Jun
12
Orlando Magic Offering Refunds to Fans Who Bought Tickets after Billy Donovan Hiring
Last week, I wrote how Stan Van Gundy should not take the Orlando Magic job after Billy Donovan spurned the team. Van Gundy, of course, has since taken the position. After building up the Miami Heat and then being pushed away by Pat Riley in the 2005-2006 season, I felt that Van Gundy should not get himself in such a situation again. Basically, he was the second choice of the Magic and is not who they really wanted.
With that said, here comes news out of Orlando that the Magic are offering refunds to fans who purchased tickets after the hiring of Donovan. Here’s the brief Associated Press story.
The Orlando Magic are offering refunds to fans who bought season tickets just after Billy Donovan’s hiring.
More than 200 packages sold within 24 hours of the announcement that the Magic had lured Donovan away from Florida, where he won two straight NCAA titles. Donovan changed his mind a day after his May 31 introduction, deciding to return to the Gators.
The Magic said they were contacting individual fans who bought tickets within 48 hours of the Donovan announcement. So far some have decided to keep the tickets, the team said without specifying an amount.
OK. I understand how losing Donovan was disheartening and embarrassing to Orlando General Manager Otis Smith and the rest of the franchise. While offering refunds is a novel approach, the Magic should be selling these fans on the merits of Van Gundy, who is an excellent coach and has already brought one team right to the verge of a championship whereas Donovan never won one game in the NBA.
While genuine to the feeling of the Magic fans, Orlando should be happy that it got Van Gundy. It should be conveying to its fans how Van Gundy may not be as sexy of a candidate as Donovan but is, in reality, a better coach and better hire.
This current action by the Magic has reaffirmed my worries about Van Gundy taking this job. Orlando should not even be thinking about the Donovan fiasco. They need to move on.
Orlando has landed a great coach in Van Gundy, who is going to do a very good job and get this team and superstar Dwight Howard to be among the top four in the Eastern Conference within the next couple of years.
This whole situation just leaves me worried that Orlando is still heart-broken by the Donovan saga. In other words, do they really want Van Gundy? Is Van Gundy going to eventually be hung out to dry once he gets the Magic so far in the playoffs and they lose, like what happened in Miami?
The Donovan hiring was obviously a marketing move, which makes me worry that Van Gundy could eventually be the victim of similar marketing ploys down the line. While Van Gundy may not look the part of the suave coach manning the sidelines, all he does is coach and get his teams to play hard. Will this eventually be lost on the glitz and glamour league that is the NBA?
Prior to watching Game Two of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, my brother told me how he couldn’t disagree with me anymore about Van Gundy taking the Magic job. He especially disagreed with my point that Van Gundy would be better off taking the Sacramento Kings’ job than the Orlando vacancy. I understand and agree with the basis of his arguments, but can’t get over my intuition about his situation.
The Magic are a more appealing option than the Kings, who are in flux and likely going to trade Ron Artest. With Howard as a building block and one of the best big young men in the game, the Magic could be very good quickly.
With that said, Orlando is still a couple of years away, unless Howard blossoms to the point where he is unstoppable. Van Gundy will get this team back to the playoffs next year and in following seasons, and with a few good moves and some cap room this summer, the Magic could eventually be an elite team in the East. I’m just worried that Van Gundy is going to do all the work again and then get burned in the end when the Magic fall short and the unfortunate and wrong rumors begin that Van Gundy can’t get a team to the next level.
While Sacramento is in need of a desperate overhaul, I think Van Gundy would have been the perfect coach there to get things back on the rise. The Kings have a very talented young player in Kevin Martin and still have some solid veterans in Mike Bibby and Brad Miller, who can still be good players when they want to.
While I have my suspicions about the Maloof brothers, I believe they would have given Van Gundy the time to get the team back. Rick Adelman was given eight seasons at the helm of the Kings. While Eric Musselman only got one year, I would attribute this to the fact that he got a DUI prior to the season and the Kings never bought into his style of play.
Who knows? With those hints that Sacramento may eventually be on the move to Las Vegas always in the air, maybe the Kings would have (or will still be able to) make some big splashes in free agency in the next couple of seasons. And if they don’t trade Artest to the Heat for garbage and rather get something at least decent, they’ll already be better off.
While Sacramento needs to rebuild and would have been a difficult situation, I’m not so sure it will be as tough of an adjustment as the Orlando job, now that Magic fans thought they had Billy the Kid before he shot his way out of town.
I could be overanalyzing this situation as Van Gundy will be successful in Orlando immediately, but I’m trying to think where he’ll be in three or four years. In the short term, Van Gundy will be fine. In the long term, when the expectations rise, I’m not so sure.
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