orlando-magic Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Maybe Kobe Bryant Didn't Flinch Because He Had No Reason To
On March 7, 2010, the Church of Kobestan found its holy sacrament in a Lakers-Magic regular-season game. Sports goblin Matt Barnes was inbounding the ball on the right sideline. He faked a pass directly into Kobe Bryant’s face and Kobe Bryant—he of the hyper-competitive, killer-instinct mentality, t...
Dwight Howard Shares Story Of Stan Van Gundy Owning The Hell Out Of Marcin Gortat
Marcin Gortat is a fine NBA player. He’s been one of the NBA’s best screeners for about a decade; before a relatively recent age-related decline in athleticism he was an underrated defender and rim protector; he’s a wizard at timing his movement towards the hoop to preserve and maximize the narrow p...
Elfrid Payton's Hair Has Been Laid To Rest
Through all those tough years in Orlando to his current stint in Phoenix, the most notable feature of Elfrid Payton’s game has been his head. Not his “basketball IQ” or his “clutch mentality”—just that majestic drooping frond on top. Every season it protruded further past the point guard’s forehead....
Innocent Basketball Coach Released From Purgatory
The Orlando Magic have fired head coach Frank Vogel, according to a report by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Vogel coached the incoherent and hopeless but nonetheless consistently hilarious roster of the NBA’s least existent franchise for two seasons, both of which were real and actually happened, comp...
Gaze Upon This Mavericks Box Score, And Despair
The Dallas Mavericks, who have spent most of the season doing everything they can to lose games on purpose, fucked up big time on Tuesday night when they beat a very good, playoff-bound Blazers team. This gave them 24 victories on the season, and put them in danger of being passed in The Great Tank ...
Mysterious Clock Screwup Cheats The Magic Out Of A Chance To Win
The Magic lost a weird one to the Lakers last night. After Aaron Gordon drove through four defenders to put his team up one with five seconds left, Nikola Vucevic fouled Brook Lopez with 0.6 seconds left. Lopez nailed both free throws to give the Lakers a 108-107 lead, so the Magic’s only real chan...
Cavs Reach New Low, Somehow
The Cleveland Cavaliers, a snake pit of internecine feuds, are playing like reheated slop at the moment, and tonight their on-court dysfunction reached a new, embarrassing nadir. Losing to a irrepressible Rockets by one million points on national TV is one thing, but getting owned by the Orlando Mag...
Let's Just Watch This Cool LeBron James Pass All Day
The Cleveland Cavaliers stink, a few Cavs players really want everyone to know they stink, and hopes of getting it together in time for the playoffs are getting dimmer. Last night, they blew a 23-point lead to the Orlando Magic at home only to be saved by two Isaiah Thomas free throws in the final s...
Arron Afflalo Swung At Nemanja Bjelica, Who Put Him In A Headlock
If you’re suffering from withdrawal after enjoying all the ridiculous details of last night’s Rockets-Clippers squabble, fear not, for there is more delicious NBA beef. Things got spicy between Arron Afflalo and Nemanja Bjelica midway through the second quarter of tonight’s Timberwolves-Magic game; ...
God, Remember Mario Hezonja?
The Orlando Magic fell way behind the Detroit Pistons Sunday afternoon, in no small part because instead of Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier they had to start Shelvin Mack and Mario Hezonja. I know—you are scratching your head at how either Hezonja or Mack could possibly start in place of Gordon, a po...
Ah Yes, These Are The Orlando Magic I Remember
I am very glad I didn’t say anything especially glowing about the Orlando Magic back on November 2, when they were “good,” before they remembered that they cannot truly be good, for they are the Orlando Magic. They almost fooled me!...
Jonathon Simmons Details Escape From Hurricane Harvey
Jonathon Simmons, who spent two productive seasons with the San Antonio Spurs before signing with the Orlando Magic this summer, is a Houston native, and he was in town when Hurricane Harvey hit. Like millions of other South Texas residents, he was forced to evacuate his home due to the flooding cau...
Keith Appling To Serve A Year In Jail Over Gun Charges
Former Michigan State and Orlando Magic guard Keith Appling was sentenced to a year in jail on Thursday in relation to a trio of gun-related arrests that took place over a four-month period last summer....
Report: Larry Bird Steps Down As Pacers President
Larry Bird has been with the Pacers organization on-and-off for 20 years. He coached the team for three seasons starting in 1997, took over as team president from 2003 to 2012, and then ran the team again from 2013 until this morning. According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski, Bird has stepped d...
Aaron Gordon Jumps Out Of His Shoe For Beautiful Dunk
Earlier this week, the Magic found themselves in the awkward position of reassuring Aaron Gordon that the whiteboard-fueled rumors about trading him definitely weren’t true, no way. Tonight, Gordon tried to make a case for sticking around by literally jumping out of his shoe to turn this slick Elfri...
Magic Forced To Reassure Aaron Gordon Over Dumb, Embarrassing Whiteboard Trade Idea
What do you suppose Orlando Magic head coach Frank Vogel and, uh, star(?) forward Aaron Gordon talked about today, at their meeting—reported by the Orlando Sentinel’s Josh Robbins—about the sudden viral-photo-sparked rumor that the organization might be hoping to trade Gordon for Philadelphia 76ers ...
Orlando Magic Swear This Accidentally Leaked List Isn't Their Offseason Plans
Yesterday, the agent for guard Patricio Garino tweeted out a photo of his client signing a contract with the Orlando Magic. One lil problem: the contract was signed, and the photo taken, in front of a white board apparently showing a bunch of potential free agents and trade targets....
Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Root For The Following NBA Teams
Many NBA teams are good, or are crummy but feature some fun young Turks who can provide some reason for optimism, or are not good and do not have fun young Turks but are taking it to the limit one more time with ol’ Dirk Nowitzki, and therefore are good to root for. In almost every NBA city, there’...
Report: Magic Trade Serge Ibaka To Raptors, Continue To Play Themselves
The NBA hot stove has been burning early and often this year, and according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the next player on the move is Magic big man Serge Ibaka....
Aaron Gordon Got In Some Mid-Game Dunk Contest Practice
Aaron Gordon got robbed at the Slam Dunk Contest last season, and this evening, he got in some early prep for his 2017 run at the title. In the first quarter of the Magic’s game against the Sixers, he robbed Richaun Holmes blind then pulled off a two-handed 360 on the breakaway....