rock's bit about dad getting the biggest chicken leg at the dinner table -- once you reach a certain level in the NBA, the whistles will come. This perpetual leeway allows gifted athletes like Wade, Gilbert Arenas and LeBron James to drive recklessly into traffic in crunch time, knowing they can either score or draw a foul. (Even when Michael Jordan won the '98 Finals on what everyone believed was his final shot ever, he famously shoved Utah's Bryon Russell to the ground before launching that jumper. No whistle.) If anything, LeBron's pre-2007 game depended on this leeway so much that he was completely ineffective in the 2006 World Championships; he kept bowling his way into the paint and waiting for calls that never came. The international refs almost seemed amused by him. The NBA refs would have been bailing him out.
So when news of the Donaghy scandal broke, everyone's reaction was the same: "Which one?"
That's why I had one group of friends frantically organizing a "Who was the crooked ref?" office pool on Friday morning instead of wondering, "How could this happen?" That's why Stern ignored the FBI's advice and used such harsh language in his official statement on Friday; nobody understands the gravity of this crisis more than someone who grew up in New York in the '50s during CCNY's famous point-shaving scandal. This was his worst nightmare, worse than a repeat of the Artest Melee, worse than a repeat of Kermit Washington's punch, worse than anything except a terrorist act during an NBA game. Over everything else, David Stern always wanted his fans to feel completely safe when they're attending games, and he always wanted them to believe that the integrity of the game was intact. Now, they don't feel that way. At all.
So that's two significant problems. Problem No. 1 will fade away over time, although it will never completely disappear. Problem No. 2 can be fixed, although it will take some major work. But Problem No. 3 can't be fixed. If the allegations are true, Tim Donaghy didn't just violate the integrity of the league and rig some games. There's a good chance he altered the course of the 2007 championship. Only three teams had a chance last year: Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio. When Dallas choked against Golden State in the opening round, the NBA's refusal to fix a broken playoff system came back to haunt it in Round 2, thanks to a Spurs-Suns matchup that suddenly doubled as the NBA Finals. In Game 1, San Antonio stole home-court advantage with a convincing win that everyone remembers because Steve Nash busted his nose open. The Suns rallied back with a blowout win in Game 2. Here's what I wrote after the third game -- the Spurs were favored by four, with an over/under of 200.5 -- after San Antonio prevailed, 108-101, thanks to Amare Stoudemire playing just 21 minutes because of foul trouble:
Congratulations to Greg Willard, Tim Donaghy and Eddie F. Rush for giving us the most atrociously officiated game of the playoffs so far: Game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series. Bennett Salvatore, Tom Washington and Violet Palmer must have been outraged that they weren't involved in this mess. Good golly. Most of the calls favored the Spurs, but I don't even think the refs were biased -- they were so incompetent that there was no rhyme or reason to anything that was happening. Other than the latest call in NBA history (a shooting foul for Manu Ginobili whistled three seconds after the play, when everyone was already running in the other direction), my favorite moment happened near the end, when the game was already over and they called a cheap bump on Bruce Bowen against Nash, so the cameras caught Mike D'Antoni (the most entertaining coach in the league if he's not getting calls) screaming sarcastically, "Why start now? Why bother?" What a travesty. Not since the cocaine era from 1978-1986 has the league faced a bigger ongoing issue than crappy officiating.
Now ...
Before the Donaghy scandal broke, if you told me there was a compromised official working a 2007 playoff game and made me guess the game, I would have selected Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. There were some jaw-dropping calls throughout, specifically, the aforementioned Ginobili call and Bowen hacking Nash on a no-call drive that ABC replayed from its basket camera (leading to a technical from D'Antoni). Both times, Mike Breen felt obligated to break the unwritten code that play-by-play announcers -- don't challenge calls and openly questioned what had happened. The whole game was strange. Something seemed off about it.
At the time, I assumed the league had given us another "coincidence" where three subpar refs (and calling that crew "subpar" is being kind) were assigned to a Game 3 in which, for the interest of a long series, everyone was better off having the home team prevail ... just like I anticipated another "coincidence" in which one of the best referees would work Game 4 to give Phoenix a fair shake in a game that, statistically, they were more likely to win. After all, it's easier to win Game 4 on the road than Game 3, when the fans are pumped up and the home team is happy to be home.(Which is exactly how it played out. Steve Javie worked Game 4, a guy who Jeff Van Gundy deemed "the best ref in the league" during the Finals. Hmmmm.) Look, this could have been an elaborate series of connected flukes. I'm just telling you that none of it surprised me. Which is part of the problem.
But here's what I didn't expect: That a potentially crooked ref was working that game.
Imagine being a Suns fan right now. You just spent the past two months believing that your team got screwed by the Stoudemire/Diaw suspensions, that you would have won Game 1 if Nash didn't get hurt, that you would have taken Game 3 if you hadn't been screwed by the officials, that you would have cruised in Game 5 if two of your best guys weren't suspended for running towards their best player as he lay in a crumpled heap. Now it looks like an allegedly compromised referee worked Game 3.
Well, how much did Donaghy affect the game? How many calls did he whistle on Stoudemire? How many of Bowen's potential fouls did he not call? Was he the seemingly incompetent schmuck who made that three-seconds-too-late call on Ginobili? Did Tim Donaghy cost you that game?
If David Stern wants to do right by the fans, then he should order NBA TV to rerun the tape of Game 3. We need answers. We need to know for sure. Hell, they can start a series called "NBA Hardwood Classics: The Tim Donaghy Collection" and we'll spend the rest of the summer combing through games and figuring out how many Donaghy could have fixed. Like Game 6 of the Raptors-Nets series, which New Jersey won by a point in the final seconds. Did he swing that one? What about Game 2 of the Orlando-Detroit series, when the Magic rallied for a late cover in the final seconds with Donaghy jogging around? What about the Heat-Knicks game from last February in which the Knicks were given a 39-8 free-throw advantage and covered a 4.5-point spread by 1.5 points? Did Donaghy call those two technical fouls on the Miami coaches? Is there footage of Pat Riley screaming at him?
Stern promised us that "we would like to assure our fans that no amount of effort, time or personnel is being spared to assist in this investigation." And really, that's great. Thank you. But I'd rather see tapes of those games. I want to see all five playoff games that Donaghy worked last spring, as well as that Heat-Knicks game and any other contest that's relevant. Before we worry about justice, let's get some answers. Especially for Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. I left that series believing that the Spurs were better, that their offensive execution was unparalleled, that Tim Duncan was the best player on the court, that they would have figured out a way to win that series whether the suspensions happened or not. Now? I'm not so sure. What if an allegedly crooked referee hadn't been working Game 3? What if the Suns won that game? What then?
If you're a diehard Suns fan, this now becomes the toughest playoff loss in NBA history. You have a legitimate case that you were screwed.
If you're a diehard NBA fan, you're horrified but strangely hopeful, because we needed a tipping point to change a stagnant league that was headed in the wrong direction ... and maybe this was it.
Look, we already knew the officiating needed to be improved. We knew the NBA needed to solve the problem of non-playoff teams tanking down the stretch and shelving stars who could have played (and yet continuing to charge fans full price for these games). We knew the NBA needed to solve a lottery system that hasn't quite worked for 20 years. We knew the NBA needed to solve a screwed-up playoff system that only works when the conferences are perfectly balanced, and more importantly, we knew the league needed to start taking some chances. This is a league that hasn't swung for the fences with a major change since 1979, when it brought in the 3-point line from the old ABA. For nearly three decades, it has been making minor cosmetic changes here and there -- the draft lottery, zone defenses, hand-checks, the charging semicircle, improved rating systems for officials, flagrant fouls, the leaving-the-bench rule, the dress code -- while continually ignoring the bigger picture.
What's the big picture? Well, the regular season is effectively meaningless. Contenders can only improve to a point because of the luxury tax, so everyone searches for that same half-assed "we want to contend for a title, but we don't want to lose $20 million this season" competitive zone that leads to deals like Kurt Thomas and two first-round picks for a second-round pick and a 2006 trade deadline in which the biggest move involved Anthony Johnson. Fan interest peaks at three points -- at the start of the season, at the start of the first round of the playoffs, and right before the draft -- and dips at every other point. For seven of the past 10 seasons, the best two teams in the league played before the Finals -- which seems so incredibly shortsighted, I can't even begin to fathom how it's allowed to continue. And worst of all, when an NBA official was accused of fixing games, the prevailing reaction was "Which one?"
So yeah, they could make a movie about Tim Donaghy's story. And they probably will. Let's just hope we're not watching a documentary about the death of the NBA some day, because we're headed that way. Wake up, fellas. Rome is burning.
By Bill Simmons
On Friday afternoon in southern California, you could hear the cacophony of frustrated screenwriters pounding their desks in disgust. The Tim Donaghy scandal doubled as the easiest movie pitch ever.
