magicmikej

Stan threw Dwight under the bus. Most people on here feel otherwise. Dwight did not air the dirty laundry, Stan did. Magic Johnson had a coach fired. Michael Jordan also. Dwight did not go to the press and announce to all the world that Stan should be fired. If he told management that he wasn't happy with Stan, he's allowed to do that. He has never told the press his desire for a new coach. I don't know what Stan was thinking with his announcement of this dirty laundry, but he is to blame for this curent debacle. Keep your mouth shut. Stan may be an excellent coach in X's and O's but his game management stinks. He keeps complaing but never varies. If J-Rich doesn't play with energy bench him. If JJ can't hit the broadside of the barn, try Von Wafer. If any player is hot don't replace him until he cools down. He does this alot. When Ryan scores well why criticize him in public for his defense. How many blown leads have we experienced this year. Maybe he is a master of panic and Pat Riley knew what he was doing firing him in the middle of their championship year. The booing of Dwight came from the hugh contigent of Knick fans at the game. They were obnoxious.

dve So what you are saying if your boss criticized you in public even when you win it's ok because he is honest. Might it not be better if he is unhappy with what you did, it might be better to pull you aside and talk man to man about it. Maybe if Stan benched a player for no energy I can see where he is trying to do something about that lack of energy. He has never done that. He will have nothing to be honest about in the post game interview.

Reading some of these posts has me believing that SVG is a SAINT, at least some of you feel that way. Stan has done a good job but he is not one of the five best coaches in the league. He is NOT good at in game adjustments. He pulls players who are HOT and this results in losing big leads. The Dallas game is a prime example, Jameer gets 2 offensive rebounds and finishes with a drive to the basket putting us up by 15. Out he comes and immediately we have the lead dwindle while he sits for more then 8 minutes. Have you listened to his post game interviews. Even when we win he will find something or someone at fault for this or that. I know I would be uncomfortable if my boss was always criticiizing me. He is candid and pulls no punches, but he is not a giver of praise. After awhile this gets old. Honesty is great but a little pat on the back even when things are not going well is better. He was mysteriously let go in Miami. Why would Pat Reilly do that? Even Millionaire players need a pat on the back. They don't want to be put under the bus like Stan just did to D12. He didn't have to say what he did. This is a rumor started by Ping, who is usualloy 100% wrong. He sources said Dwight was gone at the trade deadline. Dwight never said to the public that Stan should be fired. Maybe he said it to management but it was in house. Stan should have kept it in house. Now with the New York media in town we have become the laughing stock of the NBA. Coaches are a phone call away from being fired. Alex Martins should make that call.

Dear Dwight I watched your farewell speech and still don't why you want to leave. You mentioned that you didn't want to throw anyone under the bus, yet you did that to the coach and GM in your next train of thought. You said that you wnted to be more involved in the decisions of the franchise and were not listened to. Maybe if we saw the following: Dwight Howard has actively persued Chris or Darren to join him in Orlando per sources etc , we would know you took an active part in trying to make this team better. After all D Wade did it, Kobe has done it and even D Williams probably helped convince you to go to Jersey/Brooklyn.. You said that you have prayed about this. Sure God really cares about where you play. If God was into sports that team with Touchdown Jesus at the entrance to its stadium would never lose. God wants us to be loving, generous, and loyal. You score on two of the points. Let's look at the loyalty. The Magic are a family to those of us in the community who support them. When you came into town 7 years ago we welcomed you into our family. Here was this young man so full of life, someone who loves Nemo, someone who many of the experts said was a big MISTAKE, Okafor should have been the pick. We welcomed you, cheered louder for you, accepted your shortcomings (Free Throws, turnovers) and cheered even louder. We thought we had Tim Ducan with a personality. Our children happily wear your uniform, they look at you as a role model. The Magic have awarded you the Richard Devoss community service award numerous times. We love You Now you want a divorce.I guess you are unhappy that at the end of a game you seldom got the ball because you can't shoot free throws. This organization has always spent money to try and improve the team. They even agreed to pay a player 62million dollars to go away so they had more cap flexibility so that we are in a better position to improve the roster. If you blame the GM and he did make some questionable decisions you could have helped him by being an ambassador to convince players to come to Orlando. DID YOU? An ugly divorce in the family is hard for the aggreived party to accept. Your tweet about if you don't love me in a different uni, you didn't love me at all. We loved you Dwight .But when someone who we have invested 7 years in supporting tells us he wants to leave. and gives us vague answers as to why. We should be angry. we have that right, since you feel it is your right to go. Comparing this decision to a video game makes no sense. Tell us Dwight why you really want to leave. Don't tell us that you love Orlando. Tell us that we are a dried up little pond. Tell us that we don't have Jack or JayZ or some cute young starlet sitting courtside. Tell us that Leno or Letterman are not just down the street. You admire Dirk. He was the only star on the Maverick team that beat the Little 3 of the dreaded Heat. I have to agree with Dan Gilbert that the NBA will soon become 5 All Star teams and 25 Washington Generals. Your EGO has grown with all the other NBA Stars who cannot compete on their own but need another so called superstar to help them. I wish you will reconsider, as a matter of fact I prayed that you would see the light. There I go using GOD like you. But if you don't, I have one more request. Sell your home and move away. Don't use living here for tax savings. Go away and don't come back. We already have another guy who called us a dried up pond, living here. God Bless Mike

