Running off at the typewriter. …
Sigh.
The hated Heat have done it again.
Yes, the Miami Heat have managed to once again overshadow the Orlando Magic.
It’s no secret the the NBA has always felt a little different in Florida. Two franchises entered the league within a year of each other, both trying to carve out an identity in a transient state better known for beaches than basketball. Yet somehow, nearly four decades later, one franchise has become a global brand while the other remains trapped in a cycle of “maybe next year.”
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And now, with the Miami Heat landing superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks, the branding gap between Florida’s two NBA teams just became impossible to ignore.
For Orlando Magic fans, this isn’t just another blockbuster trade. It’s another reminder of how the basketball universe seems to always bend in Miami’s favor.
The Heat have four championships and a culture that attracts stars and commands national attention. Every few years, when it appears Miami is headed for a rebuilding phase, Pat Riley reaches into his bag of tricks and somehow pulls out another superstar.
Meanwhile, Orlando is still waiting for its first title and hasn’t won a playoff series in 16 years.
That’s what makes this so frustrating.
The Magic weren’t supposed to be the forgotten franchise. They arrived in the NBA essentially alongside Miami. In the early 1990s, Orlando looked like the organization with the brighter future. Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway were supposed to deliver championships. Instead, Shaq left town, headed west to Los Angeles, took the Magic’s championship dreams with him and helped build a Lakers dynasty.
To make matters worse, Shaq was later traded to the hated Heat and helped them win their first championship.
The Magic did manage to reach the NBA Finals in 2009 behind Dwight Howard, but the Magic’s championship window officially closed a year later when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade with the hated Heat, creating one of the most talented teams in league history and turning Miami into basketball’s center of gravity.
For Magic fans, the past fifteen years have largely been spent watching Miami dominate headlines, playoff races and championship conversations, while Orlando has endured rebuild after rebuild.
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Now comes Giannis.
The Magic finally have a promising young core. Paolo Banchero looks like a franchise superstar. Franz Wagner is one of the league’s most versatile players. Orlando has built patiently and intelligently. There is genuine hope.
Yet the moment the Magic begin to rise, Miami pulls off the Giannis trade and appears ready to leapfrog them again.
That’s the part that stings.
It’s not that Orlando can’t become a contender. It’s that every major basketball story in Florida somehow seems to end with Miami standing in the spotlight. The Heat have spent decades proving they are the destination franchise in Florida. The Magic have spent those same decades trying to convince everyone they belong in the same conversation.
Sigh. …
SHORT STUFF: After losing nearly 200 games over the past three seasons, the Washington Wizards drafted BYU freshman forward AJ Dybantsa with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft earlier this week. Hopefully, Dybantsa will be a better long-term investment in Washington than the latest Reflecting Pool makeover! … U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark revealed to Barstool Sports earlier this week that his 2016 tweet stating that “I hate Baker Mayfield” was because his ex-girlfriend cheated on him with Mayfield. Apparently, Mayfield is just as good at completing passes off the field as he is on it. … Did you see where Magic guard Desmond Bane has been named the “chief basketball officer” for the basketball team at his alma mater, TCU? The good news for TCU is that acquiring this version of Bane didn’t require four first-round draft picks. …
The NFL announced earlier this week that gambling-addicted Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby will have to wait until the 2027 NFL draft to begin his pro career after the league denied his request for a supplemental draft. The NFL’s lengthy rejection letter to Sorsby reads more like a riot act and can be summed up in two words: “Nice try.” … Speaking of Sorsby, Texas Tech Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell recently took a shot at UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir on Twitter. The reason is because Kansas defensive end Dean Miller, who reportedly wants to transfer to UCF and play one more year of college football, has now reportedly filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility. Campbell posted the story of Miller’s lawsuit alongside some comments Mohjajir made about the Sorsby situation in which the UCF AD said: “Institutions cannot control court rulings, legal strategies or judicial outcomes. What we can control is playing time and the standards we set for participation in our programs.” Campbell is essentially calling Mohajir a hypocrite, but these aren’t exactly similar cases. Comparing a guy trying to get an extra year of eligibility to a quarterback who placed bets on his own team is like comparing a paper cut to open-heart surgery. …
Big news in the world of golf: The PGA Tour is moving to a new model that includes two separate series of tournaments — the PGA Tour Championship Series and PGA Tour Challenger Series — that will run concurrently during the season. There is also a relegation system. The top 90 players on the Championship Series points list will retain their top-tier membership for the following year. The top 20 finishers on the Challenger Series standings will automatically earn promotion to the Championship Series each season. In other words, the PGA Tour has been watching way too much English soccer. … The NCAA, eager to lessen the chaos of the transfer portal era and court fights with players trying to extend their careers, has approved a new eligibility model for Division I athletes that will allow five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first. Translation: Future freshmen can rest easy knowing they won’t have to line up against a guy with a 401(k). …
LAST WORD: Did you see where Tampa police arrested Detroit Lions player Terrion Arnold earlier this week and charged them with multiple felonies of robbery and kidnapping, saying he and his co-conspirators allegedly held three male victims at gunpoint, pistol-whipped and robbed them? I guess we shouldn’t be surprised about this sort of thing. I think sometimes we forget that some football players are simply bad apples who happen to be great athletes. Which reminds me of a story from a long time ago when the late Queen Elizabeth came to America and attended a college football game between the University of Maryland and North Carolina. The queen asked then-Maryland Gov. Theodore McKeldin, “Where do you get all these enormous players?” Replied McKeldin sheepishly: “Your Majesty, that’s a very embarrassing question.”
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