The Orlando Magic have officially ended the Rob Hennigan era, firing him after five seasons. What went wrong and what can the Magic learn from the “Process” of Hennigan’s era.
On June 21, 2012, the Orlando Magic officially embraced their young hot shot general manager Rob Hennigan. Hennigan had a masterful introductory press conference, his charisma and intelligence were apparent.
Hennigan won over the fan base that day and many, myself included, believed Hennigan’s mantra of long-term sustainability, the building of a lasting winning culture and emphasis on a long-term process were going to successfully lead the Magic out of the crater Dwight Howard was about to leave them in.
Now five years later, the Magic are coming off another 50-loss season. This gives the Magic four 50-loss seasons in Hennigan’s tenure. The team still lacks a superstar, any sense of a core outside of Aaron Gordon, and worst of all, ownership seems to be meddling with the on-court product.
The sad fact of the matter is the Magic are staring down the possibility of being the new version of the Sacramento Kings.
From the start, Hennigan preached the Magic’s need to rebuild through youth and not try to cling to the playoffs with aging veteran players. He wanted the Magic to avoid being stuck in basketball purgatory.
While that goal was admirable, the results have left Orlando in a place worse than purgatory. The Magic the past five years have resided at the bottom of the league and there does not currently seem to be a way out of that place.
How exactly did the Magic end up here? A lot of mistakes. Some mistakes the Magic can learn from and others that may plague the team for years to come.