Thoughts running through my head as I wake up from a deepened sleep...
I'm back!
Did you miss me?
I didn't think so.
Anyway, while I was away, several events and stories made headlines: Brad Pitt upgraded from Jennifer Aniston to Angelina Jolie;
Nick and Jessica performed for the troops in Iraq; the NHL folded and nobody cared; a white guy won the NBA MVP award for the first time
since Larry Bird.
And oh yeah, the Magic missed the playoffs again.
Wow, didn't see that one coming.
After firing their head coach and handing the keys over to a nervous assistant promoted as the "crown jewel" of the coaching staff,
its no wonder why the Magic couldn't beat out the frontline depleted
New Jersey Nets for the final playoff spot. Nonetheless, the Magic were quick to put the
regular season behind them.
Shortly after the season, Magic GM John Weisbrod resigned from his post. Speculations ran ramped over the timing and nature of his
resignation. Was he forced out? Did he not like the new head coach (who hadn't been named at that point)? Did he really love hockey that
much that he'd give up a seven figure job to work for a sport where everyone's playing in Europe? Or did he lose a looser leaves the
organization match to Dave Twardzik?
I guess we'll never know.
Nevertheless, Magic fans were outraged that Magic management would let Weisbrod walk away from his own vision.
Steve Francis, and more importantly The Christies, are members of this basketball
team because of Weisbrod. For better or for worse, he's the mastermind behind the teams latest roster reshuffling. Why would Weisbrod
choose to leave after just one season of retooling? At the end of the news conference, fans were left wondering what the future held for
their family driven franchise.
They didn't have to wait long as a news conference was held a day later to announce the hiring of a new head coach. Casual fans
(meaning old fans) that have been asleep or busy watching Jeopardy for the past eight years might be delighted to know that
Brian Hill is once again the head coach of the
Orlando Magic. Sadly,
Shaquille O'Neal and a healthy
Penny Hardaway were not part of the package. I'll have more on this hiring
in a future article. Let's just say that I'm not completely happy with the Magic organization right now. But what else is new?
Anyway, since I've been away, I missed out on a few basketball related issues and figured I'd touch on them here:
- Was I the only one expecting the Lakers or Knicks to win the draft lottery? I was so sure that David Stern would have found a
way to fix the lottery like he did with New York in 1984.
I guess Stern's starting to lose his touch.
And on a side note, could Milwaukee look any more depressed over winning the number one pick? I mean their representative (whoever
he was) looked about as thrilled to win the lottery as Bill Gates would. After watching Pat Williams jump up and down at age 700 after
winning last year, it was weird seeing the Bucks about as happy as a funeral after landing the first pick. Maybe it's because they know
they're going to draft the second coming of Joel Pryzbilla. On second thought, I'd be depressed too.
- One underlying issue about the brawl in Detroit was that it overshadowed Reggie Milers' final season. We were deprived of all of
those sappy highlight reels of Reggie single handily ripping the heart out of Knicks fans every year. Instead, we had to sit and watch
replay upon replay of Ron Artest throwing down with the wrong beer thrower, and Jamaal Tinsley fighting crazy fans off with a dust broom.
Needless to say, however, that's been on "Save until I manually delete" status on my DVR all year.
- Although he missed the second round for the fifth time in his career, you've got to give
Tracy McGrady a lot of credit for his performance against Dallas. He was hands
down the rest player in that series. The way he took Dirk Nowitzki out of the game defensively was a sight to behold. In the end, however,
Dallas' depth got the best of McGrady and the Rockets. That and the fact that Yao Ming played more like Shawn Bradley for six straight
games.
- Big props to the Bulls and Wizards for making the playoffs. After being the laughter of the league for over seven years (or in
Washington's case over 15), they've finally put together a winning combination and both are teams of the future. Let's just hope that
Kwame Brown and Tyson Chandler aren't prominently involved.
- So I guess it really is better to choose the dominate center over the dominate guard. If you don't believe me, just look at what
Shaquille O'Neal has done in Miami. In contrast, look at the Lakers. The Heat
won 50+ games and are in the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in franchise history, while Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are busy
lounging in Cancun right now. So I guess the dominate center wins.
- Now that Brian Hill is back with the Magic, does that mean we'll re-sign
John Gabriel as general manager and restart the whole cycle again?
- Who said the class of 2004 would be the worst draft class ever? Between
Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, and Andre Iguadola, the 2004 rookie
class was one of the deepest of the past 10 years. They have at least two future franchise players (Howard and Gordon), a few solid
veterans (Okafor, Iguadola, Jameer Nelson, Loul Deng, Tony Allen), and even some
European players who might hit a big shot or two over the course of their career (Andres Nococini, Beno Udrih, Nenad Krstic). Throw in
guys like Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, J.R. Smith, and Sebastian Telfair, and this class could help rejuvenate the league over the next 15
years. Warrants mentioning.
Alright, I'm going back into hibernation. I'll be sure to post my latest commentary on the Weisbrod resignation and
Brian Hill hiring over the next couple of weeks. The site looks great, and I'm glad
the die hard fans are still around. If only I could get you guys to read my columns. Maybe I'll have to offer up some monetary compensation
for each article read.