I assume that since you are getting 1% that you are also getting a refund on the tickets for games cancelled. Since there will be 13 regular season games cancelled along with 4 preseason games for a total of 17 games and the current new schedule calls for 33 games and i preseason for a total of 34 games. Let's do some math. You paid for 45 games and will receive a refund for 17 games . That means you have 28 games left in your account that were paid for. Because of the condensed new schedule and its 34 games, they are asking you to pay for the 6 games that are not paid for, because they refunded you the monies for these games. They did not RAISE prices.

So many critics, so little common sense. WE lost the game after an unbelievable comeback. Our best of late three point shooter, missed the last shot. Yet many of you creticized him taking the last shot. RA missed his first 3 3 point shots and wound up 3 for 5 at the end of the game. If anything we should be on Stan for not playing in the entire fourth quarter. If the refs had treated him like they do lebron, he should have been on the line for three since he was hit by Earl Anthony after he released the ball. We lost the game because and I hate to admit this a great player could not miss in the first half. Most were contested jump shots. lbj(notice no caps) made his first 11 shots. He is like shooting 32% from distance and 62% from in close. Our 60% free throw shooter shot 23%. JJ was 1 for 8 yet some of you wanted him to take the last shot. That shoulder is still not right. We are not playing well recently, yet with a break here or a miss there we could have and maybe should have won most of these games. I know close is only good in horseshoes and moral victories are hollow and worth as much as a three dollar bill but don't give up on this team now. We have some injuries, a tough schedule with back to backs and are still relatively strangers to each other just 20 some games into our revamped lineup.If at the end of March and we still are playing in mediocraty then we can raise the white flag.

I also noticed a mass migration with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd period from the courtside and superstar seats as they fled to the Monte Cristo lounge and at least half of these fans?? never came back. I must admit that I left with about 5 minutes left in the game. Something I never did at the O'rena but that escalator ride is a long way done and the game was over by the middle of the first. The refs were taking over the pace of the game but what can you expect from the likes of Dan Crawford and Tony Brothers. Two of the worst.n I'm sorry I missed what got J Will so angry that resulted in yhe two T's. Let's give some the benefit of the doubt becaue of the late start, the long timeouts (TNT), the extra long halftime, and the score of the game.

