Orlando Magic News for May 13th: Billy Donovan Speaks!

Billy Donovan discussed the Magic and his successor as the team's head coach, Stan Van Gundy, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel

File photo by Red Huber, the Orlando Sentinel

Might these bullets comprise the last news post of the season? One can only hope not.

• Mike Bianchi has an interview with Billy Donovan, the man who would have coached the Magic in he hadn't changed his mind and decided to return to the University of Florida. Anyone could have told you, even before the season, that the Magic would be better off with Stan Van Gundy than with Donovan. And now, Donovan has the class (not to mention common sense) to admit it. He also refers to himself in the third person:

  "As far as getting that team to take the next step, I don't think there's any question Stan Van Gundy was the right coach for the job," Donovan said from his office in Gainesville. "You have to have a level of humility in this situation and face facts. And the facts are Billy Donovan has never coached an NBA game in his life. There was obviously going to be a learning curve for me. The job Stan has done this year has been phenomenal, and the job he did with the Miami Heat doesn't get talked about enough."

• If you want to see footage of Jameer Nelson's infamous guarantee of a Game Five victory, Need4Sheed has it. Nelson's delivery doesn't exactly project confidence, to put it charitably, but if the team for which I play just pissed away its season on its home floor to its archrival, I wouldn't sound enthusiastic either.
• Two cool updates from SLAM today:
  • Tim "TADOne" Darga's game notes from the Magic's loss to the Pistons last Saturday. He was there live. Good stuff. Check out the first point after "3Q." My, how things change.
  • This week, Shoals' Quotemonger feature translates Rashard Lewis' assessment that the Pistons are better than the Magic, among other soundbytes.
• The Pistons' Rodney Stuckey made the NBA's All-Rookie Second Team. You're welcome for that pick, Detroit. For those scoring at home, Detroit has a young, solid point guard who may one day take over for its All-Star (Hall-of-Fame?) starter; we have Carlos Arroyo, whom Stan Van Gundy banished to the end of the bench and who will likely leave in free-agency. Wonder who won that trade.
• In cautioning Heat fans not to expect Pat Riley-level greatness from the Heat's new coach, Erik Spoelstra, Ira Winderman name-drops Van Gundy, who coached the Heat for two-plus seasons. Winderman has this to say about the Magic's current head coach:

  As for Van Gundy, the Detroit series will not define him. Instead, it is the fact that he now has driven each of his last three (and only three) teams at least to the conference semifinals. And that's not even counting the Heat team he got settled before Riley finished the drive to the 2006 NBA title.

Oh, and by the way, Chauncey Billups is ready for action, apparently.