Question for Magic Fans

[Live or Die Magic 383]

How much more luck do we need? That Ping Pong Ball bounced in our favor 3 times (if you count Chris Webber) We had two of the most dominant big men in their primes.........What are the Spurs doing that we keep failing on?

 

I explained all of this in my last post. I think you are upset and arguing for arguments' sake. If you don't want to spend your extra cash on the Magic, then there are some other options:

 

Orlando Predators

UCF Knights Football (or other sport)

Orlando City Soccer

Bob Carr Performing Arts

Any concert at the Amway Center

 

Regardless of your choice, you'd still be supporting the local community, and depending on your choice, you might still be disappointed in the outcome.

[NBAMagic 16]

I explained all of this in my last post. I think you are upset and arguing for arguments' sake. If you don't want to spend your extra cash on the Magic, then there are some other options:

 

Orlando Predators

UCF Knights Football (or other sport)

Orlando City Soccer

Bob Carr Performing Arts

Any concert at the Amway Center

 

Regardless of your choice, you'd still be supporting the local community, and depending on your choice, you might still be disappointed in the outcome.

 

You know me long enough, I just like to envoke discussion :) Even if I'm always attacked for it LOL..............I can ***** and moan and complain, but i have been a season ticket holder for over 15 years. That's not going to change, I'm just utilizing my right as a Magic Fan to ***** and moan and complain.........

I just don't like to see everything through "rose colored" glasses like most fans.......If it stinks, I say it stinks and in my opinion having to rebuild after having the most dominent big man leave for greener pastures once again........really upsets me

[Live or Die Magic 383]

You know me long enough, I just like to envoke discussion :) Even if I'm always attacked for it LOL..............I can ***** and moan and complain, but i have been a season ticket holder for over 15 years. That's not going to change, I'm just utilizing my right as a Magic Fan to ***** and moan and complain.........

 

I can't argue with you there!

[barnettej 263]

I explained all of this in my last post. I think you are upset and arguing for arguments' sake. If you don't want to spend your extra cash on the Magic, then there are some other options:

 

Orlando Predators

UCF Knights Football (or other sport)

Orlando City Soccer

Bob Carr Performing Arts

Any concert at the Amway Center

 

Regardless of your choice, you'd still be supporting the local community, and depending on your choice, you might still be disappointed in the outcome.

 

What about the Orlando Thunder?..... Oh wait....

[Soul Bro 1,422]

You know me long enough, I just like to envoke discussion :) Even if I'm always attacked for it LOL..............I can ***** and moan and complain, but i have been a season ticket holder for over 15 years. That's not going to change, I'm just utilizing my right as a Magic Fan to ***** and moan and complain.........

I just don't like to see everything through "rose colored" glasses like most fans.......If it stinks, I say it stinks and in my opinion having to rebuild after having the most dominent big man leave for greener pastures once again........really upsets me

 

15 years. Fair enough. ***** away, ole faithful. ;)

[Manu Ginobili 61]

I have been carefully reading the previous comments, and would like to add something that it is not related with organization management, GM or small market.

 

I believe we really had bad luck at our most important time. If you look at it, one of the main reasons stars stayed in small markets was because they already won, or had the best chance to win, rings.

 

We had 2 enormous chances, and missed them. I mean, something has to be illogical when you are favored to win the title, at home, leading by 3, and a 70% ft shooter misses 4 in a row. Those kind of things don't happen. Or at least it seems to be everything that could go wrong happened. Then Kenny Smith (still hate you) makes a contested 3 to tie the game. Then Olajuwon tips the ball in with less than a second left. I mean, are you kidding me? Really?

 

Then, Courtney Lee misses a layup that he would have made 8 out of 10 times. Gasol touches the net, but nothing is called. 4 days later, with a 1-2 disadvantage and all the momentum on our side, again leading by 3, a 50% FT shooter and the best player on your team misses 2 in a row. Then, of course, the old PG across the streets nails the dagger.

 

I mean, I don't remember a team being so many times so close to the glory and be still a virgin. It feels like the script of a Hollyword "Hero" film, but we are the enemy.

 

It kind of created a tradition. The "Tragic". "Nick Anderson". "Master of Panic".

 

I believe the sum of all parts (Some bad GMing, some bad players, some bad luck, worse endorsement contracts, not the best city/social life) are the reason nobody stayed with us. But bad luck cannot be discounted. It is perhaps the only reason that can enter my mind on why we did not win in those key moments.

[Skywise316 211]

this thread is well thought out, but.. also damned depressing, especially for the offseason. :svgsad:

[Miguel O'hara 15]

this thread is well thought out, but.. also damned depressing, especially for the offseason. :svgsad:

 

 

haha hell yea it is. I was in a good mood until i read this thread.

[Iron Magic 904 3]

Jarvis, cross reference Magic failure with horrible front office.

[Knappy1 16]

I have to compliment the original poster on this post (by the way, pick a member account and stick with it! You keep opening up new ones).

 

Anyway, it is a fair point you make. I do not believe we can place all the blame on the front office. Yes, some bad decisions were made, but the real problem is the system. Despite having a salary cap and rules that are supposed to allow for competitive balance, we have players and agents that want to get to big markets where there are bigger opportunities. Player agents get a larger percentage of non-basketball money from their clients. So long as the shoe companies (and others) are giving bigger contracts to players if they play in major markets, then the system will always work against the smaller markets.

