Whit Watson

The Right Price

2009-07-09T18:11:00.008-05:00

One of the truly unfortunate yet inescapable effects of working in sports media is the acquisition of cynicism.

Intentional or not, we -- newspaper columnists, television reporters, radio talk show hosts, you name it -- tend to default towards suspicion and disbelief. We cast a wary glance at politeness. When a player issues a public apology for anything, we roll our eyes. An athlete using the phrase "it's not about the money" has become a cliche' and an inside joke. It's not a universal behavior among my peers, but in my twenty years behind a microphone, I've seen it more than enough.

Of course, we (the media) perpetuate this line of thinking in our product. The death/downfall/embarrassing failure of an athlete is always the lead story; good news, apparently, is boring. There's a chicken/egg argument here -- those responsible for content on shows like "SportsCenter" or in your daily paper will insist that ours is a nation of gawkers who demand such train-wreck detail, while many fans argue that those same content drivers would be well-served (and well-rewarded) to tell us something positive first. That, I suppose, is the subject for another blog.

This lengthy preamble is an introduction to a recent trip I took to Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to meet the family and friends of Tampa Bay Rays lefthander David Price. The purpose of the trip was to shoot interviews for an upcoming episode of "Inside The Rays" featuring Price; the outcome was a renewed faith in people. Specifically, the people who surrounded Price on his way to the majors.

If this kid doesn't make it, I don't know who will. And though it's been driven into my head for twenty years that "there's no cheering in the press box," I have become a very big fan of David Price. In short, I'm a sliver less cynical today than I was before I arrived in Tennessee.

* * *

I arrived in Nashville on Tuesday morning, around 11:30am local. I love Nashville. Cosmopolitan enough, small enough, brainy enough (thanks to Vanderbilt), and I don't even mind the country music thing. Just a neat town.

After a lunch at Rotier's, our small crew of producer Lynne Mixson, videographer Wes Pratt and myself loaded into a rented van for the half-hour drive to Murfreesboro, where we were scheduled to interview Price's parents. Also on the docket: interviews with the parents of Nathan Stephens, Price's high school teammate who died unexpectedly soon after Price signed his first contract with the Rays in 2007.

(I never look forward to those kinds of interviews. The death of Nathan Stephens is a necessary part of David Price's story; it was at the 2008 American League Championship Series that Price debuted a glove with the words "Live Like Nate" stitched on the thumb, and Price has said that he thinks of Nate every time he pitches. That makes the Stephens' interview necessary, but certainly not easier.)

On our way to the Price home, we stopped at Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, where David Price was not only the best baseball player who ever walked the halls but also graduated as the school's all-time leader in scoring and rebounding on the basketball team. The school, which is massive and young, was empty; Lynne found someone working in the office who allowed us inside to shoot video of their trophy cases. As we did so, we were approached by a member of the BHS athletic department, who was only too happy to talk about David, Nate, and Tyler Morrissey, another of Price's teammates who passed away in early 2008 in an auto accident.

So much tragedy. I suspected, after speaking with this coach in the hallway, that the Blackman community had been galvanized by the passing of Nathan Stephens and Tyler Morrissey. What else can you do in a small town? Those suspicions were confirmed when I met Bonnie and Debbie Price, and Henry and DeeAnn Stephens.

Bonnie is David's dad. He worked in a warehouse for most of his life, and now runs David's foundation. Debbie is David's mom. She is tall -- no secret as to where David Price gets his height -- and she is warm, generous, and welcoming. Also present was Damon Price, David's older brother, and Damon's son Cory, who is five years old and ready to tell you about it. They were absolutely delightful, even in light of the fact that we consumed three hours of their day in recording these interviews.

Henry Stephens is quiet, and very thoughtful. DeeAnn is the type of person who looks you directly in the eye, and takes an interest in anything you have to say. She looked worn, in a positive way, as if the (still recent) death of her son is a daily battle that she is winning, slowly.

They are all attractive, lively people. Henry informed me that the Prices and the Stephens had not seen each other in a while, so he was grateful for the chance to catch up. Bonnie, a man with whom I would suggest you never trifle, invited Lynne, Wes and me to stay for dinner after the shoot. I won't spoil the details -- you'll need to watch the show once it debuts later this month -- but despite some tough questions about Nate (and some waterworks from Bonnie, who can barely talk about his son without weeping with pride), it was just about the most enjoyable and life-affirming three hours I have spent on this job in a long, long time.

