The Orlando Magic have had some amazing moments in their 31-year history. Here are 10 of the greatest to remember and reflect upon.
In 31 years, the Orlando Magic have had some incredible moments.
Among the expansion teams of the late 1980s, only the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors have won titles. And only the Magic are added to the list of Finals teams. They were the first of those expansion teams to get there.
There have been ups and downs on the road for sure. The Magic have had some extremely good times and some extremely hard times.
The Magic have had some all-time great players — Hall of Famers in Shaquille O’Neal and Tracy McGrady along with a likely Hall of Famer in Dwight Howard and a could-have-been Hall of Famer in Anfernee Hardaway (if not for injuries). Magic history has always been interesting, it seems.
Never a dull moment indeed.
Recently FanSided asked all of its site experts to list the five greatest moments in franchise history.
For the Magic, there are a number of really great moments that resonate with fans locally and even nationally. I hoped to share with fans who happen upon our site and might be watching elsewhere on the network a solid cross-section of the franchise’s history.
If I am going to be making a video that could air across all of our network, I might as well make sure I touch every point in magic history — sort of like how I split up our Magic Madness tournament.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. And like my original list of five, it is more a gut reaction type list. I would call this a loose ranking, but not a final ranking (as I am apt to do). I will leave any debates or any additional memories to you. So please, comment with anything I might have missed or your favorite memories and moments in Magic history.
Here it is, a rough list of the 10 moments in Magic history.
10. The First Win
Oct. 13, 1989: Magic defeat Pistons in first preseason game
The Orlando Magic might be the only team that could count a preseason game among their biggest moments in franchise history. But for a city that was always in the shadow of other cities in Florida and had to prove itself as an emerging market, any major statement is going to resonate.
So how about the first preseason game in the first home game in the brand new Orlando Arena against the defending champion Detroit Pistons?
Never mind the Pistons treated it like a preseason game. Never mind the stats did not matter. Orlando treated it like a Finals game. They sold out the building and cheered like it was their first playoff game.
When the Magic won the game 118-109. It did not matter that it was a preseason game. Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars and the defending champions were still playing their top guys at the end of the game. The crowd was whipped into a frenzy and gave the game that unusual energy.
The party for Orlando kept going well into the night on Church Street. It might have been strange to the visiting champions. But this was the first time the Magic had played basketball. This was the first time Orlando had that big-city feel.
It felt like the Magic had arrived.
That first expansion season was a surprising one for sure.
The team started 7-7 before the losing began. The team picked up only 11 more wins the rest of the season. That is what expansion teams do. But the Magic made each night at the new Orlando Arena a party.
From the very first game in the franchise’s history, the city was in love with its team. And the Magic had seemingly arrived. A win over the champs always has meaning. Especially for a team so new.
9. 3-Point Barrage
Jan. 13, 2009: Magic set 3-point record in Sacramento
When the story of the 3-point shot is written in NBA history, it will be impossible to leave out tales about the Orlando Magic. In many ways, the Magic were one of the pioneers of the 3-point shot, proving on two occasions that teams could win with the 3-point shot as a key weapon in their arsenal.
It started in 1995 when the Magic surrounded Shaquille O’Neal with sharpshooters like Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson and started hitting threes at a yet-unseen rate, at least for a team serious about contending. They rode that still-new style to the Finals where they faced another team that used one of the original stretch-4s in Robert Horry and a 3-point bomber in Kenny Smith.
In 1996, Dennis Scott set the then-NBA record with 11 3-pointers in a late April win over the Atlanta Hawks. That record has since been broken. But Scott was one of the original trail-blazers (no pun intended) when it came to 3-point shooting even in college with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
The Phoenix Suns under Mike D’Antoni took advantage of the new hand-checking rules and used the 3-pointer to create a new free-flowing offense. But it was the 2009 Magic that proved the style could win on a bigger stage, reaching the Finals.
The distillation of that strategy — surrounding the Magic’s new Superman center in Dwight Howard with shooting at every position — was seen most on Jan. 13, 2009 against the Sacramento Kings.
The Magic hit 23 3-pointers that night, setting a NBA record that has since been broken as the 3-point revolution has grown exponentially since the Magic reached that Finals. But that night the Magic were hitting freely — 23 of 37 overall including five from Jameer Nelson and four each from J.J. Redick and Keith Bogans off the bench.
It was an absolute barrage.
That game was important for another reason in the run to that Finals. It came a game before the Orlando Magic scored a critical win over the Los Angeles Lakers on the road, a game that probably signaled to the rest of the league that they were legitimate title contenders.