Imagine how simple it would have been to sell that script. A white NBA referee with a gambling problem (Matt Damon) loses too much money to a bookie (Timothy Olyphant) who's connected with a dangerous family of mobsters (led by head boss Alec Baldwin). One of their muscle guys (Turtle from "Entourage") threatens to beat up the ref unless he gives them inside information. Which he does. Now they have him. They tell him to start throwing a couple of games or they'll go after his wife (Evangeline Lilly) and daughter (the little girl from "Little Miss Sunshine"). He agrees to affect the over/under of games by whistling more fouls than usual, which should drive the scores above the over/under because everyone will be shooting more free throws. For a couple of games, it works. Eventually, they want more. Fearing for his life, he crosses the line and helps fix a few outcomes without realizing the mobsters will never say, "All right, we're good, nice working with you."
Meanwhile, a renegade FBI agent (Ryan Gosling) overhears the ref discussing one of the games on a tapped phone line, then gets tipped off by a mob informant (Joe Pantoliano) that they turned an NBA referee. They track the weasel for a solid year, gather all the evidence they need, then break the news to the NBA commissioner (Ron Silver) and his staff that their league has been compromised. It's too late. Too much damage has been done. The referee resigns, the feds swoop in and that's that. The movie ends with a sobbing Damon going to jail, Gosling getting promoted and Silver glumly watching the tape of a pivotal playoff game from the previous spring, a horribly officiated game that could have potentially affected the championship ... and the sight of that same compromised referee jogging down the court, ready to blow the whistle at a key moment.
The end.
That should have been a movie. Now, it allegedly looks to have happened in real life. If true, it's the rarest of sports scandals, a shocker that shocked absolutely nobody but might end up becoming more significant than anyone imagines. After the most damaging NBA season in three decades, after a series of deep-rooted problems -- almost entirely self-inflicted -- that already had everyone concerned about the league's immediate future, we reached the tipping point with Tim Donaghy.
Guilty or innocent, we will never watch an NBA game the same way. He's going to hang over everything -- every referee, every shaky outcome, every bad call -- in ways the average fan doesn't fully realize yet. Maybe they'll throw Donaghy in jail, maybe they won't, but he'll linger over every court like a black cloud. You'll hear his name more than you think. You and your buddies will make "that guy looks like he's pulling a Donaghy!" jokes every time a referee is making calls against your favorite team. Hecklers will gleefully play the Donaghy card after every bad call against the home team. For honest referees still working games, it doesn't matter what happens from this point on -- their collective integrity will always be questioned, their collective track record won't matter, and that will be that.
So that's one problem. The second problem is more complex. When news of the scandal broke on Friday, as J.A. Adande pointed out in his column that day, every diehard NBA fan had the same reaction. They weren't thinking, "I can't believe it!" or "Oh my God, how could this happen?" They were thinking, "Which one was it?" This was like finding out that your grandfather who smoked three packs a day for 50 years just came down with lung cancer. It was sad but inevitable. It was only a matter of time. These guys never made enough money (as we learned from the airplane ticket scandal) and struggled at their jobs consistently enough that there was no way to tell the difference between blowing a call and intentionally blowing a call.
More than any other professional league, an NBA referee can directly affect the outcome of every game. We've seen it happen time and time again, only we always assumed that the refs in question were working for the best interests of the league, that they were following orders like Luca Brasi (even if there was no definitive proof) -- like the guys who worked Game 6 of the Kings-Lakers series in 2002, or Game 7 of the Suns-Sonics series in 1993, or the infamous Hubert Davis Game in 1994. After Dwyane Wade and Miami received some Vince McMahon-level assistance in Games 3 and 4 of the 2006 Finals, I wrote an angry column about the "officiating crisis" (my words) that prompted Mavs owner Mark Cuban (tired of being fined) to post the link on his blog along with the sentence, "I never have to say a word again." After Dallas squandered that series, Cuban was so traumatized by the officiating that he nearly sold the Mavericks before family and friends talked him out of it.
For anyone who loves the NBA, the officiating has always been the proverbial "elephant in the room." No league has endured more jokes along the lines of "I'm not sure where the NBA ends and the WWE begins." Whether it's because of bad luck, poor training, measly pay or the thanklessness of the profession itself -- maybe it's all of those things -- the NBA employs a handful of good referees and an astonishing number of bad ones. In the playoffs, there never seems to be enough quality officials to go around. If that wasn't bad enough, the league displayed a nasty "habit" (note: I'm using quotation marks because you could never prove anything more than a series of coincidences) of assigning better referees if they needed road teams to prevail (like a marquee team trailing 2-1 and playing Game 4 on the road) and weaker referees if they needed home teams to prevail (because weak referees are more likely to have their calls prejudiced by a raucous home crowd). This "habit" was miraculously cured this past spring, one year after the fallout of the 2006 Finals, when the officiating assignments became noticeably more haphazard and we ended up with just one Game 7 in four rounds. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not.
And that's before factoring in the public's perception (well-earned, by the way) that superstars receive more favorable calls than non-superstars. It's like Chris Rock's bit about dad getting the biggest chicken leg at the dinner table -- once you reach a certain level in the NBA, the whistles will come. This perpetual leeway allows gifted athletes like Wade, Gilbert Arenas and LeBron James to drive recklessly into traffic in crunch time, knowing they can either score or draw a foul. (Even when Michael Jordan won the '98 Finals on what everyone believed was his final shot ever, he famously shoved Utah's Bryon Russell to the ground before launching that jumper. No whistle.) If anything, LeBron's pre-2007 game depended on this leeway so much that he was completely ineffective in the 2006 World Championships; he kept bowling his way into the paint and waiting for calls that never came. The international refs almost seemed amused by him. The NBA refs would have been bailing him out.
So when news of the Donaghy scandal broke, everyone's reaction was the same: "Which one?"
That's why I had one group of friends frantically organizing a "Who was the crooked ref?" office pool on Friday morning instead of wondering, "How could this happen?" That's why Stern ignored the FBI's advice and used such harsh language in his official statement on Friday; nobody understands the gravity of this crisis more than someone who grew up in New York in the '50s during CCNY's famous point-shaving scandal. This was his worst nightmare, worse than a repeat of the Artest Melee, worse than a repeat of Kermit Washington's punch, worse than anything except a terrorist act during an NBA game. Over everything else, David Stern always wanted his fans to feel completely safe when they're attending games, and he always wanted them to believe that the integrity of the game was intact. Now, they don't feel that way. At all.
So that's two significant problems. Problem No. 1 will fade away over time, although it will never completely disappear. Problem No. 2 can be fixed, although it will take some major work. But Problem No. 3 can't be fixed. If the allegations are true, Tim Donaghy didn't just violate the integrity of the league and rig some games. There's a good chance he altered the course of the 2007 championship. Only three teams had a chance last year: Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio. When Dallas choked against Golden State in the opening round, the NBA's refusal to fix a broken playoff system came back to haunt it in Round 2, thanks to a Spurs-Suns matchup that suddenly doubled as the NBA Finals. In Game 1, San Antonio stole home-court advantage with a convincing win that everyone remembers because Steve Nash busted his nose open. The Suns rallied back with a blowout win in Game 2. Here's what I wrote after the third game -- the Spurs were favored by four, with an over/under of 200.5 -- after San Antonio prevailed, 108-101, thanks to Amare Stoudemire playing just 21 minutes because of foul trouble:
Congratulations to Greg Willard, Tim Donaghy and Eddie F. Rush for giving us the most atrociously officiated game of the playoffs so far: Game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series. Bennett Salvatore, Tom Washington and Violet Palmer must have been outraged that they weren't involved in this mess. Good golly. Most of the calls favored the Spurs, but I don't even think the refs were biased -- they were so incompetent that there was no rhyme or reason to anything that was happening. Other than the latest call in NBA history (a shooting foul for Manu Ginobili whistled three seconds after the play, when everyone was already running in the other direction), my favorite moment happened near the end, when the game was already over and they called a cheap bump on Bruce Bowen against Nash, so the cameras caught Mike D'Antoni (the most entertaining coach in the league if he's not getting calls) screaming sarcastically, "Why start now? Why bother?" What a travesty. Not since the cocaine era from 1978-1986 has the league faced a bigger ongoing issue than crappy officiating.
Now ...
Before the Donaghy scandal broke, if you told me there was a compromised official working a 2007 playoff game and made me guess the game, I would have selected Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. There were some jaw-dropping calls throughout, specifically, the aforementioned Ginobili call and Bowen hacking Nash on a no-call drive that ABC replayed from its basket camera (leading to a technical from D'Antoni). Both times, Mike Breen felt obligated to break the unwritten code that play-by-play announcers -- don't challenge calls and openly questioned what had happened. The whole game was strange. Something seemed off about it.
