The Orlando Magic and Orlando City welcomed back fan favorites to their teams this week. It brought back nostalgia, but results will make their returns.
It was a week of homecomings in Orlando this week.
Orlando City fans flocked to Orlando International Airport on Tuesday to welcome Dom Dwyer back to the team in a record MLS deal. The scene was surreal, capturing the attention of soccer fans throughout the country, as hundreds of Orlando City fans gathered to greet one of the franchise’s best players back to the franchise.
You may have heard the news, but if you haven't... #WelcomeHomeDom https://t.co/fkWXvnh6eq
— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) July 27, 2017
It was an emotional day for sure. Dwyer was a fan favorite for Orlando City in the USL days before the team got the call up to MLS. He set a USL record while he was on loan from Sporting Kansas City and returned to score four goals in Orlando City’s 2013 USL 7-4 championship win over the Charlotte Eagles.
There has been a long dance between Orlando City and Dwyer since Orlando City moved to MLS. Former coach Adrian Heath even got fined for tampering for mentioning Orlando as Dwyer’s “spiritual home.”
The cards finally fell in place for Dwyer to join Orlando City. He is one of the league’s best goal scorers and an All Star. It was a deal that made sense for an Orlando City team desperate to make the Playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
The Orlando Magic experienced a homecoming this week too. Although not to the same degree.
It was somewhat surprising to hear the Magic had signed Arron Afflalo to a one-year deal. It was, perhaps, even more surprising to see was the outpouring of emotion from Arron Afflalo to be back in Orlando. As he met with the media earlier this week, he was absolutely beaming about returning to some familiar haunts.
Afflalo had his best individual seasons with the Magic, averaging 17.4 points per game and shooting 44.9 percent from the floor in two seasons. He was the Magic’s best individual player during the first two years after the Dwight Howard trade.
As much as anything, Afflalo was a pure professional. He did yeoman’s work for a team that won only 43 games in his two seasons in Orlando. It was thankless and seemed like it would be a blip.
It clearly was not to him.
Afflalo spoke with the media about how his career seemed to flatline and decline some after he left Orlando. The situations he was put in did not bring him much happiness or joy in playing. It hurt his play on the court, even though he was still a solid rotation player and continued to grow as a 3-point shooter.
As he entered free agency, he said a return to Orlando was on his mind.
Similarly, Marreese Speights arrived in Orlando emotional about signing his one-year deal. Marreese Speights grew up in St. Petersburg, Fla., and considers this a bit of a homecoming too. He grew up cheering for the Magic. A player who has won a championship said putting on a Magic uniform for the first time would be an emotional moment for him.
Nostalgia and sentimentality do not always lead to good decisions, though. Trying to repeat the successes of the past often leads to follow.
Orlando’s last reunion featured the team trading a lot of assets to reunite with Hedo Turkoglu during the 2011 season. Hedo Turkoglu too was happy to be back in Orlando. But he never recaptured the Magic that made him a fan favorite during the 2009 Finals run.
Afflalo and Speights will play bench roles. But like everyone else, their ultimate success or failure in Orlando will have to do with how they play on the court.
There is undeniable pressure for the Magic to take steps forward. And everyone knows how frustrating poor bench play can be — especially from veteran players like Afflalo and Speights.
It brings us back to that big homecoming for Orlando City.
Orlando Magic
Fans celebrated Dwyer’s return. He promises to be a big boost to an offensively challenged Orlando City team. The Lions have won just twice in their past 16 games. They have fallen from one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference to below the Playoff red line, trying to get in. The team has scored the third-fewest goals in the league entering Sunday’s games.
Dwyer’s first game against Atlanta United on Saturday was very much a team feeling things out. Orlando City used a new formation to accommodate Dom Dwyer and scoring savant Cyle Larin. There was definitely some struggle figuring out how to get the ball to Dwyer and Larin.
That is what happens after playing a big game with just one training session. Orlando City will spend the rest of the season trying to make this pairing work. One game — a 1-1 tie where Atlanta spent the majority of it on the attack and scored the game-tying goal in stoppage time — is not going to be a judge for this move.
Like all things, ultimately success or failure is judged on wins and losses. Orlando City, in its third year in MLS, is hungry for its first postseason berth. The team would now have invested as much as it did to get Dom Dwyer without some expectation for results.
The fans are certainly celebrating Dwyer’s return as they should. But that opinion can always change fairly quickly if the losses begin to pile up and the team does not turn things around.
It is a bit more uncertain how anyone will view his homecoming if things go south.
Homecomings are always nice for a little while. Then the reality of results set in. And no one cares whether it is your first time playing for that franchise, if you are from the area or had some affinity for the team.
Homecomings make for nice copy and headlines during the introductions. But that story quickly goes away once the season begins.
It is good for a team like the Magic to have veteran players who have an affinity for them. Both Afflalo and Speights sacrificed something to come to Orlando. They were willing to do so to come to this place. For a player like Afflalo especially, that sends a signal to the rest of the free agent market there is something to invest in Orlando.
The Magic have to do their part to make good on that belief. They have to do something to make this homecoming worth it in the end and not merely a nice story.
Both the Magic and Orlando City have to do so.
This week in Orlando was a week to celebrate the return of several players who have deeply held connections to Orlando and its sports franchises. Those stories made the headlines all week.
It feels good to be wanted and to welcome home favorite athletes back home — spiritual or actual.
Next: Jeff Weltman's first summer with the Orlando Magic shows a bright future
The hard part of homecomings is when the results begin to trickle in. Those warm feelings can go away fairly quickly.