Orlando played an important role in the game’s evolution, even without winning a title.
8. The Assist Record
Dec. 30, 1990: Scott Skiles sets assist record vs. Nuggets
Many of the Orlando Magic’s all-time NBA records have fallen as the league has evolved. But one record still stands.
Not that Scott Skiles cared or anything.
On the 25th anniversary of recording a NBA-record 30 assists, then-Magic coach Scott Skiles seemed to shrug at looking back. His greatest individual accomplishment was not really something he cared about. Certainly not while he was in the middle of coaching a young team trying to find its way in the league (and perhaps with some of the turmoil behind the scenes involved).
That was part of why Skiles remained so popular in Orlando and was a sentimental choice to return as coach for the 2015 season. He was hard-nosed, focusing only on the task at hand. He never backed down from anyone — famously including Shaquille O’Neal. And he did his job with intensity and passion.
When Skiles says he did not know he had 30 assists, I tend to believe him. He was just going about his job, dishing the ball to the open man. Even as teammates tried desperately to get him to 30 in the final minutes — there were a lot of missed shots before Jerry Reynolds finally made the shot.
There are a few asterisks worth mentioning.
The Orlando Magic were playing a Denver Nuggets team that under Paul Westhead at the time was running for the sake of running. They were not known for their defense at all and pushed the pace to ridiculous heights. That should not take too much away from Scott Skiles, who would go on to win the Most Improved Player Award that year after stepping in for an injured Sam Vincent.
But some more food for thought: Since Skiles set the record, a player has tallied 25 assists only four other times. John Stockton came closest with 28 assists against the San Antonio Spurs only 17 days later.
This is a record that is not likely to fall any time soon.
7. Closing the Garden
May 5, 1995: Magic win first playoff series in final game at Boston Garden
The Orlando Magic were the top seed in the Eastern Conference in the 1995 season. They had adopted what owner Rich DeVos told the young team just before the playoffs, “Why not us? Why not now?”
Nobody really believed the young upstart team was ready to win a title yet. But they felt the storm gather.
The young franchise still had to win its first playoff game, let alone its first playoff series. And back then with a best-of-five first round, things could get very nervy.
The Orlando Magic drew the ghosts of the Boston Garden as they faced the Boston Celtics in the first round. And they headed to Boston in a tied series at 1-1. The Magic certainly looked green as the Celtics blew them out in Game 2 of that series.
The Boston fans were in a frenzy for what might be the final games in the Boston Garden. And they were not about to let the Garden close to some expansion franchise with zero titles and pinstripes for uniforms.
The Celtics put a fight, losing 82-77 in Game 3. And Game 4 was tight until Dennis Scott hit a 3-pointer late to give Orlando a 95-29 win, officially eliminating the Celtics.
Shaquille O’Neal officially opened a new era of basketball proclaiming in the locker room, “The Garden is closed.” The broadcast showed fans weeping and struggling to leave the venerated arena. It was indeed sad to see one of the great basketball cathedrals — with its dead spots, poor air conditioning and cramped seating — close.
But the win was significant for that Magic team.
It was their first series win. And a huge weight was off their shoulders. The Orlando Magic needed the confidence boost to face the Chicago Bulls in the next round. Their youth made them underdogs to the experienced Bulls in that series.
But why not us, why not now? They found the momentum and the guts to get all the way to the Finals.
6. Penny’s Double
April 29 & May 1, 1997: Penny extends the series vs. Miami Heat
I was walking back to the media room alongside former Orlando Magic coach and current radio color commentator Richie Adubato following Darrell Armstrong’s Orlando Magic Hall of Fame induction. He was telling a story about Darrell Armstrong’s big coming-out party — the 1997 Playoffs series against the Miami Heat.
He said the decision to start Armstrong and play him big minutes was a risk. He was unproven, but he needed to mix up the defensive energy on Tim Hardaway. It proved to be a great decision as Hardaway struggled in the final three games of the series.
But another conversation is why the Magic were able to tie the series after falling into a 2-0 hole. With Rony Seikaly and Horace Grant injured for much of, if not all of, that series, Richie Adubato said he turned to his star Anfernee Hardaway and asked him to take over. Every shot, every play had to go through him. He needed to be unstoppable.
What followed is perhaps the best pair of playoff performances in franchise history.
Hardaway scored 42 points in Game 3 and followed it with 41 in Game 4 to avoid the sweep and force a decisive Game 5. He scored 33 points in that game for good measure, with the Heat eking out a win on a late Tim Hardaway 3-pointer (really the only tough shots he made against Darrell Armstrong’s defense).
