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Orlando Magic’s Most Popular Player: Breaking down the fan vote

By Philip Rossman-Reich

ORLANDO, FL - JANUARY 20: Anfernee 'Penny" Hardaway is presented with an award by Alex Martins for being inducted into the Orlando magic's team hall of fame on January 20, 2017 at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)
ORLANDO, FL - JANUARY 20: Anfernee 'Penny" Hardaway is presented with an award by Alex Martins for being inducted into the Orlando magic's team hall of fame on January 20, 2017 at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers
Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard dunks against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the first quarter of Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Amway Arena in Orlando, Florida, Saturday, May 30, 2009. (Photo by Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel/MCT via Getty Images) /

The Reddit Vote

The final place I turned to for contribution to the poll was through the Orlando Magic Subreddit community. I have had the chance to chat with some of the passionate fans there — and it is a great place to get Magic-related links and discussion. To bolster the rankings one more time, I asked the subreddit community to submit their top-10 lists and I put them together to create another top-30 submission to our poll.

Like the fan vote on Twitter, Anfernee Hardaway was a runaway winner. He has tremendous popularity among Magic fans. Some of it might be unfulfilled potential or just nostalgia for the 1990s years. Unlike Shaquille O’Neal (he finished third), Anfernee Hardaway has not continued to needle the Magic the same way. Like he kind of was at the time, Hardaway remains the popular guy of the 1990s Magic team.

The list, like many of the fan lists, skewed heavily toward the stars. Anfernee Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O’Neal, Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard made up the top five.

Hedo Turkoglu finished seventh in the final ranking. He is one of the most popular of the non-star players, along with Jameer Nelson and Nick Anderson.

Howard’s placement in the list is extremely interesting to me still.

He finished fifth in the Reddit voting and sixth in our overall poll. It seems attitudes are softening toward Howard. Everyone is recognizing what he accomplished in Orlando and just how good those years were.

The acrimony of his departure has slowly dissipated — even to the point fans have slowly come around to entertaining the possibility of a return. That last part seems unlikely. I do not think the Magic are there organizationally.

The Reddit poll seemed to track much closer to our actual poll at the end of the day. Bo Outlaw finished lower in the Reddit poll than he did in the actual poll, perhaps a sign that some of the memory of his play is starting to fade some.

More modern role players like Rafer Alston, Mickael Pietrus, Arron Afflalo and Ben Wallace received a lot more love in the Reddit vote.