Running off on the typewriter …
First and foremost, let me simply stress that I’m completely NOT evaluating the 2023 Orlando Magic to the 1972 Miami Dolphins, however I do imagine this has been a “perfect” season for the Magic.
Bianchi, you moron, the Magic are 13 video games beneath .500 and have the fifth-worst file within the league. How are you able to say this has been an ideal season?!!!
Because I’m not speaking about an ideal season by Boston Celtics requirements; I’m speaking about an ideal season by Orlando Magic requirements.
Whether intentional or not, the Magic have masterfully choreographed this season. They have walked that superb line between flirting with the playoffs and falling into the lottery. They have performed significant video games for a lot of the season to develop their younger gamers and preserve their fan base engaged, however now they’re virtually definitely a lottery staff and proper now would have a ten.5 % likelihood of touchdown the No. 1 total choose (7-foot-5 French phenom Victor Wembanyama).
Philosophically, I’m anti-tanking, however with the Magic 5 video games out of the play-in with simply 9 video games left, I’m placing my stamp of approval on a short-term end-of-the-season tank job — aka “Withering for Wembanyama.”
Before the season, I wrote that we shouldn’t count on the Magic to make the playoffs this 12 months and even make the play-in, however what we must always count on is for them “to make significant progress and give their beleaguered fan base some hope.”
Mission completed.
No. 1 total draft choose Paolo Banchero virtually definitely would be the NBA’s Rookie of the Year and second-year ahead Franz Wagner can be a possible star within the making. The Magic even have another good, younger gamers (see Wendell Carter Jr., Markelle Fultz, and many others.), two first-round draft picks (their very own and the one they acquired from Chicago within the Vooch commerce) and most cap flexibility.
Although the Magic have the fifth-worst file within the league, the fan base definitely appears to be shopping for in. Last 12 months, the Magic ranked twenty sixth within the league in complete attendance and this 12 months they’re fifteenth.
As for subsequent 12 months, it is going to be playoffs or bust, however for proper now the Magic are precisely the place they have to be — with immense hope for the longer term and two potential lottery picks within the upcoming draft. …
Short stuff: Now that Japan has crushed the United States within the World Baseball Classic, I say that we problem them to a rematch within the World Football Classic!!! … And talking of the World Baseball Classic, it could not have created a lot of a buzz in America, nevertheless it has been a worldwide phenomenon for Major League Baseball. Although the official TV numbers aren’t in but, the Japan-USA last on Tuesday night time was projected to be essentially the most watched worldwide baseball sport in historical past with an estimated 75 % of Japanese households tuned in. For comparability’s sake, about 40 % of American households tuned in to observe the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the Eagles. I assume you possibly can say America’s nationwide pastime has develop into Japan’s nationwide ardour. …
A second of silence, please: Willis Reed has gone to That Big Game 7 within the Sky. It was an injured Reed, because the Associated Press eloquently wrote in his obituary, who turned a legendary sports activities determine when he dramatically limped from the Madison Square Garden locker room “minutes before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals to spark the New York Knicks to their first championship and create one of sports’ most enduring examples of playing through pain.” And now let’s fast-forward 50 years to the Big Apple, the place Kyrie Irving missed virtually a whole season as a result of he wouldn’t get jabbed with a needle. … One final thing on Willis Reed: What if he had performed in Atlanta as an alternative of New York and sparked the Hawks to a championship? Would he be a legend at present or only a footnote? …
As David Whitley of the Gainesville Sun writes: David Venci, a Czech free-form diver, “set a world record by taking a deep breath and diving 170.9 feet beneath a frozen lake in Switzerland. When he emerged after 1 minute and 54 seconds, he spat up some blood, sat down and popped open a bottle of champagne.” In associated information, MLS gamers launched a press release that mentioned: “What’s the big deal? We take dozens of dives every week and the only thing we ever bleed is our integrity.” … Speaking of dives, no matter occurred to Hoops Tavern by the outdated Amway Arena? … Did you see Arkansas coach Eric Mussellman take off his shirt to have a good time the Hogs’ upset of defending nationwide champion Kansas on Saturday? This was rather more acceptable than Rick Pitino, who used to, ahem, take off his pants to have a good time when he was at Louisville. … Suspended Alabama freshman defensive again Tony Mitchell was driving over 141 mph whereas attempting to evade deputies earlier than his arrest on marijuana expenses within the Florida Panhandle final week. Hey, this man shouldn’t be enjoying for Nick Saban, he must be driving for Rick Hendrick. …
Clearwater mayor Frank Hibbard resigned in the course of a metropolis council assembly earlier this week after he mentioned fellow council members voted to “recklessly” spend $90 million on a brand new metropolis corridor. “Just because you have money doesn’t mean you have to spend it,” Hibbard informed an area TV station. Obviously, with such fiscal accountability, Hibbard might by no means be a school athletic director. … Did you recognize that retired NFL powerful man J.J. Watt is an enormous Taylor Swift fan? I at all times pictured him as extra of a Five Finger Death Punch man. … I’m slightly confused as to why actress Gwyneth Paltrow is standing trial this week for allegedly snow-skiing “out of control” and crashing into a person on the slopes in Park City, Utah. I at all times thought being uncontrolled and crashing into issues was simply a part of the snow-skiing expertise. … UCF soccer coach Gus Malzahn says there will likely be a professional quarterback competitors this spring, which is able to embrace incumbent starter John Rhys Plumlee, returning sophomore Thomas Castellanos and USF switch Timmy McClain. If you imagine anyone apart from JRP will likely be beginning within the season opener, I’ve acquired a snow-skiing resort in Mount Dora I’ll promote you.
Last phrase: “NFL’s reinstatement of Calvin Ridley sponsored by FanDuel.” — The Onion.com
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and take heed to my Open Mike radio present each weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
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Source: www.bostonherald.com