Orlando Magic

Orlando Magic

The history of Orlando Magic isn’t going too far back, as they are members of the Association only from 1989. Their first notable player was Dennis Scott, who was drafted with the fourth overall pick in the 1990 draft after playing well in college. Two years later, the franchise won the first pick in the draft lottery, and they choose to pick none other than Shaquille O’Neal, a future Hall of Famers. O’Neal made an immediate impact to the team, as they begun to win much more games than they used to. Penny Hardaway was another important piece for the team, and together they managed to get to the NBA Finals in the 1994-95 season, but, unfortunately for them, they lost to a much more experienced Houston Rockets, led then by Hakeem Olajuwon. In the next season they went out of the contest in the Eastern Conference Finals, being swept by the Chicago Bulls. Following that loss, Shaq left in that summer and decided to join the Los Angeles Lakers instead. Late in the ‘90s, they acquired NBA great Dominique Wilkins, who was way past his prime, but he brought the experience with him. They didn’t do too much noise, as they were eliminated in the first round by the 76ers. After Shaquille O’Neal left, they struggled many years in finding a way to get past the first round of the playoffs, and so in 2000 the organization acquired Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady, two future Hall of Famers in a single off-season. Even though they were expected to be a force in the East, they didn’t live up quite to the expectations, because of Hill’s ankle injury which limited him to only 4 games played in that season. Tracy McGrady led them to multiple victories and was a Scoring Champion two times, but despite all that, the Magic didn’t get past the first round in those years. In 2004, they went through some roster changes yet again, and this time Dwight Howard was selected with their first pick, another future Hall of Famer and a franchise player for them. McGrady was traded that summer because of his desire to do so. The highest peak for Howard and the Magic came in the 2008-09 season, when they went to the Finals after beating the defending champions in Boston Celtics and then the Cavs, who were led by the season’s MVP, LeBron James. Los Angeles Lakers was the next in line for them, and they proved to be a little too much, as they beat Orlando in five games. After this incredible run, the Magic organization began to slow down, and after Dwight Howard was traded in 2012 to the Lakers, the franchise entered in a rebuilding process that kept on going until present.

Andrei Dilean

info@brainbasketball.com