* * *

The next day, our motley band arrived at Hawkins Field on the Vanderbilt University campus, where David Price was an All-American, Golden Spikes Award winner, Dick Howser Award winner, and "among the most decorated athletes in any sport in Vanderbilt's history," as I uttered in front of the camera while shooting introductions for this upcoming episode of "Inside The Rays." Our morning began with an interview with Vandy head baseball coach Tim Corbin, the man who has spurned numerous offers over the years to remain in Nashville and build the Commodores' baseball program into a perennial SEC and NCAA contender. He was also the coach who convinced Price to stay close to home and play at Vandy -- not that Price, an admitted homebody, needed much prompting -- and helped develop the big lefty into the number one overall pick in the 2007 draft.

Coach Corbin has a routine that he likes to trot out for recruits. He brings out a marshmallow, a jelly bean, and a rock. He holds each one over a flame.

The marshmallow catches fire and burns. The jelly bean resists for a moment, then eventually melts. The rock -- well, we know what happens to a rock under fire. It remains a rock.

You get the idea.

I asked Corbin: "Where was David Price on this spectrum when he arrived, and where was he when he left?"

His answer: "He'll tell you he was a rock when he got here, but he was a marshmallow. When he left..." His voice trails off. You get the idea.

If my son ever took an interest in baseball, and was good enough to play at the Division I level, I would send him to Tim Corbin in a heartbeat.

Our day concluded with an interview with the academic counselor for the Vanderbilt baseball program, a young lady named Katie Feyes, who used the word "amazing" repeatedly when questioned about Price. Katie, Coach Corbin, and Bonnie Price were all on the front lines of David Price's crisis of confidence during his freshman year at Vanderbilt, when a combination of girlfriend issues, academics, and a poor performance in an intrasquad scrimmage convinced him he should quit the game and go work at a McDonald's in Murfreesboro. The story has been told repeatedly; the outcome, of course, is well known. This 'amazing' support system around David Price convinced him to trust his gift and stick with it. The rest, as they say, is history.

What struck me about these two days was the unabashed love that these key figures in David Price's life have for this young man. They can barely contain their pride and affection; by all accounts, David returns it in spades. There's something to that.

It's so easy to get lazy in this business, to become cynical and critical and point to poor numbers or an off-field transgression and take potshots. It's easy game. It's the basis of sports talk radio and TV shows with 'panels.' It's the tabloid side of sports.

Sometimes, you have to go deep to remind yourself why you were attracted to sports in the first place. You have to take the extra step.

To the Prices, the Stephens, Coach Corbin, and Katie, I just wanted to say: thank you. Thank you for an eye-opening couple of days. And thank you for lifting this young, talented baseball player to the precipice of greatness. Any success he has as a professional and as a man is due in some part to each of you. He earned it, but so did you.

Regardless of how this episode of "Inside The Rays" turns out, I can tell you this: I am not ashamed to admit that I am a fan of David Price. I am also a fan of those who made him what he is today.

See you on TV.

Did I Miss Anything?

2009-06-27T23:25:00.005-05:00

Know what sucks? The first day back after a really great vacation. That's what sucks.

I posted this under a different title last week while out of the office, but after an interview with both Magic GM Otis Smith and head coach Stan Van Gundy today, I thought I should provide an update.

To review: I was on vacation, playing golf with Tye Eastham, the television producer for Magic games on Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida, when both of our cell phones started buzzing off the hook. Our respective spies were alerting us to the Vince Carter trade.

That night, I received several e-mails from friends asking for my thoughts on the deal. Here's what I sent back to one of them:

"This is one of the biggest hit-or-miss deals in recent memory. If we believe that Vince will play hard for Orlando for the life of his deal, it's an absolute home run. When his contract expires, the Magic will get a huge break on the salary cap [he's owed a little over $17 million in 2010-11], and they'll enjoy his 20 PPG skills in the meantime. In exchange for that, Orlando gave up a PG [Rafer Alston] that they couldn't use, a PF [Tony Battie] they didn't use, and a pretty good 2-guard [Courtney Lee], albeit a 2-guard that's theoretically not as good as VC.

HOWEVER, we all know that Vince has a rep in some circles as a sandbagger, so I don't know what to think. I WANT to think that he will play hard on what he believes to be his last big NBA contract, and that he's thrilled to be back home in Florida. But I would not be surprised to see him play quasi-hard for one year and then crap the bed because he can. Sorry, but I've been covering this league for way too long."

How's that for a ringing endorsement?

Caveats: now that I re-read that, I'll amend the statement about him playing hard for one year and not the next. He'll play very hard in his first season in Orlando because he'll be thrilled to be home and eager to fit in with his new teammates and fans. He'll play very hard in his second season because he'll be in a contract year -- the final year of the 4-year, $61.8 million extension he signed with the Nets back in 2007, and therefore his final opportunity to earn himself one more significant payday, in Orlando or elsewhere.

So the Magic get him happy and hard-working for at least two years. So far, so good.