At the time, I assumed the league had given us another "coincidence" where three subpar refs (and calling that crew "subpar" is being kind) were assigned to a Game 3 in which, for the interest of a long series, everyone was better off having the home team prevail ... just like I anticipated another "coincidence" in which one of the best referees would work Game 4 to give Phoenix a fair shake in a game that, statistically, they were more likely to win. After all, it's easier to win Game 4 on the road than Game 3, when the fans are pumped up and the home team is happy to be home.(Which is exactly how it played out. Steve Javie worked Game 4, a guy who Jeff Van Gundy deemed "the best ref in the league" during the Finals. Hmmmm.) Look, this could have been an elaborate series of connected flukes. I'm just telling you that none of it surprised me. Which is part of the problem.
But here's what I didn't expect: That a potentially crooked ref was working that game.
Imagine being a Suns fan right now. You just spent the past two months believing that your team got screwed by the Stoudemire/Diaw suspensions, that you would have won Game 1 if Nash didn't get hurt, that you would have taken Game 3 if you hadn't been screwed by the officials, that you would have cruised in Game 5 if two of your best guys weren't suspended for running towards their best player as he lay in a crumpled heap. Now it looks like an allegedly compromised referee worked Game 3.
Well, how much did Donaghy affect the game? How many calls did he whistle on Stoudemire? How many of Bowen's potential fouls did he not call? Was he the seemingly incompetent schmuck who made that three-seconds-too-late call on Ginobili? Did Tim Donaghy cost you that game?
If David Stern wants to do right by the fans, then he should order NBA TV to rerun the tape of Game 3. We need answers. We need to know for sure. Hell, they can start a series called "NBA Hardwood Classics: The Tim Donaghy Collection" and we'll spend the rest of the summer combing through games and figuring out how many Donaghy could have fixed. Like Game 6 of the Raptors-Nets series, which New Jersey won by a point in the final seconds. Did he swing that one? What about Game 2 of the Orlando-Detroit series, when the Magic rallied for a late cover in the final seconds with Donaghy jogging around? What about the Heat-Knicks game from last February in which the Knicks were given a 39-8 free-throw advantage and covered a 4.5-point spread by 1.5 points? Did Donaghy call those two technical fouls on the Miami coaches? Is there footage of Pat Riley screaming at him?
Stern promised us that "we would like to assure our fans that no amount of effort, time or personnel is being spared to assist in this investigation." And really, that's great. Thank you. But I'd rather see tapes of those games. I want to see all five playoff games that Donaghy worked last spring, as well as that Heat-Knicks game and any other contest that's relevant. Before we worry about justice, let's get some answers. Especially for Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. I left that series believing that the Spurs were better, that their offensive execution was unparalleled, that Tim Duncan was the best player on the court, that they would have figured out a way to win that series whether the suspensions happened or not. Now? I'm not so sure. What if an allegedly crooked referee hadn't been working Game 3? What if the Suns won that game? What then?
If you're a diehard Suns fan, this now becomes the toughest playoff loss in NBA history. You have a legitimate case that you were screwed.
If you're a diehard NBA fan, you're horrified but strangely hopeful, because we needed a tipping point to change a stagnant league that was headed in the wrong direction ... and maybe this was it.
Look, we already knew the officiating needed to be improved. We knew the NBA needed to solve the problem of non-playoff teams tanking down the stretch and shelving stars who could have played (and yet continuing to charge fans full price for these games). We knew the NBA needed to solve a lottery system that hasn't quite worked for 20 years. We knew the NBA needed to solve a screwed-up playoff system that only works when the conferences are perfectly balanced, and more importantly, we knew the league needed to start taking some chances. This is a league that hasn't swung for the fences with a major change since 1979, when it brought in the 3-point line from the old ABA. For nearly three decades, it has been making minor cosmetic changes here and there -- the draft lottery, zone defenses, hand-checks, the charging semicircle, improved rating systems for officials, flagrant fouls, the leaving-the-bench rule, the dress code -- while continually ignoring the bigger picture.
What's the big picture? Well, the regular season is effectively meaningless. Contenders can only improve to a point because of the luxury tax, so everyone searches for that same half-assed "we want to contend for a title, but we don't want to lose $20 million this season" competitive zone that leads to deals like Kurt Thomas and two first-round picks for a second-round pick and a 2006 trade deadline in which the biggest move involved Anthony Johnson. Fan interest peaks at three points -- at the start of the season, at the start of the first round of the playoffs, and right before the draft -- and dips at every other point. For seven of the past 10 seasons, the best two teams in the league played before the Finals -- which seems so incredibly shortsighted, I can't even begin to fathom how it's allowed to continue. And worst of all, when an NBA official was accused of fixing games, the prevailing reaction was "Which one?"
So yeah, they could make a movie about Tim Donaghy's story. And they probably will. Let's just hope we're not watching a documentary about the death of the NBA some day, because we're headed that way. Wake up, fellas. Rome is burning.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Magic Make Headlines
Orlando waved millions of NBA dollars. Billy Donovan couldn't resist. But after winning the last two national titles at Florida, will Donovan work his Magic at the next level? History isn't on his side. Pat Forde
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Finally, Brian Hill has been FIRED!!!
In the long-awaited end of a complicated process, it simply came down to this for the Orlando Magic:Magic General Manager Otis Smith fired Brian Hill as coach on Wednesday because he didn't believe Hill would get the most out of the team with his style and strategy if he returned.
Some of the issues in deciding Hill's fate, according to those close to the situation, were Hill's inability to adjust during the Magic's midseason slump; his lack of offensive imagination; and whether he was developing young players Dwight Howard, Darko Milicic, Jameer Nelson, Trevor Ariza and rookie J.J. Redick to their potential.
One veteran player, requesting anonymity, said he didn't sense any of his teammates played a part in forcing out Hill. Hill's first stint with the Magic ended in 1997 with his firing after a player coup.
Magic officials are expected to meet with the media Thursday.
"Brian's contributions to the Orlando Magic have been tremendous," said President Bob Vander Weide said in a statement released by the Magic on Wednesday night. "We appreciate everything Brian did for us as a head coach in taking us to this point, and hope he decides to stay with the organization."
Vander Weide told the Sentinel on May 2 that the team would take "two to three weeks" to "go through the process" of evaluating his team's past season and the job that Hill did.
Twenty-one days later, Hill was out.
The Magic had said in early March when the team was struggling that they still had confidence in Hill. Smith told the Sentinel before the Magic faced the Houston Rockets on March 11 that he expected Hill to "fulfill his contractual obligations" through 2009.
Hill had even said he was not worried about "my job security."
But by the end of the season, Hill was receiving lukewarm endorsements from Vander Weide and Smith.
Vander Weide said after the Magic were ousted by the Detroit Pistons that he was "satisfied" with his team, and a day later, Smith said he "expected" Hill to return.
Then, just before Hill and the Magic decided to part, a club official said Hill was "frustrated" with the job.
Hill was hired for the second time by the Magic on May 24, 2005, taking over for interim coach Chris Jent. Jent had replaced Johnny Davis, who was fired as head coach.
Hill was fired the first time after a player revolt in 1997, ending a near four-year run in which Hill took Orlando to the NBA Finals in 1995.
In his first season back with the team in 2005-06, Hill led the Magic to a 36-46 record -- the same record they compiled under Davis and Jent the previous season.
Last season, the Magic jumped to a 13-4 start but faded badly before making a run to barely reach the playoffs. They were swept in four games in the first round by the Pistons.
Hill became a target of fan criticism on sports-radio talk shows. One fan started a FireBrianHill.org Web site.
There was speculation that Hill and Smith had some philosophical differences, most notably with the style of offense and Hill's use of certain players such as Redick and Milicic.
When told that Smith said the Magic's biggest need this offseason was a scorer, Hill said he was not comfortable giving his opinion, adding he would "defer" to the general manager.
Since Chuck Daly resigned in 1999, the Magic have had four head coaches -- Doc Rivers, Davis, Jent and Hill.
As far as replacements for Hill, veteran coaches Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkens, Stan Van Gundy and Mike Fratello could be available. Veteran Rick Carlisle was fired this season by the Indiana Pacers. Phoenix assistant Marc Iavaroni and Dallas assistant Sam Vincent are also possible candidates. The Indianapolis Star reported today that Stan Van Gundy has turned down an offer to coach the Pacers, and the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina reported that Vincent will be named the Bobcats' coach by Friday, barring unforeseen circumstances.
Florida Gators Coach Billy Donovan, who has led the Gators to back-to-back national championships, has expressed a desire to one day coach in the NBA. But Donovan apparently is waiting on a contract extension from the school. At a news conference Wednesday in New York, where he received the New York Athletic Club's Winged Foot Award, Donovan said he expected to complete an extension at UF.
"I'd like to get it done," Donovan told The Associated Press. "It's not me. People think, 'He's trying to hold this up.' I would have liked to have done it a couple of days after [the championship game.]"
