The Magic hosted their thank you luncheon and Dwight Howard was the center of attention, but not because of his basketball skills. Howard put on a comedy act for everyone in attendance.
Not shockingly, it quickly turned into the Dwight Howard comedy hour. There were three main themes for the jokes:
1. Jameer Nelson was too short for the stool he sat on.
2. Dwight Howard thinks Vince Carter is old.
3. The team had to run a lot yesterday as punishment for all their turnovers.
Nelson opened up with theme one. The moderator, Magic play by play announcer David Steele, began to ask him the first question, and Nelson interrupted by saying, “I need a shorter stool.” Steele suggested maybe they could put Nelson in the rafters like a muppet. He opted for staying where he was.
See the full story from Tania Ganguli here.
You have to love how loose this team is and how well they get along. Matt Barnes thinks it is extremely important for everyone to get along.
I think it’s very important. I’ve heard people say you don’t have to like your teammates, you don’t have to do this, you don’t have to do that and I think that’s all really bullshit. I think you have to get along on and off the court. If you’re friends with someone off the court, you’ll do more for them on the court.
If you’ll die for your teammates on and off the court, I think that’s the best way to be about your business and that’s what makes successful teams.
This is a team that definitely seems to get along off of the court.
Josh Robbins thinks that the team gets along on the court as well.
The need for players to sacrifice their own stats for the good of the team also was a central theme for the day.
“Guys were talking about it right from the beginning the first day,” Van Gundy told the audience. “We’ve got a lot of people that could probably put up bigger statistical numbers on other teams, but here you’re in a situation where more people are going to be involved and people are going to be sharing minutes and shots and everything else.”
Van Gundy added that if players accept their roles, play sound defense and avoid turnovers, the Magic will have a “very, very good team.”
See this and more here.
Josh Robbins thinks Ryan Anderson was more than just an afterthought in the Vince Carter trade.
NBA TV will show their Orlando Magic preview today at 10:00 AM EST and again at 1:30 PM EST.
Coming soon to HTD: A position by position preview of the Orlando Magic. I will first take a look at Orlando’s Guards.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)
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