Also: since Alston was gone regardless (no way they keep him and Jameer Nelson on the same roster), and Battie was seeing very little of the court, the trade essentially comes down to Vince Carter for Courtney Lee (with all due respect to Ryan Anderson). Tell me any circumstance under which you do not make that deal.

I loved Lee as a player, but Vince Carter today is worth more to the Magic than what Lee might turn out to be in the next two or three years.

That said, interesting take from Otis Smith today regarding Carter. There's been mutual interest between the two parties going back at least two years, just before Carter signed that extension with the Nets. Otis told me today that there's "an aura" around the 8-time All-Star, a presence that will communicate to his Orlando teammates this fall that the Magic are serious about winning right now.

Two years ago, however, that 'aura' was a deterrent. The Magic are insistent that Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson become the emotional and spiritual leaders in that locker room, and the concern in the summer of '07 was that neither player was mature enough to develop that leadership if they had to work in the glare of Vince Carter's perpetual spotlight. So the Magic opted to sign Rashard Lewis instead -- a steady, quiet, gets-you-19-without-anyone-noticing-type player who comes in, does his job, and draws very little buzz. In other words, "a perfect personality" for the Magic as constructed in 2007, according to Smith.

Now, however, Dwight Howard has become Superman. He's been the main attraction at the last two All-Star weekends and has reached the NBA Finals. He's won a Defensive Player of the Year award, a rebounding title, and led the league in blocked shots. It's his team, and he knows it. He's developed the maturity necessary for him to assume the role of franchise leader along with Nelson, who was enjoying an All-Star caliber season himself prior to his injury.

Add that to the fact that Carter is now two years older -- and therefore two years closer to the end of (potentially) his last mega-contract -- and the timing is right, in the eyes of Otis Smith. Two years ago, Dwight and Jameer might have deferred to Carter the way they once did to Grant Hill; now, the Magic believe that Howard, Nelson, and Carter are all ready to assume their roles. In hearing Smith lay it out, the trade made quite a bit of sense.

Check sunsportstv.com for listings as we bring you a Season Recap special for the Orlando Magic in the days to come, and later this summer, we'll be replaying the 20th Anniversary special edition of "Inside The Magic" as well, with new footage from the playoffs included.

See you on TV.

Losing Sucks.

2009-06-15T10:52:00.003-05:00

I've got the video to prove it: My backstage tour of Amway Arena after Game 5 of the 2009 NBA Finals.

(For a now-kinda-creepy harbinger of things to come, you can also check out the video I shot at shootaround earlier that morning. Meh.)

For more backstage tours from the NBA Finals, become a fan at Facebook.com/FOXSportsFloridaSunSports.

Meanwhile: remember this?

"...lack of toughness? Maybe. But you could also call it a missing "edge," a sharpness of focus and we're-not-losing-this-game-dammit that every other serious NBA contender seems to possess. A desire -- no, wait, an instinct -- to absolutely step on their throats and not let up until the echo of the final buzzer. Great playoff teams are built on that mentality. It's not optional."

I wrote that one during the Boston series.

"...save nothing. Hold back nothing. Sell out. You may never walk this way again. This is your chance. Make this your time."

Wrote that one before the NBA Finals started. Sigh.

This Magic team was good. Really, really good. 59 wins good. Good enough to beat an admittedly depleted Boston team in the conference semifinals, and plenty good enough to handle the Cleveland Lebrons in the conference finals.

But they weren't great. LA was great.

Great teams get loose balls. They get defensive stops when they absolutely have to. They come up with crucial rebounds. Great teams don't get good breaks, they make them, with hustle and smarts and trust in one another. The Lakers did it every single night in this series; Orlando did it occasionally.

I'm still struggling to figure out what was missing from the Magic in this series. It wasn't talent, because quite frankly, Orlando stacks up against any team in the league top-to-bottom when it comes to talent. However, as Calvin Coolidge once wrote: "nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent."

What the Lakers have is the aforementioned 'edge.' They are relentless. They start coming at you at the opening bell and don't stop until you've been taken out on a stretcher.

Coolidge again: "Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

Who knew Cal was such a hoops fan?

LA won this series because they held their focus and their poise better than Orlando did. Stan Van Gundy brushes off the importance of 'experience,' but I don't know how else one gains those traits.

Orlando's franchise player, Dwight Howard, appeared in his 37th career playoff game on Sunday night. The Lakers' franchise player, Kobe Bryant, has made 31 career appearances in the NBA Finals alone; 175 career playoff games total. And that's not supposed to make a difference?

Say what you will about Bryant, but it's pretty clear where the rest of the Lakers find their cues when it comes to handling pressure situations. Do Jordan Farmar and Luke Walton have more 'talent' than, say, Mickael Pietrus or Marcin Gortat? Hardly.