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Soldier No More
D-Wade was literally crying on the bench last night when he hurt his shoulder. What a total puss. I thought he was the tough guy "who keeps getting up". Ironically, he didn't even fall when the injury occurred. I wonder if he'll lose some "street cred" after crying like a little girl, screaming like a bitch, and having to be taken off the court in a wheelchair? I know I won't miss him, as far as I'm concerned, anyone can do what he does; and watching a guy shoot free throws is boring anyway.Now the Heat team will be turned over to the once dominant aging fat ass Shaq. Maybe Wade's injury will finally expose to the world how done Shaq actually is? The guy has been falling fast since his last year in LA. I'm sick of hearing how it doesn't matter because he's still Shaq. In all actuality, it does matter, HE'S DONE. You can add Zo, The Glove, Walker, and Riley to that list.
Speaking of Riley, I sure he's wishing he waited a tad longer before his comeback from "hip replacement surgery". I bet if Wade's injury happened before Riley's return, Riley would have probably never recovered.
Regardless if they squeak into the playoffs, and Wade shots 25 free throws a night; the Heat are all but done.
Smith isn't finished fixing Magic
I decided to post Brian Schmitz's column. As today the trade deadline passed, and the Magic made no deals. So we're left with a talented mess, a clueless coach, and a questionable GM. What good can come out of the rest of this season? What should we be hoping for?
Smith isn't finished fixing Magic
The Magic might not be engineering a trade as they did last season --- a deal that sparked a late-season run --- but this team still needs pleny of tinkering.
If GM Otis Smith's goal is to build a championship, he need to unfold the blueprints again and roll up his sleeves.
Certainly, they need to make the playoffs or this season has been a waste of Dwight Howard's marvelous progression.
But they're looking at a No.6, 7 or 8 seed at best. That's far from a championship path.
The Magic need more consistent players. They need better defenders. And they need some guys who have a different mental make-p, players who get serious before desperation (missing playoffs) sinks in.
At a time Howard, in his third season, is putting things together, the Magic are wasting his efforts.
Sure, they've been injured.
But they've blown games agaisnt the Hawks and Hornets and Bobcats and suffered another loss to the Knicks on Tuesday night.
The shooting guard and small-forward positions are a mess, to put it bluntly.
SF Hedo Turkoglu, whether it's the mystery virus or not, has not had a season you'd expect from a veteran. Trevor Ariza is ready to return this weekend, and while he's a difference-maker, he's far from polished.
SG Grant Hill simply can't be counted on night in and night out. That's no revelation. How can the Magic go through another season, with Grant always a question mark?
Smith isn't finished fixing Magic
The Magic might not be engineering a trade as they did last season --- a deal that sparked a late-season run --- but this team still needs pleny of tinkering.
If GM Otis Smith's goal is to build a championship, he need to unfold the blueprints again and roll up his sleeves.
Certainly, they need to make the playoffs or this season has been a waste of Dwight Howard's marvelous progression.
But they're looking at a No.6, 7 or 8 seed at best. That's far from a championship path.
The Magic need more consistent players. They need better defenders. And they need some guys who have a different mental make-p, players who get serious before desperation (missing playoffs) sinks in.
At a time Howard, in his third season, is putting things together, the Magic are wasting his efforts.
Sure, they've been injured.
But they've blown games agaisnt the Hawks and Hornets and Bobcats and suffered another loss to the Knicks on Tuesday night.
The shooting guard and small-forward positions are a mess, to put it bluntly.
SF Hedo Turkoglu, whether it's the mystery virus or not, has not had a season you'd expect from a veteran. Trevor Ariza is ready to return this weekend, and while he's a difference-maker, he's far from polished.
SG Grant Hill simply can't be counted on night in and night out. That's no revelation. How can the Magic go through another season, with Grant always a question mark?
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Howard's sticker slam wins buzz but not contest
Twelve and a half feet is very high.
I walked down on the court after the dunk contest and looked up at the custom sticker Dwight Howard had stuck way up there. It was a little dizzying. Not to be gushy, but it was way up there. I suspect that if I stood on Dwight Howard's shoulders, I still wouldn't be able to even reach it. And I'd be scared to be up there.
I peered up at that sticker. Unfathomable, but apparently real -- as the whole thing was on international TV and exceedingly well documented. All the same, I urge you to look up at the top of the backboard from down below some time. Imagine a sticker a few inches shy of the top, and wonder: Could a human put that up there? Without divine intervention?
Yes.
Or no.
A photographer with a telephoto lens helped me get a good look at that sticker, and in addition to a pre-printed image of Howard's face, his initials, and his number, there was handwritten marker. Not too big. In fact, even with the lens it was very tough to read.
In this life, you always have to read the fine print. And the fine print on that sticker made clear that Howard, at least, doesn't believe he did it alone.
"All things through Christ" Howard had written in marker. Then "Phil 4:13." That's Philippians 4:13.
Asked about it, Howard recited in a heartbeat: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Strengtheneth indeed.
Remember, Dwight Howard's Plan A for this contest was to dunk on a 12-foot rim, but the league nixed the idea earlier in the week. So Howard needed an inventive way to demonstrate his singular advantage: combining his height, his reach, and his hops to get a hand up higher than anybody else.
It was so inventive that at first plenty of people here in the arena couldn't even understand it. This was an idea from Mars, or Lovetron, or wherever it is the good dunks come from. It stretched the mind. For a few seconds, nobody knew exactly what happened. He put a sticker up there? He had a sticker? In his hand? What?
ESPN.com contributor David Thorpe of Scouts Inc. text-messaged me seconds after it happened: "I hate dunk contests," he wrote. "But that was the coolest dunk I've ever seen."
Who can disagree?
No one I have talked to, except, apparently, the judges. Howard got a measly 42, the second-lowest score of any dunk in the first round. Julius Erving and Michael Jordan both gave it an 8. I don't know what criteria they were judging by, but whatever it was, I say inventiveness was undervalued.
Hats off to 2007 Slam-Dunk champ Gerald Green, a worthy champion, but a year from now that sticker dunk is the one we're all going to remember.
John Hollinger's scorecard
Gerald Green
Celtics
Major points for originality and some serious hops
Dwight Howard
Magic
Just a 42 for 12'6" sticker slap? Bigs get no respect
Nate Robinson
Knicks
If not for 2-minute rule we might still be watching him
Tyrus Thomas
Bulls
Judges too harsh on him (at least he got his check)
Gerald Green
Celtics
Major points for originality and some serious hops
Dwight Howard
Magic
Just a 42 for 12'6" sticker slap? Bigs get no respect
Nate Robinson
Knicks
If not for 2-minute rule we might still be watching him
Tyrus Thomas
Bulls
Judges too harsh on him (at least he got his check)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Mark Cuban Is My Hero
Dwayne Wade a Leader ?
Feb 9th 2007 12:53PM
I hope Dwayne Wade was misquoted in an article today in the Miami Herald. I know the Herald has issues with accuracy and they are still probably looking for the boat I dont own in Miami, but according to the Herald, and i have a hard time thinking even the Herald could get this quote wrong, Wade said the following:
DIG AT DIRK
After the Heat practiced Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena, Wade was asked if he believes players are ultimately remembered for what they do at the end of games.
Wade, who usually is selective and subtle with his criticisms of opposing players, took the opportunity to take a jab at Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, who has failed to give the Heat credit for beating the Mavericks in the Finals last season.
''At the end of the day,'' Wade said, ``you're remembered for what you did at the end. . . . I think that's the reason -- Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he's the reason they lost the championship, because he wasn't the leader that he's supposed to be in the closing moments. That's because of great defense by us, but also he wasn't assertive enough as a leader's supposed to be.
''Say what ? Is this the DWade of some of the lamest , boring commercials known to man ? Commercials that are singlehandedly responsible for selling more commercial skipping Tivos than anything else on TV ?
Dwayne I don't blame you for not looking at tapes of the finals. You obviously didn't. You would have seen your unbelievable skills and some other unbelievable elements that if I could discuss honestly here I would get fined for.
You are right, endings are remembered. And the ending of 3 of the games of the Finals will be remembered alongside Game 6 of the King vs Lakers Conf Finals a few years ago.
I guess you have earned the right to criticize Dirk with an obvious display of your own leadership skills.
I know Shaq appreciates your leadership as well. He called out your team a few weeks ago saying it was "embarassing'. Great leadership DWade. Your coach sat players for being fat. I guess you couldnt lead them away from the buffet.
You are an amazing player Dwayne. I love watching you shoot free throws. What you know about Dirk's leadership skills is non existent. You don't have a clue. Your ability to evaluate leadership skills....well you obviously have an overinflated value of your own. Did you take business classes at Marquette ?
Now we know why Charles won't put you in his 5.
And Im pissed for one more reason. Im going to have to miss our next game against the Heat on Feb 22. A previous engagement. I guess its just a missed opportunity to bring a local business class to the game and try to let them interview you about your leadership skills.
Feb 9th 2007 12:53PM
I hope Dwayne Wade was misquoted in an article today in the Miami Herald. I know the Herald has issues with accuracy and they are still probably looking for the boat I dont own in Miami, but according to the Herald, and i have a hard time thinking even the Herald could get this quote wrong, Wade said the following:
DIG AT DIRK
After the Heat practiced Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena, Wade was asked if he believes players are ultimately remembered for what they do at the end of games.
