Franchise408

Wait, so Dwight is staying now??? WTF is going on??

This article is pretty much on point, as much as I hate to say it. If Dwight wants to leave in free agency, that's his choice, that's part of the business, and I wish him well. But I really hate how he's more worried about where he's gonna play in the future as opposed to where he's playing now. It's really causing a divide between Dwight and the fans - at least this fan.

LUL'z!!

Except that the tweet from the Magic fan was much more accusatory than the one from the Lakers fan. It was much more of an attack. Also - what is this Dallas thing that Otis did to them? I'm not sure I get that reference.

I mean, Otis -did- build the most successful Orlando Magic squad in franchise history. I'm not defending all of his moves, but under Otis this team has had better success than it's ever had before.

If we were to lose Dwight Howard, getting Blake Griffin in return... doesn't anger me. That's a very interesting scenario.

I agree with this. I'd rather have one last run at it with Dwight than to trade him away for some of the proposed trades I've heard.

T-Mac didn't ask to be traded because we drafted Dwight over Okafor. That said, T-Mac is a punk beyond all belief, and I really don't give half a crap about what he thinks, nor do I lend him any credibility.

That's more like a bad comedy movie than a sitcom.

Agreed, but I don't know that it's an "either / or" situation.

In my opinion, no, and that's not because I don't have faith in the Orlando Magic, it's because I don't have faith in the NBA. LeBron really catapulted a trend that was always a factor in the NBA, but at least it was manageable. But LeBron made it the way of the NBA. The inmates are running the asylum. Team building is now done by the superstars, who all get together and decide they want to play together in a big market. So now you have "super teams" being built by a bunch of superstarts getting together and deciding they want to play together in Miami, or New York, or wherever. Small market teams, like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Denver Nuggets, etc. are gonna be assed out as they have no hopes of retaining their superstars, who bolt for a big market. People complain about the Boston Celtics and hated them for "buying" a championship when they built their big three. And I agree. I hate the Boston Celtics. But I will say this - at least the Boston Celtics were a team built by a GM who took a particular approach to how he wanted to build his team in hopes of getting a championship. The Celtics weren't built because Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce all got together one summer, and over poker and beer decided they wanted to do it every weekend, hey let's all play in Boston! The NBA has always been the most superstar driven league of American sports, moreso than MLB or especially the NFL. Yes, you did have guys like Shaquille O'Neal bolt for bigger markets, or Tracy McGrady demand a trade and declare the team he wanted to play for. But those instances were merely a part of the reality of professional sports, not just another day at the office. The NBA is, in my opinion, in a downward spiral. To be perfectly honest, the lockout didn't bother me all that much, just because I don't like where the NBA is headed. I hope I'm wrong. I love the game of basketball, and I love the NBA. The NBA has had a negative image at quite a few different points the last decade, decade and a half or so, and I have always stuck by the NBA and defended the NBA. Against the idea that the league is just a bunch of thugs and gangsters, against the idea that the league is rigged and refs consciously influence the outcome of games. But the way the league is headed, small market teams will never truly be able to compete. Teams like our Magic, teams like the Blazers, the Nuggets, the Warriors, the Grizzlies,, the Cavaliers, we may get some superstars here or there through the draft, but we will never be able to compete with the big markets like New York, Miami, LA, Boston, or Chicago for marquee players, whether it's luring them to us in free agency, or holding onto them in free agency. Please, NBA, prove me wrong.

I have a hard time calling the GM that led us the closest we've ever been to a championship as the worst GM in franchise history.

Very well put. I can't say I have the same appreciation for those early teams like you do for the exact same reasons you said. I have always been an out of market Orlando Magic fan, living in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of my life, and now living just outside of Nashville, TN. Growing up, I not only always had sports teams around, I had *numerous* sports teams around. Multiple sports teams in a single sport; Giants and A's, 49ers and Raiders, the Warriors were the home NBA team and the Kings aren't far enough away to not be considered a home team of sorts. And your last paragraph is the absolute truth. I cannot stand bandwagon fans in any sport. One of my friends is a Bulls fan and never repped the team between the retiring of Jordan and the coming of Derrick Rose. Meanwhile, I took pride in sporting my Orlando Magic gear in Golden State while the team was on it's way to a 21-61 season. These people can hop off the bandwagon, and I'm gonna stay right on it. Because you know what? Watching the Magic play in the NBA Finals a couple years ago was incredibly rewarding because of how long I've waited to see it. It was what? 13 years between the Orlando v. Houston series and the Orlando v. LA series? That felt good to know that I had rode the team through the high times and the low and through all of it I got to see my team compete for an NBA Championship. F--- bandwagoners.

It probably doesn't help your cause that in your very article you talked about how you stopped watching for the majority of the 2000's, when Orlando was bad, until we got "good enough to believe in" again. You'll be hard pressed to find sympathy with words like that from people who were rocking their Magic jerseys in Golden State watching your team get smashed by the Warriors while trotting out a starting 5 that included Tyronn Lue and Sean Rooks.

So let me get this straight... the Heat get the time they need to finally "click", but the Magic are done after one night with the new squad?