But they have Kobe to emulate, and Phil Jackson to listen to. That's Hall of Famer Phil Jackson, whose 10th title as a head coach moved him past Red Auerbach in the NBA's record book.

If you don't think experience played an enormous factor in this series, you weren't paying attention. Or, you're Stan Van Gundy, who was doing his mortal best to deflect the weight of history away from his players, which is what a good coach should do.

Stan knows damn well that experience matters. He just refused to say it out loud. No excuses, no whining. You win or you don't.

Dwight Howard said after Game 5, "sometimes you have to lose to win."

Perhaps the experience of this loss will help Howard and the Magic develop that missing edge.

In the meantime, thanks, guys. It was a hell of a ride.

Game 4: The Aftermath

2009-06-12T11:49:00.008-05:00

Let's get a few things straight.

The Orlando Magic did not lose Game 4 of the 2009 NBA Finals just because Dwight Howard missed two free throws with 11.1 seconds to play in regulation, either one of which probably seals the game.

The Magic did not lose Game 4 simply because Stan Van Gundy told his players not to foul on the ensuing Laker possession -- a decision that he says will 'haunt him forever.'

They didn't lose only because Derek Fisher made the cold-bloodedest (just made that up) three-pointer of the series, with Jameer Nelson inexplicably still on the floor and inexplicably playing Fisher to drive.

Nelson's presence on the floor throughout the second half -- as opposed to, say, Rafer Alston, who was coming off the game of his life 48 hours earlier -- did not decide the game. Nor did 15 missed free throws, 17 turnovers, character, experience, savvy or 'stupidness,' as Hedo Turkoglu put it afterwards.

Sure, all of that mattered. But none of those points, alone, decided Game 4.

Game 4 was decided when the Lakers erased a 12-point halftime deficit in the first six minutes of the third quarter. Game 4 was decided when, in that six-minute span, Trevor Ariza -- a Magic castoff, and perhaps the last man in purple and gold that Orlando expected to go off -- went off.

In those six minutes, Ariza scored on a dunk, a runner, a three, a free throw, and another three. By the time Andrew Bynum sank a pair of freebies at the 5:58 mark, Los Angeles had outscored Orlando 18-5, with Ariza accounting for 11 of those 18 Laker points. Ariza's outburst was the haymaker from which Orlando never recovered.

The Magic wobbled through the rest of the quarter, allowing 30 Laker points to their own 14. From our seats in the media section of Amway Arena, it was like watching a prize fight that should have been stopped. That quarter, friends, was the difference in the game.

Dwight's free throws never should have mattered. Stan's decision, and Fisher's three, never should have mattered. The Magic, simply put, never should have been in that position.

30-14 in the third quarter. That was the game. Trevor Bleeping Ariza.

As a sidebar, I wrote in this space that Lamar Odom has been the Lakers' X-factor, but I'm prepared to amend that. While I still believe that the Magic have no answer for Odom, he's been less than deadly in the last two games of the Finals, averaging a very manageable 10 points and 3.5 rebounds in Games 3 and 4.

However, the one guy that Orlando hasn't been able to manage is Pau Gasol, who has averaged 19 points and 8 rebounds on 58% shooting in these Finals. I have to admit, I haven't seen much of Gasol up close this season, but he's much, much better than I imagined. Rashard Lewis, bless his heart, can't handle Gasol in the post; when the big Spaniard steps back, he can knock down jumpers like a 2-guard. He's tougher than I expected, has Go-Go Gadget arms on defense, and has earned at least a modicum of Kobe's trust. He's better than I thought. Expecting Ariza to blow up like that again is a stretch, but Gasol is a serious problem.

Game 5 is Sunday, and I'll once again be Tweeting live at twitter.com/sunsportsFOXFL, with a live postgame show to follow on Sun Sports. Hopefully, we won't be covering the Lakers' victory celebration. In the meantime, if you haven't already signed up to be a fan of Sun Sports / Fox Sports Florida on Facebook, you should. We've been using a Flip camera to record behind-the-scenes stuff and some video blogs from me, which have turned out much better than I expected. Check it out.

See you Sunday.

Where Have I Seen This Before?

2009-06-08T11:10:00.004-05:00

Let's jump into the Wayback Machine for a moment.

It's February, 2006. The Orlando Magic were flailing. The John Weisbrod Experiment had ended abruptly the previous spring, Chris Jent's legendary coaching arc had drawn to a close, and Brian Hill had been recalled from reservist duty to theoretically infuse the franchise with some level of organizational discipline.

