The Orlando Magic have played on Christmas nine times including some classic performances from some of their all-time great players.
For most of us, Christmas is all about family, food and festivities. Whereas for NBA players it often amounts to little more than another day at the office.
Not for the Orlando Magic though . . . well, not recently anyway.
The club was last involved in the Christmas schedule in 2011, when the team played a game heavily influenced by the early stages of the “Dwight-mare”, one that resulted in eventual defeat to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder during the opening night of the lockout-shortened 2012 season.
In the club’s 26 year history, the Magic have been involved in nine Christmas games in total, winning five and losing four. As the current team takes a well-earned rest, here is a look back at some of the most memorable performances from Christmases past.
Next: T-Mac meets the King
1. Tracy McGrady vs LeBron James, 2003
Back in 2003 neither the Orlando Magic nor the Cleveland Cavaliers were up to much.
That said, Cleveland had recently drafted LeBron James, while Orlando’s roster boasted one of the NBA’s best scorers in Tracy McGrady. In what turned out to be a classic battle between the two, T-Mac eventually prevailed, outscoring James 41-34 en route to a hard-fought overtime win.
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Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel said there was an unsung hero in this game:
"Of course, his heroics got lost in a Christmas Day basketball love-in between T-Mac and LeBron in front of a sell-out crowd at The ‘House. Tracy McGrady and LeBron James embraced at the end, and only a manger scene would have caused more swooning by adoring worshipers. No matter what Juwan Howard did in the Magic’s 113-101 overtime victory against the Cleveland Cavs, he was not about to upstage the headliners. McGrady’s 41 points trumped King James’ 34, and T-Mac nailed a coffin-closing 3-pointer to give Orlando a seven-point lead with one minute left. Howard really had won the game for the Magic (8-22), providing them with their seventh victory in the past 10 outings. He scored eight of his 19 points — half of the Magic’s 16 points in overtime — and hit four consecutive shots."
Unfortunately it was one of just 21 win the team recorded that season, McGrady’s last in pinstripes.
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2. Penny pips the Champions, 1995
After the Houston Rockets swept the Orlando Magic in the 1995 NBA Finals, the Magic got an opportunity for revenge later that year in the first Christmas Finals rematch, something that has become a tradition.
In what turned out to be quite a memorable game, Anfernee Hardaway broke Houston’s hearts by scoring the game-winning bucket with just more than 3 seconds left on the clock.
He finished with a heroic 22 points and 10 assists, while Shaquille O’Neil added 22 points and 18 rebounds.
Hardaway recovered from a poor shooting night and delivered a perfect Christmas gift to coach Brian Hill. From L.C. Johnson of the Orlando Sentinel’s recap of the game:
"”That’s about as good as a Christmas present as I can think of, to be honest with you,” Magic coach Brian Hill said. ”It was a good win for us. I was very happy with the way we played in the fourth quarter.” Hill might not have felt that way if not for Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon shooting an air ball with 25 seconds to play. ”I had excellent position,” Olajuwon said of his ill-fated jump hook. ”The ball slipped out of my hands. That is painful because you know you have it.”"
The team went on to win 60 games that year, before being swept by Michael Jordan‘s Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Next: A Kryptonian Clash
3. Superman vs. Superman, 2010
Shortly after the Magic made a mega-trade involving Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter and a whole host of others, they found themselves up against the Boston Celtics, who had embarrassed them in the Eastern Conference Finals the season before.
The matchup between Dwight Howard and former Magic superstar Shaquille O’Neal drew all the headlines, but it was actually Orlando’s supporting cast that won it the game as the big men combined for a mere eight points.
Brandon Bass, on the other hand, exploded for 21 points and nine rebounds, while Jameer Nelson and J.J .Redick hit huge shots down the stretch.
It felt at that time a lost Magic team regained its championship identity, as Brian Serra of Howard the Dunk wrote at the time:
"Ladies and gentleman, your Orlando Magic are back. Yes, I said it… BACK. The Magic defeated the Boston Celtics today 86-78 in front of a raucous Christmas day crowd and showed heart and determination that has been deficient in Orlando since the 08-09 Finals team. A week ago, a month ago, a season ago, this team would not have been able to win this type of grind-it-out physical game, but today was a new day and the team responded. This Magic team had been owned by Boston lately and they took that to heart tonight. Gilbert Arenas noticed the difference and pointed out after the game that there was no joking around like usual and it was all business before the game. The team even had a late meeting before the game in the time that the locker room is normally open to the media. They took it seriously and it showed."
The win was one of 52 recorded that season prior to a first round play exit at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks.
Next: T-Mac pokes the bear
4. T-Mac provokes the Pistons, 2002
Back in the early 2000s the Orlando Magic and the Detroit Pistons had quite a thing going.
Detroit was building an eventual champion while Orlando was still trying to get the whole Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, Mike Miler experiment to bear fruit. While it sputtered, McGrady went nuts, scoring a magnificent 46 points to secure a close-fought Christmas encounter.
Interestingly, it was McGrady who nearly did not play in this Christmas tilt before going on a scoring binge, according to Jerry Brewer of the Orlando Sentinel:
"The voice on the other end did not sound hopeful. Grant Hill was convinced that Tracy McGrady would not play. Hill had called McGrady at 9 Tuesday night to check on him. “Man, I don’t think I can go tomorrow,” McGrady told him. Nineteen hours later, McGrady had his index finger in the air and a 104-99 victory in his grasp as an announced crowd of 13,725 cheered loudly at TD Waterhouse Centre. McGrady was at his best Wednesday, even as he winced. He scored 46 points, even after missing three of the past four games with a bruised lower back. And the Orlando Magic (16-14) won, even as his teammates hiccuped through so many missed layups."
Unfortunately, that win made the Pistons mad and they used it and, more importantly, McGrady’s Game Four postgame interview as fuel for a comeback series win in the first round of the playoffs later that year.
Next: Magic roll past Chris Paul, Hornets
5. Magic roll past Hornets en route to the Finals, 2008
Very few people could have foreseen Orlando’s run to the 2009 NBA Finals. However, following the blowout win they put together on Christmas Day 2008 it would have been unwise to bet against them.
The New Orleans Hornets may have had Chris Paul, but the Magic got 20 points from Hedo Turkoglu and employed some stifling defense to limit their opponents to just 68 points, while sending out a message to the rest of the NBA that only the Los Angeles Lakers failed to heed.
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Merry Christmas everyone!