Backtime Memo-Random: Orlando

I haven't done a game at the Citrus Bowl since New Year's Day, 2002. For the record, Tennessee routed Michigan 45-17. Casey Claussen threw for 393 yards, hitting Kelley Washington, Donte Stallworth, and Jason Witten all over the field.

Now the Citrus Bowl is a relic, kind of a cross between the old Orange Bowl and Legion Field, in the part of town the Magic Kingdom forgot.

But that bowl game isn't what stands out in my memories of Orlando. Neither is my son's Disney World Spring Break meltdown (now why'd you have to go and bring that up?). It's the 1996 NBA Playoffs.

I did five playoff games that spring at The O-Rena, and the games weren't anything really special. The Magic basically had their way with the Pistons (Grant Hill & Allan Houston) and the Hawks (Mookie & Smitty) in the early rounds.

Quick, name Orlando's starting five: There was Shaq and Penny, Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott, but who was the fifth?

Horace Grant was my favorite in a lineup of standouts. He was the relentless heartbeat of a team that was often questioned for its toughness, back when we wondered if Shaq would ever win a championship.

But before he was with the Magic, he won 3 titles with the Bulls. And when he would throw down an offensive rebound, you'd hear Bulls play-by-play man Jim Durham uncork HOAR-ess GRRANT!

I worked NBA and NCAA games with Jim Durham many years ago. It's a cliche, but he was a great broadcaster and a better guy. He did a lot of radio in recent years, and I had occasion to run into him when I was on the TV side of something. 

I would shake his hand and ask him, one time, to give me a full-throated HOAR-ess GRRANT! He would laugh and give me a half of one. You couldn't blame him for his lack of adrenaline without a live event going on, or an open mic in sight. He was a professional.

Jim Durham died last week at age 65. He was a power forward of broadcasting. RIP JD.

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.

Your most unconventional NBA Finalist?

Welcome to Orlando, and the Magic's kingdom, Amway Arena.

And much like the Amway brand, Magic basketball has been snickered at and dismissed, but they are actually a powerhouse.

Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio have been playing up ad nauseum how Shaquille O'Neal called his former coach, current Magic coach Stan Van Gundy "The Master of Panic." And after a couple of head-scratching losses to Boston in the Eastern Semis, Van Gundy himself seemed flustered and was a target for lots of criticism.

But the Magic overcame adversity, winning a Game Seven on the road in the champions' house, and have been the superior team in a very tight Eastern Finals series. They hold a 3-1 lead, but theoretically could have swept already if not for a last second bullseye by the Cleveland LeBrons in Game 2.

But Orlando's team history could have been very different.

Billy Donovan, the head coach of the then 2-time National Champion Florida Gators had taken the Magic job. Then after a quick change of heart, he split and returned to Gainesville, where his team has qualified for back-to-back NITs.

Stan Van Gundy was actually the second choice. He had gotten to the precipice of an NBA Finals with the Miami Heat, then had the rug pulled out from under him (technically he resigned) by team president Pat Riley, who coached Miami to the 2006 NBA title.

Billy Donovan, a college coach decided he didn't fit. And this is not a team that college hoop junkies (like myself) can latch onto. Take the Magic's top 5 guys in scoring this postseason:

Dwight Howard - High School (Atlanta)

Rashard Lewis - High School (Houston)

Hedo Turkoglu - Turkey

Mickael Pietrus - France

Rafer Alston - Fresno State (one year)

It's the kind of roster that keeps Fran Fraschilla up at night cramming for the NBA Draft.

So that's one season of major college basketball amongst them, from the "streetball" legend Alston. In fact, Van Gundy himself had only one season of major college basketball as well - a very forgettable season as the coach of the Wisconsin Badgers in the mid-90s, before Dick Bennett and Bo Ryan made basketball as fashionable as football in Madison.

Yet here the Orlando Magic stand, one game from the NBA Finals. Though there's still work to do, this run isn't going to surprise anyone any longer.