Shortly thereafter, the '05 draft pick, Fran Vazquez, humiliated the franchise by refusing to report. Grant Hill, who was supposed to (finally) be healthy, was instead fighting his way back from surgery for a sports hernia and was playing only sporadically. Jameer Nelson hurt his foot and was out for a month. It was a springtime of meh.

In February of 2006, Otis Smith and Dave Twardzik were still listed as co-general managers of the Magic, and together they decided (correctly) to blow it up. The first move, on the 15th of that month, was to send Kelvin Cato's winning attitude and charming personality to Detroit in exchange for Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo. The second move was to get the hell rid of Steve Francis, who was slowly choking the life out of the franchise.

Two years prior, I had covered the Miami Heat in the NBA Playoffs for Sun Sports. That Heat team -- the team that Pat Riley had dumped into Stan Van Gundy's lap about one week before opening day -- had reached the postseason despite a 5-15 start, roaring back to beat the Hornets in the first round and take Indiana deep in the second.

It was during that assignment, following the Heat to New Orleans and Indianapolis, that I became completely enamored with Lamar Odom. And two years later, I used my remembrances of that '04 Heat playoff run as part of my plea to the Magic to get Odom as part of any Francis deal:

"Odom was the Pied Piper of the Miami locker room [during the '04 Playoffs]. His coaches adored him, so much so that they were almost afraid to talk about it, for fear of jinxing it, or letting some secret spill out. His teammates, especially rookies [Dwyane] Wade and [Udonis] Haslem, shadowed him like puppies, and Odom never led them astray. Point-forward, garbageman rebounder, three-point shooter, he did everything except sell hot dogs. Yeah, he took some dumb shots, but he also brought a Grant Hill-style sense of calm to the floor. Wade was Miami's best player, but the Heat belonged to Lamar Odom."

I was reminded of that post, and my experience with Odom that preceded it, as I watched the first two games of the 2009 NBA Finals. Odom did not go to Orlando, of course -- he's still in LA, and he's largely the reason why the Magic are down 0-2.

Note that I say "largely." Rafer Alston is 3-17 from the field in the first two games of this series, 0-8 from three. Dwight Howard has attempted only 16 shots over two games (Kobe: 56 FG attempts). The Magic shot less than 30 percent as a team in Game 1. They committed 20 turnovers in Game 2. There's plenty of reasons why the Lakers won the first two games.

However, heading into these Finals, I really believed that Odom was the X-factor. The Magic had nothing for Lamar, offensively or defensively, and I felt that if he played well, Orlando would be in trouble. So far, the numbers bear that out.

Stat: through Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Lamar Odom has the best plus/minus rating of any player in the 2009 Playoffs, including Kobe. The Lakers have outscored their opponents by 173 points in 20 games when Odom is on the floor; Kobe's plus/minus is +158.

And Odom has done it in 164 fewer minutes than Bryant -- the equivalent of three and a half fewer games.

He's not the only reason Orlando is down 0-2, but no player has been more directly tied to the Lakers' success this postseason than Lamar Odom. Reminds me a lot of Miami in 2004.

Maybe the Magic should have listened to me in 2006.

(I'm half-serious, of course. No, Orlando didn't get Odom when they dumped Francis in '06, but they did get Anfernee Hardaway's expiring contract, which helped them free up enough cap space to sign Rashard Lewis as a free agent in the summer of '07. And that's turned out okay, too -- lest we forget, Orlando *is* the other team in the 2009 NBA Finals.)

Cliche' Alert: "It's a make or miss league."

This is a new one that's cropped up during these Finals, usually coming from the mouth of ABC analyst Mark Jackson. Like all cliches, it's rooted in truth: in today's NBA, with lightning-fast video scouting capabilities, a 24/7 television and Internet news cycle, and the maddening tendency among all NBA coaches to do what every other NBA coach does, there are no secrets anymore. Everyone knows what everyone else is going to run. Sure, you can switch defenders or run a pet play a little less frequently, but there really are no curve balls. "It's a make or miss league" is another way of saying "It's all about execution," which is true -- if your stuff works, and you can stop the other guys from running their stuff, you win. Brilliant coaching moves have less and less to do with it, especially at this stage.

That said, I'm starting to hate that phrase. But I suppose it is what it is, right?

*Gack.*

Reminder: LIVE postgame coverage on Sun Sports after every NBA Finals contest, with live Twitter updates from yours truly at all of the Orlando games. Also, check out the network's Facebook page for behind-the-scenes video as the Finals come to central Florida.