The league is full. Thanks

I just created another fantasy league on ESPN. The league name is Magic Victory March and is open to the public. I invite all of our message board members to join. The league draft will be at 700pm on Friday Oct 8th. Go to ESPN Fantasy Basketball and click on join. Scroll to Friday at 7:00 pm and find Magic Victory March. The league will be a auction draft with each member given $200 dollars to buy 13 players. That's an average of $15 per player, so you must decide if you want to spend $100 on purchasing DH or buy other players spending less. It's challenging and takes some strategy to suceed. It will be head to head competition using 8 scoring categories. I hope you can join me. Let's play. No need to reply just follow the steps I outlined. Mods please let this stay until Friday at 7. Thanks''

Espn will put a value on each player based on last year. As your turn comes you may choose any player to be put up for bid. The bidding continues until the final bid is made. So lets say D12 goes for $6o the player winning the bid will see his bank go down by $60. He now owns D12 and has $140 left to buy 12 more players. This will continue until each team has purchased 13 players. After all teams are complete the values no longer matter. Any free agents have no value. So you may add or drop players and $$ are not involved. You may choose any player for bidding and you can go either way, do you want that player or do you want other teams to spend their money while you save yours for someone else. There is a countdown clock on bidding and as each new bid is entered it recylces to 5 seconds. It is a lot of fun and makes the player decide who is worth what. You need to fill each position so you don't want multiple players at any one given position. The positions are pg, g sg, sf,pf, f, c and 3 u with 3 bench players. Hope this helps.

I went to the open house for season ticketholders and since a couple of my seats are $5 I checked out this rumor. NO you can see the whole court from sec 216. It is up there but pretty similar to the $10 seats at Amway Arena. The center is AWESOME. The scoreboard is HUGE, The concourses are WIDE and are many, there will be no foot traffic jams like the old arena. The bars and restaurants and concession stands are UNBELIEVABLE for the variety of offerings, and locations for viewing the game Large flat scren monitors are numerous. I was overwhelmed and missed a lot of the other amenities of the new home of the Magic. I can't wait until Oct 10th and our first game. If you can go to the open house on Saturday do so. We are BIG time in Orlando, this is the BEST sports venue in the USA.

At the AAU Super Showcase I was able to talk to both Jim Calhoun and his assistant Kevin Ollie of UCONN about Stanley Robinson. Coach Calhoun told me that Stanley was a GREAT kid and very ATHLETIC. He felt that he had a chance to be a very good pro and the Magic got a steal. Kevin Ollie, who just retired from the NBA and had a brief stay with the Magic in his playing days, felt that Stanley would surprise people with his shooting ability. Let's hope that they are both right.

quote: Much as I'd like to, I don't see a comeback happening. Magic played as well as they could, and Boston as bad as they could, and it was still an OT win with major luck on Magic's part. That's the same thing I read when I looked at the celtics facebook. It' GARBAGE. True the Magic played better then game 3. My three year old grandson even knows that.But they missed 13 free throws, commited 19 turnovers (15 in the second half) VC was 1-8, RL was 4-10, MP was missing in action. This team is much better then this. They proved that during the season and the first two rounds of the playoffs. We could use this reasoning but reversed for the first 2 games of this series.The Magic were 28-3 since the all star break including 14 wins in a row coming into this series, That's GOOD. They have not come close to that level in this series including game 4 which celtic fans claim they played poorly and the Magic played as good as they can and were lucky to win. Anyone who has watched the Magic for the first 90 games knows that this team for whatever reason has NOT played up to the level of excellence they displayed for those games.

quote: So, did you think the price of your season tickets would DECREASE in the Amway Center? The amenities of the Amway Center are well worth the jump in price, in my opinion, and if you don't want to renew I guarantee there will be no problem filling your seats. Magic fans have been spoiled for too long with low ticket prices. New facility, better team, price increase. It's a no-brainer. I've been a season ticketholder since 1989, started out in the $8.00 seats which over the years increased to $17.00. After the strike year the Magic institued $10 seats so I moved back 5 rows for the savings. Four years ago they offered $20 seats in the lower bowl, I jumped on that opportunity but also kept 2 $10 seats in the upper bowl. For the big games I sell the lower bowl seats for a nice profit on the Magic Ticket exchange and venture up- stairs. I've been able to sell those $10 seats at work with no problem when my family is not able to use them. In the new arena my comparable seats which are now $27 will go for $40. I decided that that much of a jump was not worth it so back upstairs I go opting for the front row of the $25 seats. I also parlayed my $10 seats into 4 $5 seats. So the net effect is 6 seats with a total cost of $70 a night instead of 4 seats for $74. I might even buy a small popcorn with my windfall. I go to the games to support my team. There is nothing like the electricity in the air no matter where you are seated. Sure I wish I could be courtside, where the players look tall not like the small people when you are far away from the action. But do you know what, Nick Anderson stealing the ball from 5 rows from the top is still in the back of my mind just like those who witnessed them courtside. Not all the games you go to are as riveting as say the Cavs game last week. But if you are a true fan and want to support our team, maybe because of economic reasons you will opt to get an upper bowl ticket in the $5 - 25 range. There are a lot of good fans in the lower bowl, but some of the most rapid fans are in the cheap seats. I've been in both places.

