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Orlando Magic point guard Chris Duhon turns 28 today. Duhon finally signed with the Magic as a free agent this summer after nearly joining them in 2008. Despite Duhon's choosing the Knicks over the Magic that year, Magic GM Otis Smith's interest in Duhon never wavered, and he jumped at the chance to ink the veteran to a four-year deal earlier this summer. Duhon figures to back up Jameer Nelson this season, and he'll do so in a no. 25 jersey, which has upset Magic fans who believe the team should retire it for Nick Anderson.

Many happy returns, Chris.

Kelly Glasscock - AP

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The NBA has the biggest Twitter presence of all the world's professional sports leagues, and the Orlando Magic are one of the league's two teams to boast one million followers; the other is the L.A. Lakers. Its players are involved as well. After the jump, a look at how you can keep up with the Magic and their players on Twitter:

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Nick Laham - Getty Images

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Consider this post an open thread in which to discuss Team U.S.A.'s exhibition game against Greece in preparation for the FIBA World Championships, which start Friday. The United States will face the Greek National Team today at noon on ESPN.

Team U.S.A. finalized its roster yesterday. The team features Chauncey Billups, Stephen Curry, Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose, and Russell Westbrook at the guards; Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger, Andre Iguodala, and Kevin Love at the forwards; and Tyson Chandler and Lamar Odom at center. Notably, Rajon Rondo did not make the team as he elected to leave due to personal reasons, although initial reports said he was cut. SB Nation's Andrew Sharp wonders if Rondo's surprise exit indicates he's a "cancer," while CelticsBlog's Jeff Clark (effectively) says "whatever" to the news.

In any case, Greece is a formidable foe. Given the United States' lack of an inside game, in addition to its spotty outside shooting so far, it's hard to consider the Americans the favorites. And Greece will have a pronounced home-court advantage.

Winning the World Championship automatically secures a bid to the 2012 Olympics, so the forthcoming tournament is not a small-stakes affair.

For more on Team U.S.A.'s pursuit of the gold during the Worlds, I recommend following NBA.com's John Schuhmann, who's covered everything expertly this whole summer. You can find him on Twitter here and read his NBA.com archive here. Additionally, The Painted Area is a solid resource as well, as its Jay Aych has a wealth of knowledge about the international game. Here's his preview of the tournament's Group A, and here's his take on last weekend's exhibitions.

Neither man has weighed in on what bearing Dwight Howard's decision to sit out has on the Orlando Magic's championship chances; Marc Stein has already expressed his belief that Howard's absence will indeed adversely affect them.

More photos » Kevin C. Cox - Getty Images

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In Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic have the league's most dominant center, at least on defense. He's won the Defensive Player of the Year award in each of the last two seasons, due in part to his leading the league in total defensive boards and blocked shots in those seasons. So I wanted to take a look at the extent of his shot-blocking skills. How many players' shots did he wipe out? What other sorts of trivia can I find if I simply mine the data?

Over the last few months at OPP, we've seen some pretty heated argument about the merits of certain statistical analyses in the comments section. So, for this post, all I did was crunch numbers; there's no evaluative statements in here, just descriptive ones.

The numbers are at times staggering:

• Howard blocked at least one shot against 138 players last year, which is nearly one-third of the league.

• He recorded at least 4 blocks in a league-best 28 games; in those games, Orlando went 24-4. Andrew Bogut had 18 games with at least four blocks, making him a distant second to Howard.

• The only team not to face his shot-blocking wrath was the Phoenix Suns, who avoided Howard swatting any of their shots in his 65 minutes against them this season.

After the jump, some superlatives about Howard's shot-blocking. Which teams and players did he victimize the most, for instance? And how many All-Stars didn't he manage to block at least once? Keep reading.

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Orlando Pinstriped Post Photo / Bruce Maddox

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The Orlando Magic officially lost Matt Barnes to free-agency last night, as the journeyman signed with the L.A. Lakers just after 11 PM on the East Coast. Magic fans have had a few days to prepare for losing Barnes, whom they grew to love during his lone season in pinstripes, but he's gone for good now.

So if you're looking for a way to cope, I humbly suggest writing a haiku tribute to Barnes in the comments section of this post; if this idea sounds familiar, it should, because Sactown Royalty did it earlier this week to say farewell to Jon Brockman. Rec your favorite contributions. I'll make a separate post highlighting the very best haiku selections later this weekend. And though I can't make any guarantees, I will do my best to make sure Barnes' representatives see that post.

Barnes showed Magic fans some love earlier this week. If you'd like to return the favor, creatively, here's the space to do it.

The folks at Gatorade are hosting a live UStream chat with Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard tomorrow morning. Here are the details:

• Dwight will be broadcasting live from the Gatorade Performance Lab

• Tune into http://www.ustream.tv/Gstream on Monday 7/12 at 11:40 am PT

• Ask Dwight any questions you have, and encourage your community to tune in and do the same

Thanks to Gatorade for passing this information along.

Doug Benc - Getty Images

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I'd simply like to take this opportunity to wish everyone here a safe and happy Independence Day. Everything around the site should be back up to speed starting tomorrow, which marks the first day of the Orlando Pro Summer League.

"What's up? This is Rashard Lewis for the Orlando Magic. I want everyone to tune-in to OrlandoPinstripedPost.com."