Is This Just Final, or Final-Final? Notes On Game 1

2009-06-04T09:31:00.003-05:00

--First and foremost: LIVE postgame coverage after every game of the NBA Finals can be found on Sun Sports. David Steele and Matt Goukas, the TV voices of the Magic who have carried you through this entire season (and many seasons before this one), will be on hand in LA for the first two games, working side-by-side with Laker announcers from Fox Sports West. Once the games return to Orlando, Paul Kennedy joins the party, and I'll be there providing what we jokingly refer to as "guerrilla video" -- behind-the-scenes stuff that we'll be posting on our Facebook page. Plus, I'll be Tweeting during the home games at twitter.com/SunSportsFOXFL. Pithy bromides are free as part of the package.

--Second and secondmost: Sun Sports / Fox Sports Florida will get two people inside Amway for Game 3. Follow the network on Twitter (again: twitter.com/SunSportsFOXFL) and pay attention for details. Hint: you need to show up at the arena for Fan Fest next Tuesday night to have a shot.

I can't say anything else -- I hear the guards coming.

--Rodney "Sid" Powell was probably the most relaxed member of the Orlando Magic's traveling party this week.

Sid has been the team's Operations Manager (basketball manager + travel agent) since just short of forever. Not much gets him rattled. When I saw Sid at the Magic's final Orlando practice on Tuesday, he told me that once the plane landed in LA, "my job is done."

It required more than 60 hotel rooms and five different hotels, but Sid successfully found a place for everybody -- players, coaches, basketball ops staff, wives, broadcasters, and members of the DeVos family, some of whom are staying in Beverly Hills for the first two games (shocker).

However, he did mention that if this series returns to Los Angeles in the 2-3-2 format, he's in a spot of trouble. The Magic's team hotel in Marina del Rey can only spare 40 rooms during the week of June 15-19 -- not enough to cover everyone.

I told him, "Guess you better win it in 5, then."

But if it does go 6 or 7, Sid will figure it out. He always does.

--Speaking of travel, I'm told that Magic GM Otis Smith brought a larger contingent of his Basketball Operations staff than usual on this trip, which is understandable on several levels. 'Basketball Ops,' for the uninitiated, refers to the group that has direct daily contact with the players: coaches, trainers, managers, physical therapists, video scouts, and the like. There's a handful of Ops guys who travel all season anyway, but apparently Otis wanted to move the entire office, as much as possible, to Los Angeles for the first two games. As a result, seats on the team charter were hard to come by. Put it this way -- David and Matt flew commercial.

Again, I have no problem with this. It's the NBA Finals. If Otis thinks that going all Pat Riley for two weeks gives his squad an edge, fine. And I guarantee you that David and Matt understand that.

--Predictably, Nick Anderson's missed free throws from Game 1 of the 1995 Finals have been a hot topic over the last 24 hours, as media outlets search for content leading up to the Magic's second-ever Finals appearance. Mike & Mike spent about five minutes on it this morning on ESPN Radio; my man Mike Bianchi wrote a largely sympathetic column on the topic as well.

One aspect of that game that has faded over the years, and received only a passing mention in Mike's column: Nick never should have been in that position in the first place. The Magic blew a 20-point lead in Game 1 of the '95 Finals. Nick took the heat, and (as Mike correctly points out in his column) was never the same player or the same person after those four free throws, but it shouldn't have come down to that. Again: Orlando was up by 20, and squandered the lead.

Remind you of anything from this year's playoff run?

--As I Tweeted last night: To summarize every national media piece on the Magic in last four days: "Umm, they're good, but we don't know why. Lakers in 6."

Best example: Ian Thomsen's article in this week's Sports Illustrated. Opening paragraph is a laundry list of what the national media perceives about the Magic; rest of the piece actually does a nice job of refuting each myth. Best line: "How did so many fail to notice the championship potential that now seems so obvious?"

However, in the print version of SI, the sidebar to the very same article predicts a Laker win. So there's that.

I have no gut feeling about this series, which is a new one for me this postseason. I thought that Orlando could beat Boston (but was honestly surprised to see them do so after going down 3-2), and once that happened, I was actually confident about the Cleveland series, based on matchups and the team's success against the Cavs this past season.

But now? I got nothin'. Maybe it's some unconscious form of repression; perhaps I know in my heart of hearts that the Lakers are the better team, and I'm refusing to commit to a pick because I can't face reality. Or, on the flip side, perhaps the mere thought of a championship parade down Orange Avenue -- an NBA Freaking Championship Parade in my hometown -- is enough to short-circuit the wiring.

Know what it feels like? It feels like I'm sitting on the bench while a teammate is in the 6th inning of a no-hitter. I'm sitting on my hands, warm-up jacket pulled up to my eyes, absolutely refusing to look at him or talk to him. And I'm ready to punch out the first rookie who walks over to the guy and says, "hey, man, you're really pitching well out there!"

