Whither Orlando?

There's a void right now in the TV drama rotation. Breaking Bad just wrapped Season 2. Mad Men won't return until late summer. House is taking some time to think things over. Big Love likely hasn't even contemplated it's return date.

So I was left to return back to TV gold, The Wire - Season 1. It just so happened that I was replaying the old episodes at the same time of year as I was soaking in the human drama of the NBA Finals. So I couldn't help but think how to draw parallels between the fate of the Orlando Magic after the Game 4 debacle, and that of Wendell "Orlando" Blocker, the gentleman's club owner and front man for B&B.

Both Orlando (the team) and Orlando (the would-be player) weren't ready when it was their time to step up.

Even though The Wire's Orlando had his name on the marquee and was swimming in strippers, he didn't have the rep or the cash that he desired. So he took matters into his own hands, trying to get in "the game" and start his own empire with a simple drug buy. He got busted, and then got smoked.

Last night, the Orlando Magic couldn't stand their own prosperity. They held a 12-point lead at the Half, and blew it. They came back again to take a 5-point lead with under a minute to go, and blew that too.

Not only did they unravel when it was their time to step up, but they compounded it too.

Mickael Pietrus put himself in a world of jeopardy with his dirty foul on the Lakers' Pau Gasol at the very end of overtime.

Now, one can make the argument that you don't dunk the ball with a 5-point lead with 3 seconds to go - that it's a breach of basketball etiquette.

But a 2-hand jolt on a guy's back while he's in mid-air is much worse. Pietrus' reaction was pure frustration and lack of composure. Unless he decided that this was the time to announce to the world that French was once and for all the superior language to Spanish.

It didn't really matter at that point. The Magic were busted as pretenders, and then they got smoked.