On Tuesday afternoon, the Orlando Magic held a press conference in the media room of the RDV Sportsplex to introduce Orlando’s newest wing, Quentin Richardson. Alongside General Manager Otis Smith, Richardson fielded questions from the media. There is video of Richardson’s press conference posted here so I’ll spare you the full transcript and instead just hit some of the high points while posting Richardson’s answers to the questions I was fortunate enough to be able to ask him.
All of this can be found after the jump.
- Richardson continuously praised Dwight Howard, pointing out how much easier he makes things on both defense and offense, even citing Howard as one of the main reasons he signed with Orlando.
- Richardson had a couple of interesting and telling quotes about Howard.
- “The big young kid is going to be here for a long time and is going to be a force here for a long time.”
- “Dwight is the one guy, when he’s locked in, there’s no answer for.”
- Richardson sounded very happy when asked about the 3-point shot and how many open looks he was going to get in Orlando. He even laughed when one reporter brought up that Orlando set a record for 3-pointers made in a season last year.
- Richardson pointed out that he wanted to play for a winner, calling it his “primary objective.”
- Richardson had some talks with Dwyane Wade and the Heat about returning to Miami, even referring to Wade as his “good buddy.” In the end he picked Orlando and his friend, who he calls “D-Wade” was a little upset about his decision. Richardson explained that he considered them heavily but he “felt like this was the best situation” for him and the Magic have “just as good of a chance at a championship as they (Miami) do.”
- Richardson will wear #5 for the Magic.
- Richardson is familiar with the newly-acquired Chris Duhon from their days in New York and even talked to Duhon last weekend when they were in New Orleans attending weddings.
- There were a lot of questions about the Miami Heat but Richardson had no problem answering them.
- Jerry O’Neil comparing Otis Smith’s decision on whether or not to keep J.J. Redick to LeBron James’ show The Decision drew a lot of laughter. Smith said it would probably be the only time he’s compared to LeBron.
- Richardson said Jameer Nelson contacted him as soon as he made a decision, further showing his excellent leadership skills.
I got to ask Richardson two questions with the second coming at the request of my colleague, Brian Serra.
Outside of the 3-point shooting, what do you think your biggest asset is to the Magic on the offensive end?
"Just the capability to be able to do whatever the coach needs. I can post, I can do different things like that but my willingness just to play whatever role the coach needs me too – that’s the biggest asset."
You got into some altercations before. Matt Barnes had played that role as a tough guy or enforcer, do you see yourself embracing that role here?
"I’m just going to mainly just be me. That’s part of my character. I’m not going to back down from anybody but I’m not going to go out of my way try to do anything like that either. I just play the game the way it’s being played and you act in that manner."
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor on the Fansided Front Page. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here).