Anyone remember the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning after they won the Eastern Conference Finals over Philadelphia? The NHL suits brought out the Prince of Wales Trophy, ready to hand it over to the jubilant Lightning -- only the Lightning weren't jubilant, and they sure as hell weren't touching that trophy. In fact, Dave Andreychuk treated that thing like it was made of uranium. I think I know what they were feeling.

I know Otis Smith does. Otis told the Magic staff earlier this week that the NBA's Eastern Conference trophy will remain in a box, untouched and unseen, until the end of the NBA Finals. His reasoning: "I don't want the silver one."

In other words, he wants this:

I get it.

Orlando, This Is Your Time

2009-06-01T10:10:00.003-05:00

Mounted on a wall in my home is a framed collage of memorabilia from my four years as an Orlando Magic employee. Along with staff passes, magnetic schedules, All-Star Game credentials, and some photos, you'll also find my credentials from the 1995 NBA Finals:

There are only four passes, of course, because there were only four games. Somewhere, in a box in my garage, I'm pretty sure I still have the unused credentials for Games 5, 6, and 7 of the 1995 NBA Finals -- games that never happened, thanks to the efforts of the Houston Rockets. It used to creep me out to look at them. Painful, actually.

Not a single player on the current Magic roster was in the NBA in 1995 (no, not even Anthony Johnson). The last time the Orlando Magic went to the NBA Finals, Dwight Howard had not yet celebrated his 10th birthday, and Rashard Lewis wasn't old enough to drive. If you're looking for connections to that '95 team -- other than Shaq, who delivered a reminder when he inexplicably showed up in courtside seats for Game 4 against Cleveland at Amway Arena -- you'll have to look somewhere other than an NBA roster.

The 1995 Magic played on the same home floor as the 2009 Magic -- for now, anyway. Nick Anderson is still around, making the transition from 2-guard to Community Ambassador. Within the Magic front office, there are literally too many staff members and executives with connections to '95 to list, but some of the notables include Senior Vice President Pat Williams, President/CEO Bob Vander Weide, and COO Alex Martins, to name just a few.

Otis Smith was there back then, as a member of the team's Community Relations department. He often joined the interns and young staffers at the old Rec Center for early-morning pickup games, where he would try to keep it fair by only shooting left-handed three-pointers (and rarely missing). Bob Vander Weide used to run with us in those games, too, and often found himself matched up against Otis. I wonder if either of those two men could have imagined the circumstances that have brought us to the 2009 Finals, or the roles they would play in the franchise's second Eastern Conference title.

(By the way -- Atlanta Hawks Director of Basketball Operations Mike McNieve interned with the Magic's basketball ops department the same season that I interned with Magic Broadcasting, and was a regular in those morning games. I ran into Mike last season in Milwaukee, where he was scouting a Magic-Bucks game. Hadn't seen him in probably ten years.

First words out of his mouth: "How's your jump shot?" Man, do I miss those games.)

Of course, a lot of people I worked with back then have moved on to other pursuits, but I guarantee you that everyone who was with the team during that heady '95 Finals run remembers it like it was yesterday.

Three years ago, when the Miami Heat reached the Finals for the first time in franchise history, I blogged an open letter to their staff, which included the following:

"I hope that [then-head coach Pat] Riley and [then-Heat center Shaquille] O'Neal will take the time to explain the magnitude of this opportunity to the Heat organization. The entire organization ... ticket sales reps, broadcasters (like my man Eric Reid, who's waited nearly twenty years for this), community relations staff, interns, DJ Irie, everybody. They need to hear it ... We [the Magic staff of '95] thought it would never end. That's the message that I'd be drilling into heads on Biscayne Boulevard right now. This must be your time, because it can vanish in a heartbeat ... savor it. Revel in it. Take pictures. Keep a diary. You earned it, so enjoy it. But don't waste it. Tomorrow, it could be gone, and in this league, there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll ever get it back.

Make this your time. The only thing that never ends is the glow of a championship."

Of course, Miami did make it their time, taking the 2006 NBA Championship after climbing out of an 0-2 hole against the Dallas Mavericks. I'm well aware that my little pep talk contributed absolutely nothing to the Heat's success -- I don't see Pat Riley looking to 'Whit's Blog' for motivational material, do you? -- but I felt that it needed to be said.

Now, it needs to be said again.

There are any number of sources of inspiration for this Magic team as they head west later this week to begin the Finals. Perhaps they'll keep dealing the 'no respect' cards, which were very, very kind to them in the Boston series and the Cleveland series. On that note, Orlando is already down in the ESPN.com fan poll, JA Adande says Lakers in 7, and according to John Hollinger's supercomputer (locked away beneath a mountain in Colorado), the Magic weren't even supposed to be here.

Go ahead and fill the bulletin board if you want, fellas, but if I were speaking to this team before Game 1, that's not where I would go.