Wade, who usually is selective and subtle with his criticisms of opposing players, took the opportunity to take a jab at Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, who has failed to give the Heat credit for beating the Mavericks in the Finals last season.
''At the end of the day,'' Wade said, ``you're remembered for what you did at the end. . . . I think that's the reason -- Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he's the reason they lost the championship, because he wasn't the leader that he's supposed to be in the closing moments. That's because of great defense by us, but also he wasn't assertive enough as a leader's supposed to be.
''Say what ? Is this the DWade of some of the lamest , boring commercials known to man ? Commercials that are singlehandedly responsible for selling more commercial skipping Tivos than anything else on TV ?
Dwayne I don't blame you for not looking at tapes of the finals. You obviously didn't. You would have seen your unbelievable skills and some other unbelievable elements that if I could discuss honestly here I would get fined for.
You are right, endings are remembered. And the ending of 3 of the games of the Finals will be remembered alongside Game 6 of the King vs Lakers Conf Finals a few years ago.
I guess you have earned the right to criticize Dirk with an obvious display of your own leadership skills.
I know Shaq appreciates your leadership as well. He called out your team a few weeks ago saying it was "embarassing'. Great leadership DWade. Your coach sat players for being fat. I guess you couldnt lead them away from the buffet.
You are an amazing player Dwayne. I love watching you shoot free throws. What you know about Dirk's leadership skills is non existent. You don't have a clue. Your ability to evaluate leadership skills....well you obviously have an overinflated value of your own. Did you take business classes at Marquette ?
Now we know why Charles won't put you in his 5.
And Im pissed for one more reason. Im going to have to miss our next game against the Heat on Feb 22. A previous engagement. I guess its just a missed opportunity to bring a local business class to the game and try to let them interview you about your leadership skills.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
SPIKE TV
I can't say I picked this video because of the music; however if there was any dunk I'd like to see more than once from many angles this is the one.
Trevor Ariza's Sick Dunk On Okafor
It was even better seeing it LIVE!
Trevor Ariza's Sick Dunk On Okafor
It was even better seeing it LIVE!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Magic go for 7 against Clippers, 9:30
WHERE: Staples Center, Los Angeles
RECORDS: Magic 13-4, Clippers 7-7 (heading into Saturday night's late game against the L.A. Lakers)
BROADCASTS: TV -- WRBW-Ch. 65. Radio -- 580 AM (WDBO); Spanish-language radio: 1030 AM (WONQ)
MAGIC UPDATE: Orlando has won its past six games and leads the Eastern Conference and Southeast Division. . . . The Magic have won their first three games on this West swing, coming off a thriller against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. . . . The Magic are the healthiest they have been since training camp opened. There are no significant injuries. F Pat Garrity (right knee strain) is back. . . . The Magic have dropped five of their past six to the Clippers.
CLIPPERS UPDATE: Los Angeles won 47 games last season and made the Western Conference playoffs as a No. 6 seed, stealing much of the Lakers' thunder in Hollywood. . . . The club just extended Coach Mike Dunleavy's contract. . . . PF Elton Brand is among the top 10 rebounders in the league. . . . SG Cuttino Mobley and SF Corey Maggette are former Magic players. Maggette's name has been linked recently to trade rumors.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The Clippers have a lot of weapons, but the Magic have to control Brand around the basket first. The Clippers were 7-1 at home before facing the Lakers on Saturday night.
RECORDS: Magic 13-4, Clippers 7-7 (heading into Saturday night's late game against the L.A. Lakers)
BROADCASTS: TV -- WRBW-Ch. 65. Radio -- 580 AM (WDBO); Spanish-language radio: 1030 AM (WONQ)
MAGIC UPDATE: Orlando has won its past six games and leads the Eastern Conference and Southeast Division. . . . The Magic have won their first three games on this West swing, coming off a thriller against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. . . . The Magic are the healthiest they have been since training camp opened. There are no significant injuries. F Pat Garrity (right knee strain) is back. . . . The Magic have dropped five of their past six to the Clippers.
CLIPPERS UPDATE: Los Angeles won 47 games last season and made the Western Conference playoffs as a No. 6 seed, stealing much of the Lakers' thunder in Hollywood. . . . The club just extended Coach Mike Dunleavy's contract. . . . PF Elton Brand is among the top 10 rebounders in the league. . . . SG Cuttino Mobley and SF Corey Maggette are former Magic players. Maggette's name has been linked recently to trade rumors.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The Clippers have a lot of weapons, but the Magic have to control Brand around the basket first. The Clippers were 7-1 at home before facing the Lakers on Saturday night.
Magic show something extra so far
LOS ANGELES -- At the end of each Orlando Magic practice, Dwight Howard sticks his head in the huddle and touches hands with his teammates.They play along, knowing what's coming from their imaginative 20-year-old star: An inspirational, albeit paraphrased, message from, uh, a cartoon character.
Howard is doing his best impersonation of Captain Planet, the ringleader in a group of superheroes (The Planeteers).
"With our powers combined, we are the Magic!" Howard says.
Well, boys and girls, it's as good an explanation as any if you're wondering how the Magic suddenly have joined the powers that be in the NBA.
Something is going on.
Call it chemistry, kismet or karma. The way they're playing, they soon might be able to transmute matter, just like Captain Planet does.
All Coach Brian Hill could do was smile sheepishly and shake his head after the Magic edged the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night on a last-second shot for the club's sixth consecutive victory.
"What can I say?" Hill began, seemingly as lost as anybody else who has witnessed the franchise's warp-speed transformation from laughingstock to contender.
The Magic are carving an identity: A deep, hard-nosed team that no longer plays like a homecoming patsy on the road or shrinks in close games. Oh, and in Howard, they also might have the next best thing since Shaquille O'Neal.
Out of the playoff picture the past three seasons -- and the NBA's worst team of 2003-04 -- the Magic are 13-4 heading into tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
That's good enough to stand atop the Southeast Division and the Eastern Conference. Last season after 17 games, they were 7-10 en route to their second consecutive 36-46 finish. The Magic have won 10 of their past 11 games.
"This team's confidence just keeps growing with winning," General Manager Otis Smith said.
The Magic have been even more of a pleasant surprise on the road, posting a 6-3 record, including three consecutive victories during what was billed largely as a defining six-game trip West.
"Nobody gave us a chance out here," power forward Tony Battie said.
Last season, they won just 10 road games and set a club record with 16 consecutive road defeats.
The victory against the Trail Blazers just about capsulated what this resurgence -- dating to last season's 16-6 closing run -- has been about. The Magic not only won away from home -- they won a close game.
Last season, they lost 17 games by six points or less -- and 13 of those losses came on the road. The Magic lost nine games overall by four points or fewer. This season, they are 6-1 in games decided by six points or less. They won by three in Boston and Miami and by two in Portland.
"I think, for the most part, we've kept our composure instead of panicking," guard Grant Hill said.
The Magic were tied with the Blazers at 89-all with 1.2 seconds left. Brian Hill drew up a play that the club executed to perfection on a less-than-perfect performance Friday night.
Grant Hill was to cut toward the basket and receive a lob pass from Hedo Turkoglu. Bingo. Hill scored with .3 seconds left for the game-winner.
It showed the confidence the team is playing with -- and the confidence they have in Brian Hill.
"This is the kind of game for the future . . . that helps you at the end of the season, making you believe you can win," Turkoglu said.
Hill got open because Jameer Nelson, all 5 feet 10 of him, set a pick. Nelson's play largely went unnoticed, but it said more about the Magic. They do more of the little things and do it unselfishly, which is a direct reflection of their coach, a demanding detail man.
What's more, Nelson was having a bad game (one point), but he kept making plays.
And again, just as in the victory at Seattle, the second team came through in Portland. With Nelson providing little offense, the bench scored 37 points.
Defense has been Brian Hill's pet project since he took over the job, and the Magic have improved dramatically. They entered the game against Portland No. 1 in defensive field-goal percentage and No. 2 in points allowed.
While Howard and Battie anchor the starting unit defensively, the Magic might have the NBA's best defensive bench with shot blocker Darko Milicic and on-the-ball defenders Trevor Ariza, Keyon Dooling and Keith Bogans.
Howard's awe-inspiring progress has the Magic on an uptick. But the healthy return of Grant Hill cannot be overlooked. He essentially also won the Miami game, and -- knock on wood -- you wonder what might happen if he gets hurt again.
But maybe the power of Captain Planet will stay with him.
Addititional articles that recap the Magical month of November in Orlando.
Howard: Conference Player of the Month
Hill, Howard earn NBA monthly honors
USA Today: Howard Makes Magic
Sentinel: How Wrong Experts Can Be
Howard is doing his best impersonation of Captain Planet, the ringleader in a group of superheroes (The Planeteers).
"With our powers combined, we are the Magic!" Howard says.
Well, boys and girls, it's as good an explanation as any if you're wondering how the Magic suddenly have joined the powers that be in the NBA.