If there was a question of whether Anfernee Hardaway could carry a team in Shaquille O’Neal’s absence, he silenced those in this series to end a tumultuous seasons. Hardaway was dominant in every way, scoring at will against one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
Hardaway was clearly the best player on the floor.
This was, unfortunately, his last big series and moment in a Magic uniform. His ankle and knee injuries set in the following season and Hardaway could never regain his All-NBA form.
5. Heart & Hustle
1999-2000 season: Magic defy the odds with rag-tag bunch
At the beginning of the 2000 season, nobody had any expectations for the Orlando Magic.
The team had traded away the final remnants of the 1995 Finals team — Nick Anderson went to the Sacramento Kings, Anfernee Hardaway to the Phoenix Suns and Horace Grant to the Seattle SuperSonics. The team was openly willing to tank, trying to collect veterans on expiring contracts to make a push for a big free-agent class in the summer.
As several players and new coach Doc Rivers (fresh from the broadcast booth with no coaching experience) would note, the team hung preseason predictions on their board. Many did not have them clearing 20 games. The Magic were expected to be the worst team in the league.
What proceeded is a season Magic that fans still talk about. A season that still brings tears of joy to players like Darrell Armstrong. And perhaps the best Magic team that did not make the playoffs.
Orlando defied all those expectations in going 41-41, getting eliminated from the Playoffs in the penultimate game of the season. They proved that a little bit of grit and hustle can go a long way.
Taking a cue from team captain Darrell Armstrong and bolstered with solid defense from Bo Outlaw and Ben Wallace (before he was widely recognized as the best defensive center in the league), the Magic were unrelenting. They played with passion and energy for the full 48 minutes. Teams absolutely despised playing that Magic team.
They had their flaws for sure. Armstrong had to become the team’s leading scorer overnight, moving from Sixth Man to star overnight. There was not a lot of offense. Each night had to be a different guy — especially with the mid-season trade to acquire Ron Mercer.
But it all somehow worked. They played inspired basketball. And that effort and energy still resonate with Magic fans today.
Outside of the Magic’s two Finals team, this group may be the most beloved and most popular team in the franchise’s history.
4. T-Mac’s 62
March 10, 2004: Tracy McGrady sets team scoring record with 62 points
When the Orlando Magic made their play to get three major free agents in the summer of 2000, Tracy McGrady was the biggest unknown.
Yes, Grant Hill was on crutches when he came off the plane that July morning, but he was a proven All-Star player in the league. McGrady was the upstart and the risk.
With Grant Hill injured and Tim Duncan backing out at the last second, everything fell on Tracy McGrady. He proceeded to become the most prolific scorer in the Magic’s history. Very quickly, it was clear he was worth every penny the Magic spent.
He would win the scoring title twice, the only Magic player to win that honor. And he had several incredible individual scoring performances.
None was perhaps as masterful as his 62-point barrage on the Washington Wizards, the Magic’s single-game scoring record.
McGrady made 20 of 37 shots and claimed he would have hit 70 or 80 if he had made his free throws — he was just 17 for 26 from the foul line. The highlight of the game was not even a shot that counted as he casually hit a half-court shot after getting fouled in the backcourt.
It was that kind of night for McGrady.
Through a difficult season, McGrady was still largely worth the price of admission. He put on a scoring assault that season trying to lift a depleted roster as far as he could. He certainly wore his frustrations on his sleeve that season.
But for one game — one of his final games in a Magic uniform — he showed the world why he was such a dangerous scorer. It remains the best scoring game in Magic history and it does not seem like the Magic will see another scorer of McGrady’s caliber for a long, long time.
3. Dethroning the King
May 30, 2009: Orlando Magic defeat LeBron James to head to second NBA Finals
The Orlando Magic were not supposed to be in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009.
Their play-style was too gimmicky. Their star center too happy and unserious. Their coach too panicky and wild on the sideline.
Sure that might work in the regular season. But all their weaknesses would come to bear in the postseason and the nice story would come to an end.
It certainly almost did in the first round. The Orlando Magic needed a game-winning shot from Hedo Turkoglu to tie the series with the Philadelphia 76ers at two apiece to set up their finishing kick. The Orlando magic faced elimination again in the second round needing to win Games 6 and 7 to move past the Boston Celtics.
Surely when they faced off against NBA MVP LeBron James, their luck would run out and the king would get his first real chance to get anointed champion — against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, no less.
From the first play of that series, the Magic made it clear they were here to play.
