Orlando Magic confidence meter: How confident are Magic fans heading into 2025?

The 2030 Promise

Back in 2016, the Orlando Sentinel did a project predicting what the city and its institutions would look like in 2030. The Orlando Magic were at the lowest point in their interminable rebuild at the time when Alex Martins gave a now-infamous interview.

For the project, Martins predicted the Magic would have an NBA championship by 2030.

Predictably, the league laughed at the notion. The Magic had few future prospects at the time and a championship seemed very far away.

Really, what else was Martins supposed to say? That the Magic weren't going to win a title in 14 years? Fourteen years is an eternity in the NBA.

Now, eight of those 14 years later, the Magic have an All-Star and perhaps another in the making. They are a young team in the playoffs. And six years seems like a reasonable timetable for the Magic to be competing for a championship.

There is still work to do for the Magic clearly. But considering Orlando was sitting in the 2-seed a week before the end of last season, it is not too far-fetched to think this team could not make some surprise forays into contention very soon.

Clearly, in our unscientific poll, there is still some skepticism the Magic are going to get there. But there has not been this much belief in something the Magic were building since 2009. There is hope and belief the team is on track to win a title once again.

They certainly seem headed in that direction. And going to the playoffs last year was the first step in that direction.

Orlando is still in the hopeful phase of the rebuild. Everything is pointing up and progress and development seem inevitable for this group. They are on the right path for now.