Orlando Magic snubbed in the end for NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team

The NBA is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season and tipped it off by naming its 75th-anniversary team — a collection of the 75 best players in league history as voted on by a panel of media and dignitaries in the league.

The Orlando Magic have been a part of this league for 32 years, rising into their 33rd year. In that time, they have had some historically significant teams. Both of their trips to the Finals signaled a sea change in the NBA and the expansion of the use of the 3-point line in the league’s offensive strategies.

Shaquille O’Neal was the most obvious Magic legend to get the nod for the team.

He won four titles, made 15 All-Star Games, win two scoring titles and a whole host of other honors. As Magic fans know, he made the franchise, transforming the city through his mere presence in Orlando as a basketball player. He brought the Magic to its first playoffs and first NBA Finals.

O’Neal is not merely just a top-75 player, he very clearly is in or near the top-10 all-time in league history. O’Neal’s run from 1995-2006 included six NBA Finals and four championships. He defined nearly a decade of the NBA in many ways.

Other Magic alumni to make the list were Patrick Ewing and Dominique Wilkins, who both made cameo appearances in Magic uniforms during their final years.

Orlando has had other greats, as much as the franchise has been defined by O’Neal (and as much as his No. 32 should probably have plans to go up in the Amway Center rafters). For a young franchise, the Magic have had a lot happen with a few Hall of Famers making their marks with the team.

The Orlando Magic got one of their all-time greats into the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team. But Dwight Howard was one of the biggest snubs.

But O’Neal was the only long-term Magic player to get the nod. Magic players dotted the list of snubs. This nondescript franchise still without a title remained snubbed from the list celebrating the league’s history despite the impact they may have had.

On Inside the NBA’s list there are five Magic alums on the biggest snubs list. It is not clear how close any of them were to making the team. But the most egregious of the Magic snubs (there are certainly arguments for many of those players) is Dwight Howard.

Howard’s career has diminished in the back end of his career. But Howard was a truly transformational player during a long period of time. He was the one player who seemingly could stop LeBron James when the two were in their primes.

Howard in his eight years with the Magic averaged 18.4 points, 13.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. He was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year. He led the Orlando Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals, defeating James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in six games including a 40-point game in the closeout game of the series.

The Magic constructed a roster that used the 3-pointer as a primary weapon, surrounding their gravity-sucking center with four shooters and daring teams to double him and get burned from beyond the arc. This is the direction the league has expanded and grown to ever since then.

Howard was a transformational player.

After leaving Orlando, he dealt with back injuries but was still a central figure in the league for a little while longer. He helped the Houston Rockets reach the conference finals 2015 alongside James Harden (another member of the 75th Anniversary team).

Howard has had a rocky back half to his career as he has bounced around several teams. He finally did win a title with the Los Angeles Lakers in the bubble in 2020. But Howard is a surefire Hall of Famer (Basketball-Reference gives him a 99.7-percent chance of getting to Springfield).

He is not only one of the best players in Magic history — a clear Mt. Rushmore player for the franchise despite any lingering sour feelings from his exit — but one of the best centers in league history.

Everyone has pointed to some current players who may have prematurely been placed in the 75th Anniversary team. This was also a problem with the 50th Anniversary team — O’Neal said on the TNT broadcast revealing the final 25 names he apologized to Wilkins for prematurely taking his spot on that team in 1997.

Players like Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard and even Carmelo Anthony have come under scrutiny for their inclusion on this team. Comparisons between Howard and Davis have already started.

This is not to say Davis will not merit inclusion as one of the 75 greatest players in league history at some point in the future. At this snapshot in time, there is a strong argument Howard deserved the nod over Davis.

Howard is almost certainly one of the biggest snubs from this list.

The more nuanced argument will go for Tracy McGrady.

McGrady was a scoring savant throughout the mid-2000s who was just cursed with playing on bad teams in his prime and then dealing with injuries when he finally did have a strong team. McGrady did not get out of the first round of the playoffs until the end of his career when he latched on with the San Antonio Spurs.

That remains the biggest knock on his career. The lack of team success is ultimately what harms McGrady and his legacy.

In four years with the Magic, McGrady averaged 28.1 points per game and won two scoring titles. He single-handedly dragged the Magic to three playoff appearances.

His scoring assault continued once he got traded to the Houston Rockets, including his famous 13 points in 33 seconds against the San Antonio Spurs.

There simply may not be a more gifted scorer than Tracy McGrady in his time — even Kobe Bryant. He is one of the best pure scorers in league history.

McGrady is currently 72nd on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list. Injuries prevented him from getting further up the list. There are several players who are higher on the scoring list who did not make the 75th-anniversary team — including Vince Carter and Pau Gasol.

In the end, McGrady was probably a fair exclusion from the list. While Lillard is building a stellar career. There were probably more deserving players — Carter, in my book, should have been in for how much he influenced the NBA in Toronto and his longevity in the league despite his lack of team success.

Still, McGrady, like Carter and many others, has a really strong argument for inclusion in the team. And the hope will be that some of these players can get the same redemption Wilkins got in 25 years when the league celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Hopefully by then too, Orlando will have a title and another surefire player who will get inclusion on these all-time lists.

The Magic have had a large impact on league history — much larger than people would likely recognize — even without winning a title. And some incredible players.

Unfortunately, the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team did not recognize some of the best players in Magic history.