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Orlando Magic: 3 reasons they may be cursed

By Luke Duffy

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 02: Jonathan Isaac #1 of the Orlando Magic is helped off the court in a wheelchair after an injury against the Sacramento Kings in the second half of a NBA basketball game at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 2, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kim Klement-Pool/Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA - AUGUST 02: Jonathan Isaac #1 of the Orlando Magic is helped off the court in a wheelchair after an injury against the Sacramento Kings in the second half of a NBA basketball game at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 2, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kim Klement-Pool/Getty Images) /
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Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

3. Restless big men

Do you know what is even worse than watching a once in a generation big man, the guy the entire show is built around, walk out on your franchise in favor of playing for the most well-known organization in the league? Having it happen twice. This is where the cruelty for Magic fans begins, having witnessed this twice now with O’Neal and Howard.

If we’re going to defend either of them here, and in the case of Howard in particular, it is hard, they certainly put the time in with the Magic to try and win a championship there. For the good of their careers they moved on while still close to, or in, their primes, and it worked out for them. Good for them.

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But for the Magic, all it did was leave a giant hole that took a long time to recover from. In the case of Howard, you could make the case that they still haven’t, although the last two years have been a lot better. Drafting both O’Neal and Howard when they did, and given that combined with the fact that they played 12 of the Magic’s 32 years in the league to date, covers up the glaring fact that players don’t typically go there.

If not for O’Neal and Howard being in place, other guys weren’t going to Orlando to play. It is only when a superstar is in place, and there is not one there right now, that even the national media seem to be interested in the franchise. This is not a problem unique to the Magic, plenty of other small-market teams have to deal with this too, but the “nearly men” vibe makes things even worse.

The Magic have been close to winning it all, and they’ve experienced being darlings of national media (Howard, before his reputation took a dive), or just straight-up feared (O’Neal) too. Just when it seemed like they could go all the way, they have had the rug pulled from under them and had to start again. Only as we’ve seen in the last decade, draft luck is no longer on their side.

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