quote: nybody else noticed during Dwight's free throws yesterday people were chanting from the stands: "HOOOWAAAARD HOOOWAAARD HOOOWAAARD" What the F? Were there Raptors fans flying from Canada all the way to Orlando? Or are there much Raptor fans in Orlando, or Dwight haters or what. There was a group of Raptor fans in section 106 row Q who made a lot of noise in supporting their team. We sitting near them had a lot of fun with them, exchanging barbs such as 11-17 or playoffs. Or trying to drown them out with MVP as DH shot his free throws. The fat guy came over and stirred up the crowd around them with Magic chants. Stuff and friends came with string guns and fired away all in fun. The beer guy in our section thanked them, they must have been good tippers. Not only were they chanting Howwward, they continually were chanting "Carter sucks". During the fourth period VC sitting on the bench was looking up toward them laughing, Dwight also was laughing on the bench. It truly was an enjoyable night with the EASY WIN and having this group of 10-12 Toronto fans really making more noise then there numbers could imagine that helped get the fans immediately around them into the game.

After the Jon Berry's mea culpa Mark Jackson said he was going to record the date and time of his retraction for Berry never admits being wrong. Mark Jackson then went on to say that he played with Vince Carter and VC is a BETTER player then Hedo and he was not surprised that the Magic are a better then last years team. I finished the night watching the Cavs Rockets game and heard Clyde Drexler commenting that the Cavs were the best team in the East and they would fight it out with the Celtics as to which team would be in the finals completely ignoring the Magic. His sidekick Bill Worrell said that he shouldn't ignore Dwight Howard and the Magic. Well Clyde again said the Cavs were the best team in the East even after Bill said take LBJ off the team and the team doesn't even make the playoffs. Clyde said the Mo and Anderson were solid players and were playoff material.Maybe he was just trying to build up his Rockets since they were beating the BEST , or he is totally lacking basketball smarts

quote: Reading Gortat's agent say Marcin is very very dissapointed makes me want to hate him now. This is AGENT talk. He want's to do business with Dallas in the future so he is trying pass the blame on the Magic, keeping himself in good graces with the Mavericks for any future dealings. Marcin was at the summer league games and HE said that no matter what happens he will be HAPPY. I take the Polish hammer at his words, not some agent.

quote: Misinterpreting/overstating my posts, manipulating the facts, and predicting something completely unlikely indeed won't happen, doesn't make for a compelling counter-arguement. But I'll play along anyway. Because, what was it you said in the chat...that I was a basketball moron? Well, here are my moronic answers to your thought provoking questions and exceedingly enlightening retorts Feb 11,2009 As Magic fans we obviously feel we are still the best team in our division, but there are two teams in the standings behind us that have a very good chance of overcoming us in the standings in the southeast division ..............................................................we'll be lucky to hold off one team much less both. Who is the chump the uninformed chump. It's your call. Opinions are what we make on this forum.Insults are the work of the uninformed.

