Making The List: The Top 25 Orlando Magic Players of All Time: #4

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

I dont know about the rest of you guys, but i am disappointed that a guy who confessedly "tanked" in our team and never got it past the 1st round is in the podium as one of the best players in franchise history.

 

It's hard for me to blame T-Mac for the overall lack of success during his time on the Magic. For one, the organization made a bold move to try to bring in Hill, Duncan, and T-Mac. They were ultimately unable to pry Duncan away, and Hill was a health disaster that had a huge impact on our team.

 

As for "tanking", well, after everything he did for the team, all the effort, all the big games, how he carried this team for several years, I can sort of understand how that would grind a guy down. However, the real reason I find it difficult to hold that against him, is the end result. Imagine where we would be now if we had squeaked into the playoffs that year.

[BMP 424]

It's hard for me to blame T-Mac for the overall lack of success during his time on the Magic. For one, the organization made a bold move to try to bring in Hill, Duncan, and T-Mac. They were ultimately unable to pry Duncan away, and Hill was a health disaster that had a huge impact on our team.

 

As for "tanking", well, after everything he did for the team, all the effort, all the big games, how he carried this team for several years, I can sort of understand how that would grind a guy down. However, the real reason I find it difficult to hold that against him, is the end result. Imagine where we would be now if we had squeaked into the playoffs that year.

 

His 2002-2003 season is also probably the best season a Magic player has ever had in the history of the franchise. I guess you could say Shaq's '94 season was better but TMAC doing it all really put on emphasis on just how good he was, as well as showed just how capable he was of carrying a team. I think Penny was a very good 2nd option but was never going to be the first option TMAC was. It's a shame neither really lasted long. . . and I don't mean lasted just in the Magic, but also in the league. How nice would it be if we could turn injuries OFF. . .

[Skywise316 211]

When it comes to Magic history, especially when trying to be halfway positive about these guys, it's hard to do so without putting the blinders on for how these guys leave. Because the fact is not many of these guys leave gracefully, uninjured, and so on.. and so on..

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

I can't get past the Cleveland series when it comes to comparing Lewis and Nelson for the nomination. We don't get out of that series without him, therefore missing out on the franchise's second finals appearance. I just think Rashard's arrival was the turning point for this teams future success. He was more irreplaceable in his prime years than was Jameer. I don't think either nomiantion is wrong, I just give Rashard the slight edge as of today.

 

Jameer's not going anywhere though, so in time (soon actually) Jameer will surpass Lewis on the all-time Magic players list.

 

Yeah i kinda agree with this. I only put Jameer ahead of Lewis because Lewis only played in 257 regular season games with the magic while jameer has played in 435

[ML6 520]

Vote: Penny

 

Nominate: Lewis

 

Like others have said, this is a tough call between Jameer and Shard, especially considering how much of a Jameer fan I am. Rashard's heroics on the way to the Finals get him the nod.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

Vote: Penny

Nominate: Nelson

[Miller4Prez66 545]

Vote: Penny

Nominate: 3D

[magicfan83 23]

When it comes to Magic history, especially when trying to be halfway positive about these guys, it's hard to do so without putting the blinders on for how these guys leave. Because the fact is not many of these guys leave gracefully, uninjured, and so on.. and so on..

 

Yes. If we had a list of the greatest players to leave gracefully, we'd be down to Darrell, Nick, and Horace. The top 5 would have to include Bo Outlaw. Yikes.

 

As for the vote...

 

I had T-Mac and Penny in a virtual tie so I will clearly go with Penny as #4. It speaks volumes of the players this franchise has had in such a relatively short time that he is number 4 on the list.

 

Nominate: Still Lewis for all the reasons I have stated in the previous threads, and Kberto said in this thread much more succinctly.