Orlando Magic News for March 5th: SVG Provides His Rebuttal To Shaq; Rafer Alston's Journey From The Streets To The NBA

by erivera7 on Mar 5, 2009 7:45 PM EST in News

Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports provides his take on "Flop Gate" (HT: funny80sguy).
After Shaquille O'Neal lashed out at Stan Van Gundy yesterday for Van Gundy's comments concerning O'Neal flopping in Orlando's victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, Stan provides his rebuttal today. Here are some quotes from coach:

"That’s not his normal comments. Obviously I struck a nerve and hurt his feelings. Shaq’s a very sensitive guy. If I hurt his feelings, I’m sorry."

"I’m pretty sure that every player who’s ever played for me doesn’t hate me. Now we’d have to do a survey, but I’ve coached a lot of guys, and I’m pretty sure there’s one or two that don’t hate me. I don’t know that any liked me. But I’m pretty sure there’s one or two who don’t hate me. So I don’t worry about that because, quite honestly, I don’t think it’s true."

"I started it. I made my comment. If you’re going to dish it out, you’ve got to be able to take it. And I can take it."
The picture below is currently being featured on the Magic's page on the Orlando Sentinel's website right now. Hilarious, no?
Kyle Hightower writes a nice piece regarding Rafer Alston's "rags to riches" story. I suggest giving the article a read.
If you've yet to "create a caption" in today's competition, don't forget to do so here. Thanks.

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I was a bit disappointed

by how the Magic players responded. You’re not supposed to give a bully an inch. Either ignore Shaq like he’s not worth your time, or snap back. But it was pretty clear Rashard was intimidated by Shaq, telling SVG to leave Shaq alone. And then partially agreeing with Shaq by saying sometimes he doesn’t like SVG. Come on. Your coach is taking hits for one of the players, the players should come together and support their coach. The Magic are made up of a bunch of nice, genuinely likable guys, but sometimes you need that one tough-as-nails guy to make other teams think twice before punking you.

This is kind of a dead issue anyway. Shaq will probably have more to say but I doubt SVG will let it go much farther. Back to business as usual soon.

by Snoopy2006 on Mar 5, 2009 9:36 PM EST reply actions

Yep. The issue is about dead at this point.

Former Senior Writer for DePaul's Scout.com website

Hey yo, who's the best/heavy like dumbbells on your arms/I bury you broads, while spitting barbarian bars - Black Milk

by erivera7 on Mar 5, 2009 10:25 PM EST up reply actions

I am really sick of this whole Shaq thing.

Third Quarter Collapse: An Orlando Magic blog at SB Nation

by Evan Dunlap on Mar 5, 2009 9:57 PM EST reply actions

Ditto. The story has been buried .. time to move on.

Former Senior Writer for DePaul's Scout.com website

Hey yo, who's the best/heavy like dumbbells on your arms/I bury you broads, while spitting barbarian bars - Black Milk

by erivera7 on Mar 5, 2009 10:26 PM EST up reply actions

I actually ran into the Skip story when I waiting at Beef o Brady’s. nothing that I didn’t know before but still a good article, actually pretty inspiring

by GuapoDCole on Mar 5, 2009 10:31 PM EST reply actions