Orlando Magic co-founder Pat Williams announces retirement

Orlando Magic co-founder Pat Williams helped give birth to the franchise. After 30 years, he announced his retirement as executive vice president.

The story goes Philadelphia 76ers general manager Pat Williams was looking for a new challenge. He was leaving the mid-Atlantic and seeking a new place to plant the NBA’s flag.

The league seemed determined to go south and an intrepid businessman in Central Florida convinced him to check out where Disney had settled about a decade earlier.

Orlando was not anywhere near a thriving metropolis at that time. There were still probably more orange groves than anything else and building a professional sports team was a pipe dream.

Williams somehow was drawn to this place and saw its potential. Some of it was certainly the marketing of that local businessman Jimmy Hewitt — and perhaps his unwillingness to let Pat Williams leave his car without promising to come back.

But perhaps the most prescient words came from his daughter after he took his family to Orlando. This place was magic.

It seemed there the Orlando Magic were born. And it was through the tireless efforts from Williams to sell this nascent franchise in this nascent city that the dream became a reality.

As Williams likes to tell it, the team did not have a name, nor an arena, nor any players when he first started selling the city and the league on the idea of the team. Soon they would have all three.

In 30 years, the team would move into a new state-of-the-art building. They would be the centerpiece of a documentary about one of the league’s legendary teams. They would reach two NBA Finals, be home to two Hall of Famers and become ingrained in the community.

Williams’ dream came to reality with him serving in the front office, first as a general manager and then as an executive vice president. He had his hands in everything within the Magic organization.

There is no Orlando Magic without Pat Williams. And so the team’s 31st season will be a little different.

The Magic announced Williams will retire from his position with the Magic, ending a more-than-four-decade run in the NBA, including three decades in Orlando.

"“We are so grateful to Pat Williams for what he has done for sports in Orlando, Florida.,” Orlando Magic Chairman Dan DeVos said in a statement. “Back in 1986 sat this beautiful city in the center of the state that was the perfect spot to bring what was missing — NBA basketball to the great people of Orlando. On behalf of our entire family, we thank Pat for making the Magic a reality.”"

Indeed, Magic fans and the city at large should give a lot of thanks to Williams for the faith he put in this sleepy town and the foresight to see that this was a place that would grow.

Or at least believing Hewitt that this was the place to put the NBA and grow a sports team.

The city has grown by incredible leaps and bounds since Williams first stepped foot in Orlando and the team sprouted from there. It has become a major television market and something much more than a theme park town.

Williams was a part of so many of those moments.

He was part of the group selling the team to the city and town. He was the representative who drew the lucky ping pong ball that won the Magic their first superstar and truly put Orlando on the map for something outside of Disney and the theme parks.

Williams has continued to work with enthusiasm and energy for the franchise even after getting diagnosed with multiple myeloma. When he announced that, he immediately set out to beat the disease exclaiming to the media, “Remission is the mission.” He accomplished that.

Williams has always brought belief and enthusiasm to everything and left an indelible mark on the city and the franchise.

It bears repeating, there is no Orlando Magic without Pat Williams. And after working so tirelessly for the franchise and for the city, he gets a much-deserved retirement.

Somehow, I do not think he will be sitting still long, even if he is working outside the Magic organization.