| Donovan’s Reversal Hurts But Let’s Move On With SVG Authored by Howard Mass - June 6, 2007 - 8:16 am
Ever since this past Thursday afternoon, Magicfans have been on a high that brought new life to this team, fanbase and town. Billy Donovan’s hiring had brought back that excitement this team has not had since 11 years ago when Shaquille O’Neal made his jump to the Los Angeles Lakers. On Friday, we all saw that press conference and came away even more jacked up after hearing Donovan’s passion for the team. From then on throughout the weekend, everyone was discussing how Donovan’s addition would effect roster moves this summer along with who would be on his coaching staff and the team’s three second round picks in the NBA Draft. It was such an exciting weekend until late Sunday night.
It was less than an hour before midnight on Sunday that the excitement we had came to a grinding halt. Various reports from major sports outlets reported that Billy Donovan was having second thoughts and wanted to go back to Gainesville. Some of us blew off the report but it was still a shock. Minutes later the domino effect occurred. All of the local television stations were reporting this. By 2 am, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the Magic were going to allow Billy Donovan to walk and go back to the University of Florida to coach the Gators.
This is a devastating blow that is going to sting some Magicfans for a while and make this team the subject of many jokes and punch lines. It is definitely a depressing thought. Some will want to go bash the management as they normally do, others will avoid the internet and sports television shows for a week or two and then there will be those like myself who are going to get right back up and move past this. Yes, it is going to be tough after that press conference and all the hope and joy Donovan’s signing brought. However, after all this team has been through these past 11 years, do you not think this has given us all a thicker skin?
I still remember that day 11 years ago when my mom came into my room at 11 am and said, Howard, He’s gone! It was unbelievable and heartbreaking to hear the player who I had loved since becoming a basketball bolted for the Los Angeles Lakers. Shaquille O’Neal’s decision to leave was the most devastating loss to a sports franchise other than a player passing away in sports history. Because of this being such a low moment, no single moment in sports other than an untimely passing could ever hit me as hard as this.
Since that day Shaq left after saying “Orlando is my first option”, we have seen Brian Hill get fired on a vote by his own players and then left to hang for three weeks before getting canned again, the team blown up a few times, bad draft choices including one who duped everyone by going back overseas, good players getting away, six different head coaches, a star player who has been injured on and off for the past 7 years, bad trades, and now a coach many of us had hoped the Magic would get has suddenly quit after three days. Yeah, this one might have hurt more than the ones in between but do you really want to spend your time being upset over it? This is not our loss, it is Billy Donovan’s.
When Billy Donovan signed that deal and agreed to become head coach of the Orlando Magic he should have had his mind made up then and if he was not completely sure, asked for more time or declined the deal. Billy Donovan made a commitment to this team and broke it. No one held a gun to Billy Donovan’s head and told him he had to sign that 5 year $27.5 million contract. While the Magic should not have waited three weeks to fire Brian Hill, this was not their fault. General Manager Otis Smith did what he felt was best for the organization and got burned. What Billy Donovan has done is dead wrong and is going to leave a stinging mark on his reputation especially after that uplifting press conference. He owes every single Magic fan an apology. Still, it’s his loss.
Many of you are probably saying, well it is an even bigger loss for the Magic. The truth, maybe it is, maybe it is not. No matter how bad this feels though, we as fans need to suck it up and move on. The Orlando Magic have a nice young team with a star center in Dwight Howard, developing young players and some salary cap flexibility to improve this summer. While they will not hire a big name head coach like Billy Donovan, they might get someone who really wants this job like Stan Van Gundy. When Donovan got the job, I felt kind of bad for Van Gundy and now maybe we have a second chance to land a coach who was offered the same job in Indiana and appears to be the top choice in Sacramento. It would be nice to get a guy who could be the top choice in two other places.
In Miami, where Stan Van Gundy coached for a little more than two years before allegedly being pushed out to make way for Pat Riley, heat fans think very highly of Van Gundy and I have honestly not heard a bad word about him. RealGM.com Miami Heat Moderator mopper8 was kind enough to do this write up of Stan Van Gundy for this article.
His first season in Miami as a head coach, Pat Riley resigned the night before the 1st game, giving Stan the young team with literally no training camp of his own. He literally ripped up everything Pat did and started over from scratch. So, if you look past that 0-7 start or 5-15, you'll see just how effective that team was in his system: 42-35 or, more accurately, 37-25 (that's 49 win pace). That's with a team, mind you, that struggled with injuries all year (Wade and Butler both missed time and played hurt for stretches), featured a two rookies and a 2nd year player, and was really on 7-deep (Dwayne Wade/Eddie Jones/Caron Butler /Lamar Odom/Brian Grant/Udonis Haslem/Rafer Alston).
What's more, he's really knowledgeable in X's and O's. His schemes for the Heat were fantastic; he incorporated the triangle, some stuff I recognized from the old UCLA continuity offense, Hannum's double- and triple- screen sets, etc. He coaxed a great defensive team out of a 7-man squad that started 2 SGs, 2 SFs and a PF. He then coaxed an elite, top-5 defensive team out of a squad that featured Damon Jones, Rasual Butler, Christian Laettner, and Michael Doleac as regular rotation players. And he was one rib injury away from going to the Finals and maybe even winning them.
Wade also credits Stan with a lot of his growth as a player. If you look, at the beginning of 05-06, when the Heat were struggling, we were playing Wade off the ball a ton, having him come off baseline screens for catch-n-shoots, playing him in the post, etc, and he was pretty inconsistent with it. But Wade broke through from "ascendant" player to truly, consistently dominant force not by reverting back to an ISO-wing player, but by become consistent with those roles on offense.
IMO he's the best young coach in the game. And what's more, he's funny as hell, real condescending to the print media, really dry and sarcastic, and he's not afraid to play games in the media with the opposing team/fans in a playoff series.
This sounds pretty good to me and thank mopper8 for that write up.
Stan Van Gundy also has a career regular season record of 112-73 along with a 17-11 record in the postseason.
Even though you have to wonder if Miami will let their former coach go to a division rival, I think it will be worked out for a 2nd round pick or two (Magic have #39, #44 and #54) along with some cash. I do have some fear though that Heat President and head coach Pat Riley is reluctant to let Stan Van Gundy go to a division and state rival. Hopefully, that fear will not be realized.
While Van Gundy is not the name Billy Donovan is, he might turn out to be the better head coach for this team. Only time will tell. Even though I like Stan Van Gundy, he is not the big name this team wanted in hopes of getting positive publicity and securing an Arena deal from Orange County for the team. Still, no matter how much the Donovan hurts you, feel positive when the Magic land Stan Van Gundy.
On a closing note, let me say this. Like I said above, this team has been through a lot of rough times over the past 11 years. This has hurt us all but over this time; a lot of us have grown up and become tough men and women. No matter how old you were back then, you’re a person now then you were 11 years ago. During this time, I think it is safe to say some of us have developed a thicker skin. Just because someone makes a decision that screws someone over or hurts badly does not mean you stay upset about it. When this happens, you take the hit and you move on and keep going. For the Magic if they can land Stan Van Gundy they get a coach considered to be in the top one-third of NBA head coaches and a guy who turned down two teams. This would be a very nice step in moving forward. In the end, we as fans need to stop dwelling on how ticked off some of us are at Billy Donovan. What’s done is done. The thing we should all focus on is moving forward on the offseason and thinking about how General Manager Otis Smith can add some pieces to take this team to the next level. The future is bright here in Orlando and all of us need to only look forward.
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