Official Game Thread: Miami Heat @ Orlando Magic

[Dwight Shrute 10]

That's not what happened in Seattle. People here are STILL intense Sonics fans and were even when (Starbucks founder and multi-billionaire) Schultz was whining about the city not building a stadium for him immediately. While we were still paying off two other gargantihuge stadiums forced through by another billionaire in the early years of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, while said Schultz was letting all the local fan favorites walk away for nothing.

 

To put it into an Orlando perspective, imagine the CEO of Disney demanded that Orlando rebuild Disneyworld, Universal demanded that the city rebuild that park, and THEN RDV came out and said "build me a HUUUUGE stadium with taxes or I'll sell the team."

 

Now imagine RDV didn't say that during the Shaq or the Dwight years, but said it RIGHT NOW. Oh, and traded away 'Meer. Do you think that would fly?

 

That's what happened here in Seattle. And Clay Effing Bennett bought the team with a handshake deal that he wouldn't move the team, and even had plans for reducing the tax burden and hoisting the team to the Bellevue suburb (richer part of town - the current stadium, sans Key Arena, are all in the sketch part).

 

It seemed like a good deal, but then the inside emails of "OKC's getting a team, y'all!" came out and Bennett was revealed to be an underhanded piece of Dwight. For the record, THAT was when the locals stopped going to the games: AFTER Clay effing Bennett was already hellbent on moving the team.

 

***** Clay Bennett.

 

But I'm not bitter...

 

Seattle is a phenomenal sports town. I am no lawyer, but I would have liked to have seen that whole SEA to OKC thing investigated and acted upon. Something was not right about that......truly feel bad for Seattle Sonic fans.

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

Which is exactly why you should be excited about the direction of the team now. It seems that they have put for the effort to rebuild the front office and turn it into a quality operation, only, you want to ignore that and focus on the fact that the team has a nasty losing record this season. The fact that you are cognizant of just how bad the organization has been run in the past makes your current position even more ludicrous.

 

Also, just for the record, teaming Penny with Shaq was magnificent. The only reason you can really discount that decision is the fact that Shaq left and their pairing never realized full potential. Also, I don't see how you can blame Shaq leaving on the Magic either, that has more to do with Shaq himself, and the league.

 

The Grant Hill fiasco is another that's difficult to blame on management. They took a shot at building what could have been a better "big three" than Miami and damn near pulled it off. Duncan, Hill and McGrady would have been better, in my opinion, than the Heat due to a better balance of talent.

 

Otis was a failure, sure, you can't really argue against that, just like you can't rationally support his Fran pick, or the Arenas trade, but you can at least look at Lewis and, while overpaid, the guy was instrumental in getting this team to the finals.

 

But again, realizing how bad this team was managed in the past, and how things have changed with our new GM should be a huge reason to get excited about this team and their future. I don't get how you can take a long term view of past mistakes and ignore the long term view of the future to balance your overall outlook. You're looking long term for the past bad, and extremely short term for the current bad, while ignoring the future outlook.

[Jareth Cutestory 678]

The hiring of Hennigan and company, followed by the moves that have been made thus far have been the exact opposite of the previous regime.

 

So I ask, what would YOU like this franchise to be doing at this point, since both extremes don't seem to fit into your line of what's right for this team.

[30Assists 342]

Seattle is a phenomenal sports town. I am no lawyer, but I would have liked to have seen that whole SEA to OKC thing investigated and acted upon. Something was not right about that......truly feel bad for Seattle Sonic fans.

It was investigated and Clay settled out of court, I believe. While I'm not a Sonics fan (at least, not as much a fan as I am of the Magic), Seattle was ROUNDLY screwed in that situation. And now? Seattle will have to screw Sacramento out of THEIR team in order to get an NBA team again. It's just awful.

 

And that's also why I was semi-rooting for the Heat last year: I never want Clay Bennett to win anything ever again. Except maybe butt cancer.

[30Assists 342]

The hiring of Hennigan and company, followed by the moves that have been made thus far have been the exact opposite of the previous regime.

 

So I ask, what would YOU like this franchise to be doing at this point, since both extremes don't seem to fit into your line of what's right for this team.

And this is where I'm at. The team isn't real exciting to watch right now, and it's going to be having some serious growing pains for the next 3-5 years, but it's now looking like it's finally moving in the right direction.

 

It actually reminds me a lot of Sonic years right before THE EVIL ONE moved the team. A lot of question marks, a few interesting players, a team identity still coming together. In a few years, this is going to be a fun team to watch again, and likely a far more cohesive unit than they were under Dwight/Otis/SVG.

 

But for right now? It's going to be a painful few years.

[Jareth Cutestory 678]

And this is where I'm at. The team isn't real exciting to watch right now, and it's going to be having some serious growing pains for the next 3-5 years, but it's now looking like it's finally moving in the right direction.

