Poor, poor Magic fans.
After two years of the Dwight Howard saga, the only way Orlando keeps the self-given moniker of "happiest place on earth" is with copious amounts of Xanax.
Nationally, basketball fans rejoiced that the whole thing was finally over, even if it meant the ostentatious Lakers again planting their smug faces in the national spotlight. It got that desperate.
Now it feels sort of awkward to look at the current Magic team, which is akin to examining an $80,000 luxury car after a crash test.
You can’t overstate how poorly not only Howard, but Magic management, handled the whole debacle. By letting things sour so foully, the Magic lost one of the best coaches in the game, while somehow getting less for Howard than I got trading in my ‘97 Acura at a used car lot.
Unfortunately for the Heat’s northern neighbors, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.
Re-signing Jameer Nelson
Competing with absolutely nobody, Jameer Nelson’s agent somehow extracted a 3-year/$20-million dollar shin-splint of a contract from the Orlando front office for his client less than a month before the Dwight trade was finally consummated. Since all of us suffered through the Dwightmare, we’ll gloss over the details, but it’s worth noting that no one outside of Orlando believed he was staying.
As a GM, if you know you are going to lose your franchise player (and you’ve got a good idea that you won’t be getting more than pennies back for your dollar)… why the f*** would you pay such a premium to bring back a point guard who ranks 35th in PER (among point guards)?!
Check out the rest of the story here.
