How did ESPN Receive the Orlando Magic?

The Magic had their first televised game on ESPN since 2013. How did the Worldwide Leader treat them on their return to the big stage?

As a kid

Today, I still have quite a bit of interest in how ESPN and other national media outlets view the Magic.

Back in the Dwight Howard days, I remember commiserating with fellow Magic fans about how disrespecful ESPN was. To me, the 2009 Eastern Conference Championship victory over the Cavs was so sweet in part because the major media pretty much had written the Magic off. It was Lebron’s time, Orlando will just be another victim on the King’s path to the crown.

When Orlando won. I felt like a giant chip on my shoulder was lifted.

When I was younger, I always watched SportsCenter in an attempt to see what they had to say about Tracy McGrady. Was T-Mac lazy? T-Mac is leading the league in scoring! T-Mac is finally going to win a playoff series with the Magic up 3-1. McGrady scored 63, is he the best player in the NBA?

We try hard not to care. I do not want to care. Unfortunately, I cannot help myself.

Whenever the Magic get a nice win, I find myself hoping to find some commentary with the Magic highlights.

However, these days with the Magic cellar-dwelling for their third straight season there is not much air time for the Magic in the national media or with the “Worldwide Leader”. As much as I dreaded tonight for fear of a blowout on national television, I was also kind of excited to hear some of Doug Collins and Mark Jones and the perception from national voices on the Magic and their rebuild and progress.

The introduction video for the game started off unbelievably underwhelming. Literally every single word in the opening was in reference to the Mavericks. You would never have known who the Mavs were playing.

At this point, I thought to myself why did they even bother putting the game on television if they were not going to talk about both teams. I just wanted a LITTLE talk about the Magic.

With the little cloud over my head, I waited for ESPN to say something about the Magic and finally in the pre-tip banter between Doug Collins and Mark Jones they began to talk about the Magic.

They brought up how the Magic are in the midst of rebuilding, and how if Orlando wanted to get back into the playoffs they needed Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vucevic to achieve All-Star status. Collins actually admitted that Vucevic very well could have been an All-Star this year, but he felt as Orlando’s lack of wins really cost him.

So as the game went on I noticed something interesting, as the game got out of hand which happened fairly early the conversation was becoming more and more Orlando-concentrated. Interestingly enough Doug Collins was the former 76ers coach when the team drafted Maurice Harkless and Nikola Vucevic. He coached Vucevic his rookie year and Collins made sure to point out he drafted Harkless and really liked him as a potential player for his team.

Bother were traded before his final season in a deal that netted the 76ers Andrew Bynum.

But Collins could not stop gushing about just how much he loved Maurice Harkless. He brought up his game against Duke in college where he scored 30 points and snagged 18 boards. He floated the idea the Magic may want to play Harkless more and see what he has got in his tank in an effort to gauge how much they value Tobias Harris.

Harkless made Collins look pretty good tonight with his 18 point performance.

On the other side of the equation, Collins seemed a little more lukewarm when it came to his former center Nikola Vucevic.

When asked what he thought about Vucevic’s development, Collins responded by saying, “He’s a great pick-and-pop player, but he needs a bruising power forward next to him to cover up his weakness on the glass and on defense.” While true, it was kind of interesting to see Collins dodge around the fact that Vucevic barely played under him (15.9 minutes per game in 51 games) and had developed into a borderline NBA All Star in Orlando.

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Thunderous Intentions

Victor Oladipo was not talked about all that much tonight. There was pregame mention of his game against the Rockets last night and a few notes on how he needed to stop settling for the jumper.

One thing Collins did mention about Oladipo was he loved his motor. He said Oladipo’s motor very well could elevate him past what evaluators believed his potential to be. Collins also noted Oladipo had to start seeking out contact better to get to the line more. He saw a couple Oladipo drives where he was trying to shy away from contact and noted that those awkward shots will not get it done and that the Magic need him to shoot between six and nine free throws per game.

The big focus tonight from ESPN was the Magic were a rebuilding team and very well could be on the rise if things go right.

When the Magic made their comeback, Jones and Collins gave the Magic all the credit and noted James Borrego was doing a good job of keeping this team focused on competing.

Sneakily in the fourth quarter, Elfrid Payton burst into the conversation as he ended up with a triple double. For most of the game the duo had not really mentioned Payton much, but when Payton stepped up his game in the fourth quarter they started talking.

Collins said something to the extent of when Payton can hit his jumper consistently he is going to be an extremely good player.

Aaron Gordon and Andrew Nicholson also got a few mentions, Nicholson was talked up by Collins who apparently liked him in the 2012 draft as well. Gordon did not really get much of a reception positive or negative. The duo pretty much agreed that there is a log jam in Orlando’s frontcourt and what the Magic do with Tobias Harris will greatly impact Gordon’s future.

Overall, I would say ESPN did a lot better job than I had expected in covering the Magic.

The opening video intro led me to believe that we were not going to hear much about the Magic but that was not the case.

For the most part, Jones and Collins were complimentary of the Magic and very few statements were made about them being a bad team, and, honestly, I think we can all admit that they are pretty bad. Certainly bad enough to fall behind by 20 points early in the third quarter.

They embraced Orlando’s young team and really laid it out as a young team making mistakes common to a young team.

There is hope that next year the Magic will force their way into more nationally televised games by improving in the offseason.

What I can say is that if the Magic do take an Oklahoma City-like turn for the better I look forward to the coverage that the Magic receive from the Worldwide Leader.

Next: Orlando Magic fall despite Elfrid Payton's triple double