Black Magic

With Chris Paul traded to the Clippers, all of the focus now turns to the Orlando Magic and their quandary with free agent-to-be Dwight Howard(Side note: Nets PG Deron Williams is also a free agent after this season. If you're wondering why there isn't a huge fuss over whether he'll stay or go like there was with CP3 and Doomsday, it's because a. he was already traded once from Utah to New Jersey and b. he was smart enough to announce there's a good chance he'll stay with the Nets while also giving himself an out-clause by putting the chances at 90%.....meaning there's a 10% chance he has a change of heart and bolts for New York. Still, nobody has benefited more from all the hoopla surrounding Paul and Howard than D-Will. He's become the forgotten member of the 2012's Big Three. Good for him.). Howard told Orlando he'd like to be traded. The Magic shopped around before, allegedly, taking him off the trading block. D-12 said, in not many words, "That's all fine and good, but I still want a trade." That should tell you something about Howard's chances of staying put.

Now, the Magic could very well trade Howard, and my bet is he's a Laker by year's end(because the Magic aren't stupid enough to trade the best center in the league within the conference but ARE stupid enough to take back Andrew Bynum and his Joe Namath knees in return). If that last sentence made you cringe as a Magic fan, it should. Magic fans know they've been here before. You see, it's hard for Magic fans to cry about their misfortunes when you have Cleveland fans, who've never won a thing and routinely get stomach punches like the Mickey Ward-esque body shot LeBron dealt them last summer during "The Decision". It's hard for Magic fans to whine about losing talent when you compare what they lost to what the Hornets have lost over the last two decades, starting with Alonzo Mourning and culminating with this week's Paul trade.

Still, if it's hard out here for a pimp, it's even harder out here for a Magic fan. Sure, you've been to two NBA Finals in the last 16 years(which is more than, say, Nuggets fans, can say) but you got eliminated from both appearances in spectacular fashion(Swept by the Rockets in 1995, losing to the Lakers in 5 in 2009). However, because of those two appearances and the fact that the team has had its share of good fortune(locking down the first pick three times in the past two decades, including back-to-back in '92 and '93, luring Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill as free agents in 2000, etc.), fans of other teams(both successful and otherwise) turn their nose at the idea of describing Magic fans as tortured. That led me to take a deeper look into the franchise's history and why the "Here we go again...." feel with the Dwight Howard saga 15 years after losing Shaq is enough to put Magic fans on suicide watch this summer.

*May 17, 1992: The Orlando Magic win the 1992 NBA Draft lottery and use the #1 overall pick a month later on an athletic big man out of LSU named Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq wins Rookie of the Year, becomes the first rookie voted in as a starter in the All-Star Game since MJ in 1985 and takes the NBA by storm with his backboard-smashing dunks, his huge smile, outgoing personality and his awful skills on the mic as a rapper. Three years into his tenure in Orlando, Shaq leads a star-studded class with the likes of Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott, Penny Hardaway and Scott Skiles to the NBA Finals, where they would be bested by Hakeem Olajuwon's Rockets in the first of The Dream's two titles.



How it went wrong: In what should have been a sign of things to come during Shaq's career, "The Diesel" and Penny fought over Alpha Dog status and the team never built on its success from reaching the '95 Finals. In the summer of '96, Shaq skipped town to Los Angeles to become the next one in a long line of great Laker centers. The Magic became Penny's team, but the Magic floundered while Shaq won three rings in L.A. as part of the greatest post-Jordan dynasty in NBA history(Yes, Gabe, better than your Tim Duncan Spurs). Orlando never filled the void in the middle left by Shaq's departure until 2004, when they won the lottery again and selected another gregarious big man from the South. You'll get to know him a little later.

*June 30, 1993: Defying a 66-1 odds that they'd land the first pick, the Magic yet again ended up on top of the NBA Draft with a shocking win in the lottery. With the first pick of the '93 Draft, the Magic selected a graceful, potentially once-in-a-generation forward in Michigan's Chris Webber.



How it went wrong: In a moment covered in detail in Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball", the Magic were wowed by the workouts by the aforementioned Penny Hardaway, and traded Webber to Golden State for Penny's rights, robbing the city of Orlando and the NBA of years of a new era Twin Towers with Shaq and C-Webb. Penny became a star in Orlando, while Webber clashed with Don Nelson in Golden State and went on a tailspin that saw him go to Washington for Tom Gugliotta and a few first rounders before getting his career back in order with the Sacramento Kings(where he would be held back by his own ineptitude as well as Shaq's Lakers). In an era dominated by teams led by big men, sans Jordan's Bulls(Karl Malone's Jazz, Hakeem's Rockets, David Robinson and later Tim Duncan's Spurs, Shaq's Lakers and even Patrick Ewing's Knicks), the Magic opted for the tradition inside-outside combo of Shaq and Penny. As you may have read before, Penny and Shaq couldn't co-exist and Shaq fled to L.A. while Penny became a star and then a malcontent and he, too, went West to Phoenix, where he would blow out his knee and lose his relevance. Webber, meanwhile, appeared in a few Western Conference Finals with the Kings and his potential pairing with Shaq will go down as one of the greatest "What if's" in the sport's history.