 

So basically, an NBA team in a smaller market will be allowed to field a team and host big market, star-studded teams (and act thankful for it) and they can even have loyal fan bases that routinely attend the games and provide a sense of excitement to the community and the team. But they can no longer expect to keep multiple superstars they might be lucky enough to draft or trade for.

 

I really hope that OKC becomes the exception.

 

Hey Live or Die, is there anyplace to see the $'s offered for shoe contracts? I do see the endorsements as making it difficult for a small market team to compete and I think the NBA is ok with that. Is it correct that a shoe contract in a market like NY or LA could match the salary of a player like Dwight per year - maybe Dwight has taken a hit.

 

I listed the size of the tv markets before - the largest NY (6.4%), LA (4.9%), CH (3.1%), PH (2.5%), DA(2.2%), SF (2.2%), BO (2.1%), DC (2.1%), Atl (2%), HO (1.9%) and at # 19 Orlando at 1.3%.

 

I am sure that the shoe company would sell more sneakers of a star in NY or LA just based on the shear number of people - the NY television market is about 5 times the size as the Orlando television market.

 

Anyone have any specifics on these sneaker contracts or other endorsements? I'd be curious of comparing Durant to say Kobe, Lebron (dick), Anthony, Duncan, etc. - Durant is a star the caliber of Dwight as are Lebron and Kobe. Is Durant not getting a similar shoe contract in Oklahoma? I understand it is a much smaller market - smaller than Orlando, but doesn't he attract a lot of attention? Or some other comparison.

 

If anyone has specifics I would be very interested to know.

[Knappy1 16]

And yet we see with the NBA that this is clearly not the case.

 

There are all these rules in place and players still gravitate toward the larger markets. Why? Because the salary cap does not do what people think it does. It exists to limit the amount of money the players as a collective can make. That's it. The stuff about competitive balance is a nice selling point to generate popular support, but that's neither its purpose nor an effect of its implementation.

 

The NFL is different for several reasons, but probably the biggest one is the way their television rights are distributed. They sell their broadcast rights in one package to national networks and distribute the revenue from that to the teams. In the NBA, each team handles its own broadcast deals with local networks. Under that system, more populous cities will always bring in more money than less populous ones. In the NFL this doesn't matter because they're all part of the same broadcast package. That's why it really doesn't hurt the NFL to not have a team in Los Angeles.

 

That's why teams in the NFL are more or less on equal footing. It has nothing to do with the salary cap. There are also differences like non-guaranteed contracts, shorter careers, less individual impact, and so on that make free agency in the NFL a far different animal than it is in the NBA.

 

Revenue disparities are going to exist in the NBA as long as teams handle their own broadcast contracts. That isn't going to change anytime soon, and it obviously wouldn't change if the salary cap were eliminated. But what would happen is that small market teams would be able to spend money when they're able to.

 

So let's say you draft a guy like Dwight. He re-energizes your fanbase, you're selling out your new arena, your team is successful, but you're not making it all the way. Your GM makes a few trades to try to put you over the top, but they ultimately fail. Now your team is screwed because you're stuck with bad contracts and a mediocre team. You can't make significant free agent acquisitions, even though you'd like to and would be willing to shell out the money, because the salary cap is there. You can't trade for significant help because no one wants your bad contracts. So your superstar gets disgruntled and wants to leave anyway. How did the salary cap help your small market team here?

 

 

This is very important - great post - there is such a big disparity in the television revenue that the bigger markets can afford to take the hit on being over the cap. If NY gets 5 times the ad revenue that Orlando does - that's a lot of money difference - fortunately Orlando has a deep pocket ownership, but they can't just spend year after year like NY, LA or Chicago.

 

I think David Stern is a complete ass - easily as much as Dwight Howard has been as of late. I too would take Dwight Howard back, but unfortunately he doesn't want to be here, so instead I hope his career blows up - in a bad way.

 

I don't see the NBA doing anything here - they really aren't concerned about a team like Orlando - they are concerned about LA, NY, etc.

[Knappy1 16]

I has season tickets for about 10 years and then got so turned off in that playoff game against Boston or someone - can't remember - where there were about 8 seconds left and the clock didn't start and the other team made a 3 point shot - and the clock was still at 8 seconds after about an 8 second play (and they had the technology to see the shot was not taken in time) and the NBA rule was - (1) don't replay it - it was too close to call, (2) don't run the shot clock against the play, which the tv station did within 30 seconds, while the officials were in a huddle for minutes, (3) guess - try to guess if they got the shot off in time - they guessed wrong - the difference was less than a second - how are they supposed to guess? The rule was that you had to guess - they had two acceptable options - replay, or run the shot clock against the play to see if the shot was taken in time - no lets go with GUESS.

 

The good thing is that none of the players stopped playing - that would have been another issue if they had stopped - if one of them noticed the shot clock wasn't moving.

 

It just turned me off David Stern's arrogance. I had a sign at the next playoff game as did about 10 other people regarding the shot clock - it was professionally made. It said something like - Don't replay, Don't check the shot clock, Just Guess it's in the rules, NBA - where officiating happens.

 

A camera man walked by and I said to get the sign on TV - he said that he was instructed by the NBA that no signs having to do with the shot clock were to be aired - or he would lose his job.

 

So, now I still watch the games on TV, but I think I only went to two games last season - I used to go to every other game.

 

I guess Brian Hill turned me off a bit as well and I was furious that the Magic kept him all season and wouldn't fire him during the season, the players still had a chance to turn it around, but Hill destroyed them and they got progressively worse.

 

I guess I got a little off topic.