End of an Era: On Being an Orlando Magic Fan

[WhoDatMagic 7]

Amen Dan. I remember my days at Rock Lake Middle and Brantley High...man being a magic fan was the ****. We would always go to Angels diner before each home game. And I totally agree....those teams from the nineties were so much fun to watch. Good times.

[Franchise408 116]

Hard to watch? That was an AWESOME time to be a Magic fan. Was the team bad? Absolutely, but it was the only game in town and they were our team for better or worse. Those early Magic teams may not have won much, but they played hard, gritty basketball that could be appreciated even in a loss. And it was a HOME team to root for finally!!! You can only appreciate what that really means if you grow up in an area with no local sports teams. Someone from Chicago, New York or Boston will never understand the wonderful feeling of an expansion team magically appearing to fill a sports sized vacuum for a young fan.

 

I remember sitting in junior high school art classes during the 1989-90 season, talking with my friends about how awesome Scott Skiles and Terry Catledge were (they really weren't but we were young and impressionable and hurting for heroes in the classrooms of Edgewood Junior High). I also remember being giddy when I found out that the Magic had won draft lottery and the rights to Shaquille O'neal (It was amazing to walk into card shops in Central Florida back then and see those shiny Fleer and Upper Deck Shaq rookie cards, and the seemingly astronomical amounts they were selling for).

 

Bottom line is it was awesome being a Magic fan on the day that the the team took the court for the first time, it was a heck of a ride cheering for them through all the ups and the downs, and it's great to be a Magic fan today looking toward the future. The original poster can jump on and off the bandwagon all he wants if he think this is an "end of an era", the true fans will just keep our seats and be happy for the extra elbow room while he and others are waiting for the next era to begin.

 

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.

[Guardian 6]

You guys are too harsh. It was a good read from his point of view. I am also a die hard but man I miss Gort, Pietrus and the old Turk. I wish we would have kept building around those guys. The were young.

[Emory889 353]

I like how he described his own article as great. Hey Guyz! Come and click on the greatest article of all time!

 

*cough*

 

it was written by me.....

 

*cough*