Just ran into Otis Smith at UTampa

by ben_gleicher on Aug 26, 2009 5:38 PM EDT

Very surprising, I was walking into the gym to shoot around, and Otis was there talking to someone in the Athletic Dept. It took me a second to get past the "Nah it can't be him's" before I decided that was indeed our favorite GM Otis Smith. I went up to him when I saw he had stopped talking for a minute. I asked him if he was still talking to Golden State about Watson and he said "Yessss, still tryin'." I told him that the Magic could really use him and he said "We could use him A LOT more than they could. We're gonna keep trying." I was happy to hear that. I asked if the Williams signing was a posturing move to try make Golden State bite on a trade, and he said that it had nothing to do with Watson and the Warriors. Then I congratulated him profusely on the job he's done this offseason and told him good luck and keep up the good work. He was very gracious and approachable. Fun first day at UT.

This FanPost was made by a member of the Orlando Pinstriped Post community, and is to be treated as the opinions and views of its author, not that of the blogger or blog community as a whole.

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Glad he was approachable to you.

I’m not surprised that he said what he said about Watson and Williams. Otis Smith likes to say that each move he makes is mutually exclusive to each other (or something along those lines) and have no correlation.

I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone

by erivera7 on Aug 26, 2009 5:42 PM EDT reply actions

Awesome.

by fwedo on Aug 26, 2009 5:44 PM EDT reply actions

Better first day than mine...

I was in UCF traffic for a half an hour. 52,000 strong, baby (now if only we had the parking…)

by GuapoDCole on Aug 26, 2009 11:40 PM EDT reply actions

a bajillion times worse at FSU

Still a girl.

by TheGiantSquid on Aug 27, 2009 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions

My school has 6k :)

by fwedo on Aug 28, 2009 6:11 PM EDT up reply actions

I miss Stetson

2100 max :(

Still a girl.

by TheGiantSquid on Aug 28, 2009 8:33 PM EDT up reply actions

only even worse at UF

by GoMagic on Aug 27, 2009 2:18 AM EDT reply actions

Agreed

UF basically just tells you that you have to ride a bike or take the shuttle, because they dont even have on campus parking unless you live there, and even then you cant find parking half the time.

Shaq sucks.

by Paul Finger on Aug 27, 2009 6:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Validity?

Ben, honestly….I believe you…I’ve been reading your posts on this website and you seem like a very responsible member.

But what would you say to the doubters?…You know, the people who say, “ya right, I’m sure Otis the most tight lipped GM in the history of the NBA just started giving out info to a stranger”…

by Magic fan in Polk on Aug 27, 2009 4:30 PM EDT reply actions

Otis really didn't say much...

by josh99 on Aug 27, 2009 9:55 PM EDT up reply actions

This.

All Otis said was that he’s still trying. That’s like, nothing ..

I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone

by erivera7 on Aug 29, 2009 1:40 AM EDT up reply actions

Nothing?

I’d say it’s very important…especially after a reporter at RealGM(Alex Kennedy) who has been covering the C.J. Watson negotiations all along posted at 10:25 AM(follow my timeline here) on Wednesday morning that the Watson talks were officially dead…he said he was 99% sure nothing was gonna happen…he said Golden State wasn’t into it.

This post by Ben was made at 2:38 PM(PDT)…which would make it close to to 6:00 PM Eastern time.

Now, to my knowledge C.J. Watson has yet to sign a contract…in my eyes it isn’t over till the fat lady sings, ha-ha…I’m hoping Ben is right and the teams are still negotiating behind closed doors.

Which brings me back to my original question…how valid is Ben’s post???

by Magic fan in Polk on Aug 29, 2009 9:54 AM EDT up reply actions

What reason do I have to make this up??

It would be amusing if anyone didn’t believe me because I have absolutely nothing to gain by fabricating a random encounter. He said what he said. Obviously the news just broke that the Warriors decided to go in a different direction, but that doesn’t mean Orlando didn’t still have the offer on the table. I didn’t ask him what the chances were or if they were in serious talks (obviously there weren’t serious talks at that time because Otis was taking a leisurely stroll around campus.) All he said was that he was trying and that they could really use him.

It's not a dunk unless your hand makes contact with the rim. Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, "Superman..."

by ben_gleicher on Aug 29, 2009 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions

And when you think about it, any GM would say something like that.

Otis wasn’t saying anything to you that was “groundbreaking” or anything.

I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone

by erivera7 on Aug 29, 2009 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions

It's nothing.

I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone

by erivera7 on Aug 29, 2009 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Huh...

erivera7…are you reading my posts and comprehending them correctly?…I never said it was groundbreaking news…everybody knows Otis has been pursuing C.J. Watson…I said it was important and relevant because of the timing…I’ll repeat again for you…Alex Kennedy reported the talks with Golden State was dead on Wednesday morning…Ben in his post here which was reported on Wednesday evening said that Otis was still trying.

by Magic fan in Polk on Aug 29, 2009 7:08 PM EDT reply actions

I never said you said it was groundbreaking.

I wasn’t even responding to you. I’m aware of what was said, and I’ll again I say, it’s nothing. Take “reported talks” with a grain of salt because the Post “reported” that the Magic were interested in Nate Robinson, even though I was able to confirm that wasn’t true when I spoke to someone within the organization.