Something is going on.
Call it chemistry, kismet or karma. The way they're playing, they soon might be able to transmute matter, just like Captain Planet does.
All Coach Brian Hill could do was smile sheepishly and shake his head after the Magic edged the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night on a last-second shot for the club's sixth consecutive victory.
"What can I say?" Hill began, seemingly as lost as anybody else who has witnessed the franchise's warp-speed transformation from laughingstock to contender.
The Magic are carving an identity: A deep, hard-nosed team that no longer plays like a homecoming patsy on the road or shrinks in close games. Oh, and in Howard, they also might have the next best thing since Shaquille O'Neal.
Out of the playoff picture the past three seasons -- and the NBA's worst team of 2003-04 -- the Magic are 13-4 heading into tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
That's good enough to stand atop the Southeast Division and the Eastern Conference. Last season after 17 games, they were 7-10 en route to their second consecutive 36-46 finish. The Magic have won 10 of their past 11 games.
"This team's confidence just keeps growing with winning," General Manager Otis Smith said.
The Magic have been even more of a pleasant surprise on the road, posting a 6-3 record, including three consecutive victories during what was billed largely as a defining six-game trip West.
"Nobody gave us a chance out here," power forward Tony Battie said.
Last season, they won just 10 road games and set a club record with 16 consecutive road defeats.
The victory against the Trail Blazers just about capsulated what this resurgence -- dating to last season's 16-6 closing run -- has been about. The Magic not only won away from home -- they won a close game.
Last season, they lost 17 games by six points or less -- and 13 of those losses came on the road. The Magic lost nine games overall by four points or fewer. This season, they are 6-1 in games decided by six points or less. They won by three in Boston and Miami and by two in Portland.
"I think, for the most part, we've kept our composure instead of panicking," guard Grant Hill said.
The Magic were tied with the Blazers at 89-all with 1.2 seconds left. Brian Hill drew up a play that the club executed to perfection on a less-than-perfect performance Friday night.
Grant Hill was to cut toward the basket and receive a lob pass from Hedo Turkoglu. Bingo. Hill scored with .3 seconds left for the game-winner.
It showed the confidence the team is playing with -- and the confidence they have in Brian Hill.
"This is the kind of game for the future . . . that helps you at the end of the season, making you believe you can win," Turkoglu said.
Hill got open because Jameer Nelson, all 5 feet 10 of him, set a pick. Nelson's play largely went unnoticed, but it said more about the Magic. They do more of the little things and do it unselfishly, which is a direct reflection of their coach, a demanding detail man.
What's more, Nelson was having a bad game (one point), but he kept making plays.
And again, just as in the victory at Seattle, the second team came through in Portland. With Nelson providing little offense, the bench scored 37 points.
Defense has been Brian Hill's pet project since he took over the job, and the Magic have improved dramatically. They entered the game against Portland No. 1 in defensive field-goal percentage and No. 2 in points allowed.
While Howard and Battie anchor the starting unit defensively, the Magic might have the NBA's best defensive bench with shot blocker Darko Milicic and on-the-ball defenders Trevor Ariza, Keyon Dooling and Keith Bogans.
Howard's awe-inspiring progress has the Magic on an uptick. But the healthy return of Grant Hill cannot be overlooked. He essentially also won the Miami game, and -- knock on wood -- you wonder what might happen if he gets hurt again.
But maybe the power of Captain Planet will stay with him.
Addititional articles that recap the Magical month of November in Orlando.
Howard: Conference Player of the Month
Hill, Howard earn NBA monthly honors
USA Today: Howard Makes Magic
Sentinel: How Wrong Experts Can Be
Thursday, November 02, 2006
GAME 1 2006-07 Postgame Quotes
Orlando Magic 109, Chicago Bulls 94Orlando Magic Head Coach Brian Hill:
“This is obviously a really good way for us to start the season against what I think is an excellent basketball team. I was just really proud of the way the guys played tonight. I thought we came out with really good focus, really good energy and a high concentration level with our offensive execution and our defense playing people off the dribble. It’s a tough team to defend, especially when they put three or four small guys out there at a time. (I am) just extremely happy with the performance of everybody.”
On Dwight being inside…
“That’s going to be our team every night. We want to play inside-out and we want to try to establish Dwight’s presence at the post and see how the teams are going to try to defend him, whether they are going to double team him, whatever the case may be. That was our game plan tonight, trying play inside-out as much as possible.”
On the difference in how Dwight has played…
“I thought our guys did a fantastic job of finding him all night and finding him deep in the paint or at the rim in transition. When you do that, it makes it especially hard to double team him. When you get him the ball deep in the paint or right at the front of the rim it’s almost impossible to double team him and there are just not a lot of guys who can take him one-on-one in that situation. He made good, quick moves and really asserted himself right from the beginning.”
On the Magic’s Defense…
“I was very pleased with our defense. With the Bulls, it’s all about playing people off the dribble and keeping the ball out of the middle of the floor. I’ll be honest with you, I watched them play last night and I didn’t know how we could win the game watching them play Miami They just drove the ball wherever they wanted to go against Miami last night. Our whole objective was trying to keep the ball out of middle of the floor as much as possible and not let their guys get off. Obviously they have some really good guards in Gordon and Hinrich in particular who put a (lot) of pressure on you, but all in all I think we did a good job.”
On the team’s chemistry last season to this season…
“I won’t lie to you, I sensed it after the game began but I didn’t know going in to the game. I told you guys the last couple days the first game you never know what you’re going to get, how your guys are going to react to the first game of the year. A lot of times the things (you) fear the most work out well and the things you think are going to go great fall apart on you in the first game of the year. Tonight I thought we were pretty well rounded – we were pretty good in most areas of the game other than our turnovers.”
Orlando Magic Forward/Center Dwight Howard:
“I was just trying to have fun.”
(On Grant Hill) “It makes us feel great. That’s what we need out of him. I was just glad he was out on the floor with us. Grant came out on fire. I think he always starts the game like that since last year. It was great to have him on the floor. I just love playing with Grant.”
“We’ve been really bonding with each other during the off-season, and also every day in practice. The more we gel as team, the better we’re going to be on the floor.”
Orlando Magic Guard Jameer Nelson:
“We had something to prove, it wasn’t just making shots, we had something to prove on the defensive end. You know teams hear that we’re suspect on the defensive end, but you see, we have three shot blockers, you know. And that allows the guards to pressure up and we actually did a better job tonight of taking their transition, it’s what Chicago likes to do.”
“This is just the first game. We have a lot to accomplish for ourselves; we have a lot of practice to do things we have to work on. There were a lot of mistakes out there.”
Orlando Magic Guard Carlos Arroyo:
“They had their run during the game. We stayed positive, we stayed poised, we stayed under control which is the main thing when a team makes a run like that. They did and we made our run too so we kept battling and a great thing happened.”
“Dwight is going out of his way of his way to help the guards and blocking shots like that, it’s going to make you think you know when you’ve got guys that are committed to helping each other, great things are going ton happen.”
Monday, October 30, 2006
Magic Season Preview 2006
For now, Magic need to take baby steps, get into playoffsDwight Howard predicts the Orlando Magic can "go all the way to the championship" this season.
Play Time
Magic fans, it's now safe to invest in a Dwight Howard memorabilia collection and for Junior to permanently affix that Jameer Nelson poster to his bedroom wall.
Here's where to find the Orlando Magic
You can follow the Magic all season in the Orlando Sentinel and on OrlandoSentinel.com.
Plenty of changes in store off court
The really good seats got significantly better this season, but those sitting there aren't the only ones who will benefit from changes at TD Waterhouse Centre.
Parking isn't as simple as it used to be
If you haven't already reserved your spot and expect to drive up to one of the garages near TD Waterhouse Centre and find a parking space on an Orlando Magic game night, you're in for a big surprise.
ORLANDO MAGIC
LAST SEASON: 36-46 (Third in Southeast Division)
Picking favorite is no slam-dunk
Racing down the floor last season against the Boston Celtics, he was ready to receive an alley-oop from Magic teammate Jameer Nelson. Trouble was, Nelson's delivery was more oops than alley, as the ball drifted directly behind Dwight Howard on the break.