*August 3, 2000: The Magic acquire Tracy McGrady from Toronto and Grant Hill from Detroit in sign-and-trades in a dual signing that would have been a much bigger deal if it happened today. For those who are too young to remember the pre-Orlando Hill(or for those that forgot), Hill's arrival to Orlando was every bit as significant as LeBron coming to Miami last summer. Hill left the Pistons as perhaps one of the 5 or 10 best players in the league and his acquisition was seen as a huge coup for Orlando(remember, this was a time before Facebook and Twitter and round-the-clock sports coverage and blogs and everything that makes major news stories nauseating today. If Hill and T-Mac are free agents in their prime today, they probably get coaxed into signing in a big market like New York or Chicago and then we get subjected to thousands of rants about how the duo joining forces was bad for the NBA as small market owners mourn the loss of their ability to compete in today's day and age). McGrady, meanwhile, was seen as more potential than proven commodity at that point. As the understudy to his super-popular(at the time, at least) cousin, Vince Carter, in Toronto, T-Mac looked at Orlando as his opportunity to shine but experts saw him more as the Pippen to Hill's Jordan.



How it went wrong: Ankle issues completely derailed Hill's career almost the second he suited up for Orlando. He played just four games in his debut season with the Magic. In 6 seasons in Orlando, Hill played in just 200 of 410 games(starting 196 of them) and played more than 65 games in a season just twice. Without Hill, McGrady became a one-man wrecking crew, but got some help from the likes of Rookie of the Year Mike Miller. T-Mac won two scoring titles and three playoff appearances, but could never get them out of the first round. Hill would sign with Phoenix in 2007 and, in typical "Ain't that some shit, Orlando" fashion, played 70 games for the Suns his first season and managing his first full 82 the year after. McGrady grew tired with doing it all himself, went into cruise control, and the Magic floundered to a league-worst 21-61 record in 2004. McGrady demanded out of Orlando and got his wish in a trade in Houston in exchange for Steve Francis and a couple other nobodies. Ironically, McGrady would be leaving just as the Magic were about to get the big help he needed.

* June 24, 2004: The Orlando Magic use their 3rd #1 pick in 12 years on a talented big man out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy named Dwight Howard. Further showcasing their luck, the Magic, Orlando swings a deal with Denver to acquire the rights to St. Joesph's point guard Jameer Nelson. Howard becomes a double-double machine from Day 1 and, by 2007, he's an NBA All-Star who would later make four more All-Star appearances, win three Defensive Player of the Year awards and charms the shit out of people with an entertaining Slam Dunk Contest win in 2008 and even more entertaining title defense in a loss to 5'9 Nate Robinson a year later. After a slow start, Nelson emerges as one of the game's most underrated point men and he and Howard help lead the Magic to the Finals(although Nelson missed much of the regular season with a shoulder injury, he did make a triumphant return later in the year) after an improbably Eastern Conference Finals upset of LeBron James' Cavs. The Magic lose to Kobe's Lakers but not before notching their first Finals win in franchise history.



How it went wrong: The only explanation for Howard's desire to leave Orlando is a combination of the allure of the big market and the fear that his career as a one-man show will be parallel to McGrady's. Many big names have come and gone as potential Doomsday sidekicks from Rashard Lewis to Vince Carter to Jason Richardson to Gilbert Arenas, but the Magic keep falling short. Whether he's dealt this season or not, Howard's chances of staying in Orlando are bleak. To make matters worse, the team that has the best chance of landing D-12 is the same team that stole Shaq away a little more than a decade and a half ago. That's tough to watch for Magic fans and the sense of deja vu is enough to cause riots at Disney World. As for Nelson, he doesn't have the likes of Rafer Alston or Courtney Lee or Arenas to try to syphon his playing time away but his desire to stay in Orlando is probably linked to Howard's status.

Unless the Magic can get a Godfather offer for Howard, the future is bleak for Orlando. Dwight Howard's the best center in basketball and, at 26, he still hasn't even sniffed his prime yet. That's scary when you consider he's already a 20-15 guy based on power and athleticism alone. Imagine Howard feasting on defenses that can't double him because of Kobe Bryant or him tearing down the house in Brooklyn, catching lobs from Deron Williams. It's something exciting the think about....unless you're a Magic fan.