There is parking just to the East of the Arena on Parramore consisting of some small lots. If you chose this route I would recommend the Church parking lot which cost $10.00. It's a short walk to the arena. On the East side of the arena on Orange Ave between Livingston and Amelia Ave is the courthouse garage. I believe it's cost is $5.00 and it's a 2 block walk to the arena. The lots directly around the arena are sold out. Hope this helps. Go Magic

quote: Calm down little man. Quit stomping your feet, catch your breath, and I promise the big bad man will give you back your lollipop. I appreciate the kind words but someone who claims to be the KNOW IT ALL should acknowledge the fact that they aren't always right. Did you not last year call Otis an idiot for signing Jameer Nelson to that five year contract. The Otis Smith who couldn't talk in sentences. Yet now that Jameer is hurt both the Hawks and Heat will pass us in the standings. That is about as ludicrous of a statement that you have ever made. We still have a very good team.Hedo mans the point most of the time. We have the best center in the NBA. We have shooters around him as good as anybody in the NBA. With 32 games to go, we are going to lose an 9 and 12 game lead to the aftermentioned teams. And you claim to know it all. Enough said- GO MAGIC.

quote: 7) As Magic fans we obviously feel that we are still the best team in our division, but there are two teams behind us in the standings that have a very good chance of overcoming us in the standings to win the SouthEast division. Atlanta always plays tough, and Miami still has Marion's expiring deal to make a major roster move - couple that with their weaker schedule strength the remainder of the season, and we'll be lucky to hold off one team, much less both. Statements like this make me wonder how legitimate the rest of your points are. You really believe that losing Jameer will cause us to lose our division lead to both the Hawks and Heat. After all last year many on the board said that Jameer stunk and would never lead us to a championship. Now he's out and we are finished. Sure we are a stronger team with him, but AJ and TLue do not have to carry a big load to make us successful. They have to be adequate and let the best center in the NBA and 2 pretty good forwards lead the way. Throw in our shooting guards - MP and CLee and there is no way that the Hawks or Heat catch us. You know that we are only one loss behind the best record in the EAST. quote: Overall, the move to bring Lue on board answers very few questions while opening up numerous questions pertaining to Otis' commitment to putting the best possible unit on the floor this year when we had built up enough momentum to finally be classified with LA, BOS and CLE as the best in the league I love all the closet GM's who question Otis commitment to bringing in a winner. I'm sure you all listened into the other conversations with GM's throughout the league and know that Otis turned down this deal or that. Why you probably think we could have had CP3 for KB and BC. Speculation is all you can deliver. Otis Smith is COMMITED to bringing a championship to Orlando. YOU may not always agree with his moves and that is your right but you cannot question the MAN and his DESIRE to make the ORLANDO MAGIC the BEST in the NBA. Last year you questioned the contract that Otis gave to Jameer. You called him an idiot, that he couldn't speak in sentences. Now when Jameer lived up to the belief that Otis had in him you say that we are done when the injury occured. We are NOT done. We are a TEAM. We have great chemistry. We may not win it all. But the Orlando Magic being led by Otis Smith and Stan Van Gundy will not give up. We will persevere. After all that is what a Winner is.

Free parking is NOT a Perk offered for early payment this year. The offer is an authenic Magic jersey or a signed sneaker. So it looks like with NO increase in seat pricing, I'll have to pay $450.00 a year more for parking.That HURTS A LOT.

We should not change our offense. So we lost the game . It wasn't because we shot too many threes. We scored 102 points and shot 34% from threes.34% is like shooting 51% from 2's. We lost the game because we couldn't stop them. We lost the game because our ALL Star was 5 out of 12 from the free throw line and their All Star was 12 for 12. For the year the Magic are shooting 40% from the three point line. We have a weapon that no other team in the league posesses. Other teams have to shoot 60% just to match us in 2's. We've had some clunkers from the 3 point line including 3 for 20 in the Dallas game but this team is built with an inside out attack with D12 on the inside and a bunch of shooters surrounding him. To say that we have to change the system because Jameer is out is ludicrous. We need to have a defensive mindset when we play which has been missing recently. Sure we should drive and kick more instead of Hedo throwing up three's at the end of the game.But if he made those three's we would have won the game.And everyone would be HAPPY. Those who want off the bandwagon are welcome to leave. We have had a GREAT season and we will continue to BELIEVE in MAGIC.We will miss Jameer's offensive game but we have a great team without him. AS JD says BELIEVE in MAGIC''