With a powerful jam, Dwight Howard caused the shot clock above the basket to collapse. And the Magic used Game 1 to come back from a 20-point deficit and win on a not-talked-about-enough shot from Rashard Lewis. The stretch-4 stared down the bigger Anderson Varejao and simply shot over him to win the game and gain control of the series.
The Cleveland Cavaliers had plenty of fight in them from James’ famous Game 2 game-winning 3-pointer to an overtime battle in Game 4 that required more heroics from Rashad Lewis. James took over the end of Game 5 and turned in one of the best individual series any team has seen.
But in the end, the Magic had all the matchup advantages. Howard put in perhaps his best game in a Magic uniform in the Game 6 clincher at home, scoring 40 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in a blowout victory.
The Magic were pointing the way to California to take on the Lakers. They were heading to their second NBA Finals.
2. Drafting Shaq
June 24, 1992: Orlando Magic select Shaquille O’Neal with No. 1 overall pick
No moment may be bigger in Orlando Magic history than winning the 1992 NBA Draft Lottery and selecting Shaquille O’Neal. No matter what anyone else says, O’Neal was the only player to pick even in that vaunted draft.
He instantly turned the Magic from expansion team to playoff contender overnight.
That is an actual fact. The 1993 Rookie of the Year helped lift the Magic to 41-41, a tie for eighth place that left them outside the playoff field only on a tiebreaker. But even then, it was clear what O’Neal could do for the team — 23.4 points and 13.9 rebounds per game as a rookie, including an All-Star berth.
He was already extremely popular and he gave Orlando an identity outside of the theme parks. He was wholly belonging to the city and a fan base just excited to be in the game now had an actual team to cheer for.
O’Neal would only get better, especially as the Magic’s luck somehow improved. Adding Anfernee Hardaway a year later in the draft gave the Magic the seeds for a title contender. Orlando would reach the pinnacle in the 1995 NBA Finals, when their youth finally gave way to a more experienced championship-level team.
They never got the chance to get all the way to the top. In-fighting and the return of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls stood in the way of the Magic reaching that potential.
In four seasons in Orlando, O’Neal averaged 27.2 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. Fans might remember the lumbering, sometimes overweight big man from his later years and time in Los Angeles. In Orlando, he was lithe and quick.
Someone his size should not have been able to race end to end as quickly as he did. He was a true transformational player.
In many ways, the Magic are still trying to outlive the shadow O’Neal cast on the franchise. He has become the measuring stick for everything the team does both as a player and as a marketing and popularity beacon. O’Neal became the first Magic player to enter the Hall of Fame and the team has never been as good or as fun as it was when he was around.
1. Nick Anderson stole the ball
May 7, 1995: Orlando Magic steal Game 1 from Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls
The moment is imprinted deep within the soul of Orlando Magic fans.
During the current hiatus, the Magic released two “wash your lyrics” memes. One was a guide on how to wash your hands set to the original Orlando Magic theme song. The other was… it is better to watch it:
https://twitter.com/OrlandoMagic/status/1243051602698797056
David Steele was miming his famous call in his driveway while bored and hanging with his family without actual basketball to watch too. It is the greatest radio/television call in Magic history and undoubtedly the most important greatest singular moment in Magic history.
They made the immortal Michael Jordan look human.
The Magic entered Game 1 with homecourt advantage, but they were the underdogs. Jordan was slowly getting back to his peak and the Bulls had all the experience against the upstart Magic. Chicago was favored to advance once again — plus, it’s Michael Jordan.
The nip-and-tuck Game 1 came down to the final seconds with the Bulls having possession and the shot clock up with a one-point lead.
Michael Jordan brought the ball up and seemed to get past Nick Anderson as the Magic waited to foul. Jordan looked over both shoulders trying to feel where Anderson was. He lost sight of him and Anderson pounced, tipping the ball away from behind. Anfernee Hardaway picked it up, fed it to Horace Grant and got the dunk to give the Magic a one-point lead.
Orlando would hold on and force Jordan to retire wearing No. 45. He was angry. He just did not have enough to stop this team.
The Magic would win the series in six games, coming from behind in Game 6 on the road to defeat the Bulls and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. It was Jordan’s last playoff series loss.
If anybody did not believe in the Magic and ask why the young team couldn’t win the title before that moment, they certainly had to let that go after. The Magic went toe to toe with Jordan and won.
Few people can say that.
I know this is not an exhaustive or probably an accurate list. So share with us your favorite Magic moments in the comments below or on Twitter @OMagicDaily!