THE COACHES
Brian Hill, Head Coach
CARLOS ARROYO
THE SKINNY
THE OTHERS
James Augustine
TREVOR ARIZA
THE SKINNY
JAMEER NELSON
THE SKINNY Position
DARKO MILICIC
THE SKINNY
KEYON DOOLING
THE SKINNY
TONY BATTIE
THE SKINNY
KEITH BOGANS
THE SKINNY
HEDO TURKOGLU
THE SKINNY
GRANT HILL
THE SKINNY
PAT GARRITY
THE SKINNY
J.J. REDICK
THE SKINNY
TORONTO RAPTORS
LAST SEASON: 27-55 (Fourth in Atlantic)
HOUSTON ROCKETS
LAST YEAR: 34-48 (Fifth in Southwest Division)
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
LAST YEAR: 33-49 (Fourth in Northwest Division)
ATLANTA HAWKS
LAST SEASON: 26-56 (Tie-fourth in Southeast Division)
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
LAST YEAR: 49-33 (Third in Southwest Division)
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
LAST SEASON: 40-42 (Fifth in Central Division)
BOSTON CELTICS
LAST SEASON: 33-49 (Third in Atlantic Division)
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
LAST YEAR: 21-61 (Fifth in Northwest Division)
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
LAST SEASON: 50-32 (Second in Central Division)
SACRAMENTO KINGS
LAST YEAR: 44-38 (Fourth in Pacific Division)
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
LAST YEAR: 47-35 (Second in Pacific Division)
N.O./OKLA. CITY HORNETS
LAST YEAR: 38-44 (fourth in Southwest Division)
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
LAST YEAR: 45-37 (Third in Pacific Division)
DENVER NUGGETS
LAST YEAR: 44-38 (First in Northwest Division)
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS
LAST SEASON: 26-56 (Tie-fourth in Southeast Division)
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
LAST SEASON: 42-40 (Second in Southeast Division)
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
LAST YEAR: 63-19 (First in Southwest Division)
NEW YORK KNICKS
LAST SEASON: 23-59 (Fifth in Atlantic Division)
MIAMI HEAT
LAST SEASON: 52-30 (First in Southeast Division, NBA champions)
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
LAST YEAR: 34-48 (Fifth in Pacific Division)
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
LAST SEASON: 38-44 (Second in Atlantic Division)
DALLAS MAVERICKS
LAST YEAR: 60-22 (Second in Southwest Division, reached NBA Finals)
SEATTLE SUPERSONICS
LAST YEAR: 35-47 (Third in Northwest Division)
DETROIT PISTONS
LAST SEASON: 64-18 (First in Central Division)
UTAH JAZZ
LAST YEAR: 41-41 (Second in Northwest Division)
PHOENIX SUNS
LAST YEAR: 54-28 (First in Pacific Division)
CHICAGO BULLS
LAST SEASON: 41-41 (Tie-third in Central Division)
NEW JERSEY NETS
LAST SEASON: 49-33 (First in Atlantic Division)
INDIANA PACERS
LAST SEASON: 41-41 (Tie-third in Central Division)
Magic Ready For Big Stage
If you care to know what the pro analysts over at ESPN think about the Magic, click the link below.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-OrlandoPreview0607
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-OrlandoPreview0607
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
On the Spot
By John SchuhmannYou could call them question marks. Or maybe X-factors. Call them whatever you want. These guys have something to prove this season. NBA.com gives you 10 players (in alphabetical order) who will be under the microscope in 2006-07. For various reasons, all eyes are on them.
Next up is Darko Milicic.
On the Spot Index
Darko Milicic, F-C, Magic
With Dwyane Wade and LeBron James arguably the two best players in the league right now and with Carmelo Anthony having a strong summer, the pressure increases on Darko Milicic to validate his No. 2 selection in the 2003 Draft. He certainly showed signs of life after last February's trade to Orlando and in this summer's World Championships.
With Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson coming into their own as well, the future is bright for the Magic, but they need Darko to become much more than just a role player. The time has come to prove that he's no longer the comic relief of the 2003 draft class.
What the Papers Say
"Sentenced to the pine in Detroit and mentally beaten, Milicic wowed the NBA with his 30-game rebirth with the Magic last season, playing behind veteran Tony Battie.
"But when Milicic reported to training camp, motivated and muscled up, fresh off an impressive FIBA World Championship run, he found himself on the second team again ...
"Do the Magic try to sign him to an extension now at perhaps a relatively reduced rate? Or do they let Milicic prove himself and likely increase his value this summer to near-maximum salary status?
"The Magic are leaning toward waiting it out, figuring if Milcic is good enough to earn big money then they have a player at best or an asset at worst."-- Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel
"Although talented teammate Darko Milicic has shown only flashes of what he can do, Battie has seen the whole package in practice daily.
"He wants to see star forward Dwight Howard, 20, and Milicic, 21, blossom together on the front line.
"'I don't know exactly what the plan here is, but that's a pretty nice combination those two, power and finesse, right and lefty. They could play and grow together for 10 years or more,' Battie said. 'I'd have no problem being a backup for both of them.'"-- Tim Povtak, Orlando Sentinel
What the Blogs Say
"Darko is a twenty-two year-old seven footer whose shot-blocking could soon become the stuff of jazzy narco-ballads. He’s coming off a delightful run at the Worlds, where a storied Serbian program looked to him for late-game assurance. And the older he gets, the more we’re seeing that “mean streak in the post” that was his surname in June 2003."-- Free Darko via SLAM Online
NBA.com: Darko On the Spot
A master candidate
Shaquille O'Neal named Orlando's Dwight Howard, Houston's Yao Ming and Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire as the most likely candidates to succeed him as the NBA's most dominating player. "When age does its thing, one of them will become the new master," O'Neal said.
Monday, October 23, 2006
NBA.COM SEASON OUTLOOK
Though they play in the backyard of the Happiest Place on Earth, the Orlando Magic haven't had a lot to smile about since blowing a 3-1 series lead over Detroit in the 2003 NBA Playoffs.
Three coaching changes, the trade of Tracy McGrady, the ill-fated John Weisbrod era, the wasted Fran Vazquez pick, Grant Hill continuing to limp through his contract. Faster than Pat Williams can write a book, the Magic had undone 11 consecutive .500 or better seasons with three straight trips to the lottery.
Only last February was the Magic kingdom finally infused with a little pixie dust, when Orlando made two deadline deals, one of which jettisoned Steve Francis to New York and put the franchise squarely on the broad shoulders of 20-year-old Dwight Howard.
Suddenly, Magic fans were turning their frowns upside down. Orlando was 17-13 after the trades, benefiting from addition by the subtraction of Francis as well as the arrival of Trevor Ariza, Carlos Arroyo and even the enigmatic Darko Milicic.
With Jameer Nelson handling starting point guard duties and Howard dominating inside, Orlando won 16 of its final 22 games to salvage a 36-46 season. An offense that averaged only 92.8 points and shot 45.7 percent with Francis, exploded for 98.5 ppg and .498 shooting on Nelson's watch.
"It feels now a little like it did when I took over the first time [in 1993-94]," Coach Brian Hill told the Orlando Sentinel in September. "Shaq was going into his second season. We had just drafted Penny [Hardaway], and people knew we were on the verge of something."
Howard is on the verge of being one of the NBA's best players. He was the NBA's second leading rebounder (12.5 rpg) and a member of the FIBA World Championship team. The league's most proficient dunker (214), Howard was also among the NBA leaders in field goal percentage (.531), blocks (1.4) and double-doubles (60).
Orlando has a good mix of young and old. They have 11 players 27 or younger, but benefit from the veteran presence of Hill, Bo Outlaw, Tony Battie and Pat Garrity. The only significant hit to their roster this summer was the loss of starting shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, who signed with Washington.
Stevenson's defense will be missed. Certainly, the Magic don't expect first-rounder J.J. Redick to fill that void, but he does quench Orlando's need for perimeter shooting. A prolific scorer at Duke (26.8 ppg last season), Redick's job will be to keep defenses from collapsing on Howard.
If he can do that and if Milicic can continue to develop, the Magic become dangerous enough to contend for a playoff spot.-- Bill Evans
Link to the complete article: NBA.com: Magic Preview
In his last five (meaningless) games, Garrity has hit 18-of-36 shots (50 percent), including 8 of 17 3-pointers (47 percent). What can be said of this? Sentinel: Success for Garrity
Three coaching changes, the trade of Tracy McGrady, the ill-fated John Weisbrod era, the wasted Fran Vazquez pick, Grant Hill continuing to limp through his contract. Faster than Pat Williams can write a book, the Magic had undone 11 consecutive .500 or better seasons with three straight trips to the lottery.
Only last February was the Magic kingdom finally infused with a little pixie dust, when Orlando made two deadline deals, one of which jettisoned Steve Francis to New York and put the franchise squarely on the broad shoulders of 20-year-old Dwight Howard.
Suddenly, Magic fans were turning their frowns upside down. Orlando was 17-13 after the trades, benefiting from addition by the subtraction of Francis as well as the arrival of Trevor Ariza, Carlos Arroyo and even the enigmatic Darko Milicic.With Jameer Nelson handling starting point guard duties and Howard dominating inside, Orlando won 16 of its final 22 games to salvage a 36-46 season. An offense that averaged only 92.8 points and shot 45.7 percent with Francis, exploded for 98.5 ppg and .498 shooting on Nelson's watch.
"It feels now a little like it did when I took over the first time [in 1993-94]," Coach Brian Hill told the Orlando Sentinel in September. "Shaq was going into his second season. We had just drafted Penny [Hardaway], and people knew we were on the verge of something."