 

It actually reminds me a lot of Sonic years right before THE EVIL ONE moved the team. A lot of question marks, a few interesting players, a team identity still coming together. In a few years, this is going to be a fun team to watch again, and likely a far more cohesive unit than they were under Dwight/Otis/SVG.

 

But for right now? It's going to be a painful few years.

 

If majority of things go right, I think 2-3 years is more realistic. We'll have a sense of where this team is at in 2014.

 

And I disagree. Watching our young bucks play hard has been a treat, save for some lackluster blowouts. Say what you want about Vaughn and the potential of the young guys, but they have played harder than a team in their position should be. Shows they respect the game, the franchise, and Vaughn. I appreciate that.

[Dwight Shrute 10]

Just think of me as that disgruntled employee who threatens to quit everyday at 5pm and then shows up religiously the following morning at 7am.

[Jareth Cutestory 678]

Just think of me as that disgruntled employee who threatens to quit everyday at 5pm and then shows up religiously the following morning at 7am.

 

 

Ha. Fair enough.

[30Assists 342]

If majority of things go right, I think 2-3 years is more realistic. We'll have a sense of where this team is at in 2014.

 

And I disagree. Watching our young bucks play hard has been a treat, save for some lackluster blowouts. Say what you want about Vaughn and the potential of the young guys, but they have played harder than a team in their position should be. Shows they respect the game, the franchise, and Vaughn. I appreciate that.

I'm also guessing you live somewhere where the Magic games are televised. Hard to watch them when they've had almost no games on national TV all season.

[~O~ 565]

Eh. I love this team.

 

 

[TheREALBrooksThompson 157]

Aside from our magical run in 09 (no pun intended), have we really been that relevant? I don't think so......not in the Miami/Boston/LAL/OKC way.

 

I've never seen a FO consistently make so many piss-poor decisions like I have with the Magic. You had the Shaq thing, the GHill debacle, trading a scoring champ for Steve f'in Francis, signing Gilbert Arenas to a 65 trillion dollar contract, signing Rashard Lewis to a 65 trillion dollar contract, using a lotttery pick to draft a guy who had no intentions of ever playing in the NBA, and allowing the worst GM in the history of all professional sports to retain his job for 6 years.

 

Grant Hill - the only aformentioned decision you can't truly blame on the Magic......no one knew he would be a 5 year walking injury.

Shaq - does that really need debating? But, one must be concerned that he has later laid blame on the Orlando FO for his departure.

Steve Francis - good god, really? Really, FO? The FO must have literally been strung out on some serious smack when that decision was made.......wow

Gilbert Arenas - thanks Otis, some guy playing in China is still the highest paid member of the Orlando Magic

Rashard Lewis - wasn't the worst player ever in a Magic uniform, but was he worth Michael Jordan money? No, he was worth what we would NORMALLY pay a 3 point specialist

Fran Vazquez - yeah, Danny Granger sucked so let's take some whipped, Spanish guy, instead.......I've scored as many points in the NBA as Fran has

 

 

Let me throw another blunder out there that will definitely get a bunch of panties in a bunch, hell, it may even cause a few sharts:

 

Trading CWebb for Penny in the 1993 draft. Penny was great, but how much better would the Magic have been if we kept Cwebb. That would have been an amazing frontcourt, but our FO, GET THIS, let a player do their job.......reference to Shaq not wanting the Magic to draft CWebb. You think the Magic would have NOT let history repeat itself when Dwight started making his demands. Guess what, he did, and he left just like Shaq.

 

You dudes can seriously continue to shell out your hardearned cash on a team whose executives have proven throughout its existence to be complete malcontents.

 

No, I am boycottting and will continue to boycott the Magic (and the NBA in general) until our executives start to make informed decisons, and said decisions actually pan out into success.

 

Every once in a while you'll run into someone who has a really strong opinion on something like crime. He'll go on a long rant about how the country is way too soft on crime and how if he were in charge he'd change things and make everyone safer. On the surface, it looks like he's a concerned citizen who is passionate about an issue and wants to help correct it.

 

But then you talk to him a little more and it turns out he just thinks we should start executing people for petty crimes like shoplifting and stuff. And he's completely serious about it. You can't really talk him out of it, because you're not talking to a rational person. You're talking to a guy who thinks taking such a radical position makes him look tough. So you just move on, feeling slightly less optimistic about our species' ability to not destroy itself.

 

That's what's going on with this guy. These aren't opinions that are coming from a rational person taking reasonable and justifiable positions. It's a guy taking an extreme and ridiculous position because he thinks it makes him look like a badass. This guy wants to project the idea that he's such a winner that he can't stand his favorite basketball team losing at all. Winners like this guy don't put up with losing.

 

I'm certainly impressed.

[magicblue 315]

Just think of me as that disgruntled employee who threatens to quit everyday at 5pm and then shows up religiously the following morning at 7am.

 

So basically you're just bored and wasting everyone's time