How did you become a Magic fan?

[COLOMBIANO 118]

Moved to USA in 99. Watched a lot basketball because of Jordan, but lost interest once he retired.

 

I became a fan I think it was in 01-02 when T-Mac was putting on a show just about every night.

 

Loyal fan since. I like good basketball overall, but hate the Celtics and Heat (Just had to throw that out there :)

[jec 427]

Lol, I said loyal not to be confused waaith Dwights loyalty.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Let's see, I was also born and raised here. My first memory of the Magic was a game I went to in 98' toward the end of Penny's decline. It wasn't until McGrady came along that I decided I loved basketball, and since then, my passion for the game, and for this team in particular, has never wavered. I was born over halfway into our inaugural season.

 

Yay...

[LoneilGCKY66B 1]

Purchased season tickets back in '87. Had seats all the way up until the '03-04 season.

 

What a ride it was!

[IronMaiden 43]

When I first started getting into the game of basketball as a 10/11 year old, I started watching games on TBS and TNT. As it turned out, the Orlando Magic with Shaq and Penny were the team that was on national tv most often during that period. I just grew to love them. They were fun to watch and I turned into a huge fan pretty quick and it just stuck from there on out.

[davcivic 11]

Penny Hardaway....I was born in the dominican republic, long story, raised betwen Florida and Puerto Rico....Growing up I played and watched a lot of baseball..Then I saw this man playing basketball. Michael Jordan. I became a diehard basketball fan with Michael back in 90-91.

 

Then I saw Penny, I loved his game, he made me love the Magic. His Nike's where my first ever player shoe purchase. I had to pay for them, my parents where like, we are not going to pay $120 for shoes..ha.

 

Good times. After Shaq left, and Penny was gone too I stayed as a Magic fan, then I moved to Central Florida and stayed a fan....But Liking MJ's game and then seeing how good Penny was made me a Magic Fan for life

[jsmeaze 1]

I'm from Ohio and became a Magic fan when I was 9. It was because of Penny and Shaq and all that excitement. Once Shaq left I hated him and remained a Magic fan

[Wizard 0]

Since I'm from Europe (Serbia) it was hard to watch games live. It's a 6 hour difference between here and the East coast. Back then there wasn't fast internet connections as well, so I only could watch game replays during the day (and occasional live games when I could stay awake late), one local TV did coverages of the NBA back then, and NBA Action. I was in elementary school at that time, and the first team I cheered for were the Orlando Magic. Along with my friend who also liked them back then, and we liked to play on small house basket, imagining that I was Penny and he was Shaq (because of our builds) lol. Penny was the biggest reason, he was my idol when I was a kid. I loved Shaq as well, though, not that much anymore. Beside that I liked the logo, name, jerseys (those jerseys then are the best jerseys ever).

 

So, some almost 20 years later, I'm still a fan. Stayed awake last time to watch Magic beat the Suns. It was a great game and I'm happy that I can call myself a Magic fan.

 

On a side note, I like Warriors on the West, and I loved to watch SuperSonics during the Kemp-Payton period.

[Harklessonfire 40]

When I was little and playing N64 with my friends, NBA Hangtime was one of my favorite games. Jordan was my favorite player, but he wasn't in the game. I found the Magic to be my team, Penny Hardaway and Horace Grant all day. The Magic grew so much on me that I started to watch their NBA games whenever they got on the TV.

 

My parents bought me a Hardaway jersey, black with pin-stripes, man I rocked that everywhere. I have to admit though, I wore Jordan when I played basketball, I even remember putting Michael Jordan as my name on a test in 1st grade. I mean, my name is Michael, and somehow the teacher knew it was me.

 

Anyways, I've loved the Magic since I was little and still support them, through the tough years and the good ones.

[jdubb1500 0]

Michael Jordan was my favorite Player in Elementary school until he retired and then it was Penny in '99 and then I became a huge Vince Carter fan in 4th grade when watching the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest... BUT the Orlando Magic have been my favorite Team/Franchise since the 1995-1996 season when I was in kindergarten, I love the Shaq/Penny duo and I've always thought the team had the coolest colors and logo (until we inexplicably changed it to the most boring logo in the league after our '09 finals run). I just wish we could have one of our two older logos back and possibly the '99-04 uni's but I LOVE these current uniforms too! I pray we tank this season so we can draft Nerlens Noel and continue the tradition of having premier centers, which is one of the main reasons I started following the team at 5 years old.

[jdubb1500 0]

To add to my last post, I actually was required to due a huge book report in 5th grade (2001) and found a large Orlando Magic team history book and brought in my signed Penny basketball, my Blue Penny jersey with pinstripes, and my '99 Magic Draft hat. Got a 100 on that. So my team kind of helped me make the Honor roll back in the day haha.

[CTMagicUK 1,476]

A fair few years ago i was on holiday in Orlando, we were there for three weeks so had plenty of time to just lounge around some days and I happened to turn on the tv and a Magic game was on, at that time I had never watched any basketball at all but, as I was in Orlando, felt I should route for Orlando. I ended up watching about 4 or 5 games on tv whilst I was on that holiday, I also bought that years NBA 2K game, took it home and played as the Magic until i pretty much broke the disc... Although I didn't have a renewed interest in basketball until this past year when my new tv package had a sports channel that showed various NBA games... got back into the game and remembered my love for the Magic, I then moved to university so I thought I'd buy NBA Team Pass so I could watch all of the Magic games this season rather than just a random few on tv.

[OrlandoLegacy 0]

I was born and raised in New York, so I've naturally been at the helm of a lot of criticism for not supporting the Knicks or Nets.

 

It turns out that I just wasn't that into basketball as a kid, and never was until I visited Orlando in 2009 for Christmas.

 

I went to the Celtic/Magic game at the O-Rena(!) and fell in love with not only the sport, but the fans, the energy, the team, the presentation, the community...it was all much more welcoming than what I had ever seen from the Knicks. D12 and Redick made me love the team, and while I can't stand the circus that Howard turned the club into last year, I'll always be thankful that he helped get me into the game.

 

I visit Orlando for 2 weeks a year and go to all of the games when they visit in New York. I finally bought NBA League Pass this year so I can keep up with the team on a more regular basis, and since I really enjoy talking about the them I wanted to find a place to talk. Just went to the game yesterday, and I love the team effort and fighting spirit. They're the ultimate underdogs now, but I'm confident for the future.