Howard is on the verge of being one of the NBA's best players. He was the NBA's second leading rebounder (12.5 rpg) and a member of the FIBA World Championship team. The league's most proficient dunker (214), Howard was also among the NBA leaders in field goal percentage (.531), blocks (1.4) and double-doubles (60).
Orlando has a good mix of young and old. They have 11 players 27 or younger, but benefit from the veteran presence of Hill, Bo Outlaw, Tony Battie and Pat Garrity. The only significant hit to their roster this summer was the loss of starting shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, who signed with Washington.
Stevenson's defense will be missed. Certainly, the Magic don't expect first-rounder J.J. Redick to fill that void, but he does quench Orlando's need for perimeter shooting. A prolific scorer at Duke (26.8 ppg last season), Redick's job will be to keep defenses from collapsing on Howard.
If he can do that and if Milicic can continue to develop, the Magic become dangerous enough to contend for a playoff spot.-- Bill Evans
Link to the complete article: NBA.com: Magic Preview
In his last five (meaningless) games, Garrity has hit 18-of-36 shots (50 percent), including 8 of 17 3-pointers (47 percent). What can be said of this? Sentinel: Success for Garrity
Magic's future depends on progress of Dwight, Darko
ORLANDO -- Otis Smith can't stop smiling, and it's not just because his Orlando Magic are one of the chic picks to make some playoff noise this season.Instead, the Magic's general manager is beaming like a proud papa these days over the way three of Orlando's youngsters -- namely Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and Darko Milicic -- have matured almost overnight and taken control of the fate of the franchise.
First, it was Howard who guaranteed that a Magic squad that hasn't been to the playoffs in three years could go all the way this season. OK, guaranteed might be a little strong, but the 20-year-old didn't bat an eye when backed into a corner in the days before training camp was set to open.
"Our team has a chance to go all the way," Howard crowed, seemingly unaware of what he was saying. Pressed on whether he meant all the way to the playoffs, Howard didn't miss a beat. "All the way to the championship," he said.
Normally, such a proclamation would cause a head coach to break out in cold sweats and a GM to put a "For Sale" sign up in his front yard. Not Smith, who was delighted to hear that Howard was exuding confidence out of virtually his every pore.
"I like the fact the kid was willing to make that kind of investment," Smith said. "That's an investment. He said this team is good enough to win a championship, and you know what, we are. Winning a championship doesn't mean having the best five players at each spot. It's every player having a role and playing that role. This team is good enough to do that.
"I'd be disappointed if one through 15 on our team said that the goal was to win 40 games. To me, all Dwight did was say what 480 players in the NBA should be saying. We want to win a championship, or why are we playing?"
If the Magic truly are in the infant stages of building a championship contender, the first steps were taken this summer in, of all places, Philadelphia.
In August, point guard Jameer Nelson arranged for the team to meet in Philly for a week of basketball, bowling, paintball and bonding. Nelson picked up the tab for the whole thing and even arranged each player's travel schedule and the activities while in the City of Brotherly Love.
Smith and the coaching staff might not have gotten an invitation to the players-only retreat, but he couldn't have been happier upon hearing about Nelson's organizing the offseason get-together.
Grant Hill and Howard are the stars of this team, but Nelson is the unquestioned leader. And Smith was delighted to see the player who was passed over by major colleges and then passed over by 19 other teams on draft night coming of age as an NBA leader.
"Jameer's leadership has always been there, but you see him taking it to a whole different level now," Smith said. "You'll see it more and more as he matures. You're talking about a third-year guy who took it upon himself to unite his teammates and pick up the tab in Philly. To me, that's a big deal."
Then, there's the 21-year-old Milicic, who seems more determined than ever now to shed the label of being one of the biggest busts in the history of the NBA draft.
Out of Detroit, where he was buried on the bench for two-plus seasons, Milicic finally has a legitimate shot at meaningful minutes in Orlando. And the Serbian 7-footer, who has had everything from his toughness to his love for the game questioned since he was taken ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in the 2003 NBA draft, seems determined to make the most of this chance.
Told he had to become bigger and meaner if he was ever going to reach his potential, Milicic spent four days a week lifting weights this summer. He not only bulked up from 260 pounds to 278 pounds but also had his way with Spain's Pau Gasol and China's Yao Ming in the World Championship.
Smith and Magic head coach Brian Hill needed little time to see that with Milicic's newfound dedication, combined with his overflowing arsenal of skills, it was time to promote him to the starting lineup. There, he will combine with Howard to give the Magic 14 feet of shot blockers on the front line.
Smith, an everyday man who still eats breakfast at the same Waffle House every morning and lives in a working class-sized home, was promoted to GM this past spring after altering the course of the franchise with two trades. He swiped Milicic and Arroyo from Detroit and got rid of Kelvin Cato in the process. And, remarkably, he somehow unloaded Steve Francis and the $47 million left on his contract on the New York Knicks.
Last season, fans got a taste of just how good the Magic could be. Orlando won 16 of 20 down the stretch, and expectations haven't been this high since Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill signed matching $92.88 million free-agent contracts in 2000. The season-ticket renewal rate and base sales were as high as they have been in 10 years. A new $485 million area in downtown Orlando is close to being approved by the city and county governments. All that is left now is for the Magic to fulfill their vast promise.
So what does Smith tell folks when they ask him if they can believe in Magic again? He puts the load on the shoulders of the Magic's kids.
"I tell people we'll be as good as those two 20-something-year-old kids take us," Smith said, referring to Howard and Milicic. "And we need Jameer to continue to grow as a leader for us. We'll be as good as those guys are this season."
If the preseason is any indication, the Magic have a good chance of being pretty good because of the development of Howard's game. Magic coaches want Howard -- a devout Christian and a sometimes goofy, class-clown-type off the floor -- to be a tougher, rougher physical force this season. Howard is already one of the league's top rebounders; he just missed out on becoming the youngest rebounding champion in the history of the league last season, averaging 12.5 per game. And the Magic feel there is no reason Howard can't become a dominant scorer and an intimidating shot-blocker as well.
He's taken that message to heart, and so far this preseason, he's demolishing all those players in his path. Against Charlotte's Emeka Okafor, the player chosen just behind Howard in the 2004 draft, he scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while fouling Okafor out in just nine minutes. And against Atlanta's smallish frontline, Howard was at his do-it-all best with 27 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots.
"I'm just trying to work on playing hard every single night and being a great leader for this team," said Howard, who is hoping to make the playoffs in his third NBA season just as fellow No. 1 pick LeBron James did in Cleveland. "I'm still young, but there's a high standard that I expect myself to live up to. If I do that, everyone can do it too."
Howard's relentless aggression has seemed to rub off on Milicic, and at times the possibilities seem limitless for the Magic when the two are on the court together. Because their skills are so different -- Howard brings the powerful low-post game, while Milicic has a feathery-soft shooting touch and the passing skills of a guard -- they seem like a match made in heaven. In a preseason game this week against Atlanta, the two displayed their blossoming chemistry by assisting one another on five different baskets.
Much like when Milicic emerged after he was traded from Detroit to Orlando, another trade opened the door for Nelson to step into a leadership position with the Magic. Steve Francis not only dominated the ball on the court, but he also had a domineering presence in the locker room. It was no coincidence that the Magic's hot streak last season coincided with the enigmatic Francis' being shipped to New York and Nelson's taking the reigns.
Barely 6-feet tall, Nelson morphed into a giant killer last season. He averaged 15.7 points over his final 25 games, topping 20 points seven times. What was most impressive was his willingness to take any shot and take on any teammate and challenge him to do more. The next step, naturally, was one in which he became the Magic's unofficial captain.
"I want to be kind of a chameleon for this team," Nelson said. "I want to be able to change, do whatever this team needs for us to win. If it's making the extra pass or hitting the big shot or being a good leader, I'll do it."
The wild card for the Magic, of course, is the oft-injured Grant Hill. For six years, Orlando has been hoping Hill could find a way to somehow stay healthy enough to return to the form that made him a seven-time All-Star. But rarely has that happened as he's missed a staggering 70.5 percent of the games since signing with Orlando.
Hill spent most of his summer working with abdominal guru Alex McKechnie in hopes of healing the sports hernia that limited him to just 21 games last season. Hill's troublesome left ankle, the one he's had operated on five times, was ultimately blamed for the abdominal troubles with the thinking that his changed gait resulted in undue stress on his midsection. But as it turns out, working this past summer to strengthen his abdominal muscles has given him more range of motion in the ankle. Hill says he feels as good physically as he has in years, but does so of course with his fingers crossed.
Smith has discounted the notion of potentially trading Hill and his expiring contract for an unhappy superstar such as Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen. He knows the value of having a veteran such as Hill around when the Magic are leaning so heavily on youngsters. Hill will play at least 78 games and be a difference-maker this season, Smith predicts.
"When we talk about going to the next level, Grant's health is a big key in that," Smith said. "Because when he is on the floor -- and I don't care if he's missed two years or 20 games -- he's still one of the best players out there. I think we're going to have a great year and Grant is, too."
Denton: Magic power
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