Where I would go is where I went with the Heat three years ago: you may never, ever have this opportunity again, so play these games as if they are your one and only chance in this lifetime to win an NBA title. As the late Walter Payton wrote in his autobiography, "tomorrow is promised to no one."

Turk could opt out. Dwight could (God forbid) get hurt. Gortat's seemingly imminent departure could be a bigger setback than imagined. Jameer might never recapture his pre-injury mojo. I am neither suggesting nor hoping that any of these things will occur; I'm simply saying, you never know. Nothing in this league is guaranteed, as Pat Williams is fond of saying.

Fourteen years ago, a lot of people in the Magic offices -- including me -- believed that our run was just beginning. Fourteen years later, we've all been humbled by the Basketball Gods. We get it.

So save nothing. Hold back nothing. Sell out. You may never walk this way again. This is your chance.

Make this your time.

Call It Like We See It

2009-05-27T10:44:00.004-05:00

Forget, for a moment, about the Orlando Sentinel article that broke down the Magic's win-loss record this season by which referee was assigned to the game -- a piece that ESPN Radio's Hubie Brown declared "unprofessional" and worthy of a league scolding.

All you need to know about the perception of officiating in the NBA is this: there's a website that tracks the "performance" of every referee in the league in terms of how often the home team wins when said ref is working the game, how often the favored team covers the spread, and whether or not the game in question hits the over/under. Sixty-five NBA refs listed, and the site has a statistical breakdown for every single official.

The purpose, of course, is to assist gamblers in making their bets on NBA games. And the implication couldn't be more obvious if I rolled it up and smacked you on the nose with it: Vegas believes that referees affect wins and losses. Don't take it from me, take it from shadowy figures who bet on games for a living.

That said, I have never been a "blame the ref" guy, just like I've never been a "fire the coach" guy. Unlike the vast majority of local and national media, I've actually worked in a front office before -- four years, in fact, in the Magic's broadcasting department from 1993 through '97. As such, I admit bias towards coaches and GM's -- yes, some fail, but they're never as incompetent as often portrayed -- and the refs are, well, the refs.

They suck. So what? Players win games, and players lose games.

However, I tweeted the following during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals: "The NBA risks losing both casual and purist fans if the officiating isn't addressed. Beyond inside joke and into embarrassing now."

Jamie Shapiro, senior producer for Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida, posted this on his Twitter feed, independent of mine: "turned off Magic gm be4 OT. LBJ's fall/foul & the mugging on [Dwight Howard]...refs issue kills my interest. Another casual observer lost?"

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons has been all over the "refs are ruining the league" angle for years now, especially after the '06 Miami-Dallas NBA Finals. Do a Google search for "bad NBA refs" and you come up with over 130,000 results, from general queries on suckitude all the way to a website actually dedicated to the very premise (a bit outdated, but you gotta love the title).

My question is this: where, in the eyes of David Stern and the NBA, is the tipping point?

What has to happen for the league to address what has become, even among casual fans, the commonly accepted premise that the referees are maddeningly inconsistent at best, and blatantly pushing one team/star player over another at worst?

If Tim Donaghy didn't trip the wire, what will?

Actually, that's a bad analogy, because Donaghy was affecting the outcome of games for personal, financial gain. The commonly accepted conspiracy theory today holds that the NBA, in concert with its television partners, is somehow passively-aggressively attempting to orchestrate certain postseason matchups -- i.e., Kobe vs. Lebron in the Finals, a premise that was gleefully skewered in an article by Jason Gay in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) a few days after the AP's Tim Dahlberg gave the issue more sober treatment for MSNBC.com.

On the surface, does this make sense? If we assume that A. certain players can move the needle significantly enough to make a measurable difference in TV ratings and (indirectly) revenue, and B. that the NBA and its television partners could somehow pull this off without anyone finding out and blowing the whole thing up, sure.

But here's the thing: there's little evidence to suggest that any one current player (or pair of players) can lift an NBA Playoff series to a level that rivals any of the highest-rated shows in prime-time television. It just doesn't wash.

Fact: for the week of May 4-10, 2009, two episodes of 'American Idol' garnered the top two spots in the weekly Nielsen TV ratings, followed by 'Dancing With The Stars' and 'The Mentalist.' The Wednesday edition of 'Idol' recorded 23.5 million viewers.

Fact: that same week, the highest-rated program on cable television was a Rockets-Lakers playoff game (also on Wednesday night), which amassed 6.3 million viewers, or roughly one-fourth of 'Idol' in head-to-head competition. And last I checked, Kobe Bryant was playing that night.

Would a Kobe-Lebron matchup in the Finals honestly pick up 17.2 MILLION more viewers? