Charles Barkley says he was going to get Orlando Magic GM job

Charles Barkley said he was set to get the Orlando Magic’s GM job last summer. Than analytics struck. Gasp! Yeah, that was probably not the case.

The Orlando Magic were at a crossroads last summer.

The team fired Rob Hennigan after five years of a misdirection and stalling in a planned rebuild project. The team not only never got the high draft pick to center the rebuild but also made a ton of missteps and errors that put the team further in the hole. That culminated with the ill-fated trade for Serge Ibaka and the free agent splurge that most notably brought in Bismack Biyombo.

Orlando never topped 35 wins during its five-year run and decided it was time to pull the plug on the experiment and find a new path forward.

The Magic had a long way to climb. They still do.

As they looked for new leadership in the summer of 2017, the Magic were looking for someone to set the team back in the right direction. It would take patience, forward-thinking and a little bit of luck.

These adjectives probably describe Hall of Fame forward and TNT analyst Charles Barkley, right?

At least according to Barkley it probably does. He said in an interview with Phoenix area radio show, Bickley and Marotta, he believed he was in line to take the Magic’s general manager job last summer.

"“Number one, I thought I was going to be one last year. I was really pissed I didn’t get the job. I was the best candidate for the job. I would listen to certain people but I’m not sure at this stage of my life. I did. I thought I had the job last year and it pissed me off. They hired another of those analytical idiots instead of the best players. That’s OK.”"

He would reveal in the next question that Orlando was the job he was talking about.

It all seems a bit far-fetched that Barkley was that close to getting the general manager job. Especially considering the amount of independence and change the Magic eventually invest in with their president of basketball operations position.

Going from a young and inexperienced general manager to another inexperienced general manager would seem to go against not only convention but would seem to be repeating one of the major mistakes of the Hennigan era.

Trusting the franchise to someone who had never run a whole organization before.

And Jeff Weltman and John Hammond, the two guys the Magic eventually hired, are far from “analytical idiots.” Weltman has been an executive in the league for 20-plus years. His general manager in Hammond has been an executive in the league for 30-plus years and has had a stint as the head man himself.

Barkley has long had a battle with the analytically minded as an analyst on Inside the NBA on TNT. He has constantly slammed the Golden State Warriors (probably the best dynasty in basketball since the late 1990s Chicago Bulls) and Houston Rockets for their reliance on 3-pointers. It always seems like he wants to drag the NBA back to the 1990s and a slowed down, post-up play.

That is all fine. Everyone has their preferences to playing style and how the game should be played. But a key to being a good executive is flexibility and adaptability.

Analytics do not govern decisions wholly in any organization. But they do provide data that can better inform decisions. It would be insane for any lead executive to deny that information.

Barkley on TV, at least, has a massive misunderstanding of the role analytics play in decision making. If anything, analytics endeavors to quantify what scouts see with their eyes to back those observations up with hard data.

No man can run a NBA team entirely on gut. That is not how to build a successful organization.

Orlando Magic

At the end of the day, it seems like Barkley believes understanding basketball and running a basketball team is the exclusive domain of former players. It is a close-minded way of looking at the game. Some people do not have the talent to play but have the acumen and understanding of the game to successfully run the business.

On the other hand, there still remains a problem with diversity among league executives. And especially as the league becomes more reliant on analytics, there is growing concern that this field is not as diverse as the league itself. That is a league-wide problem.

That is certainly something the NBA should study among its executive hires. Weltman and Hammond are more than qualified for their positions based on their years of experience in the league. And the Magic made their decision to hire them. So far, it seems they are pretty happy with the job they have done.

Barkley might have worked out as a general manager. His hire would have gotten a ton of press and he would have been a fun interview. But would he be able to do the job? Certainly, some of his hot takes would suggest he is not the best hire to battle the modern NBA.

He probably was not as close to winning the Magic job as he seems to believe.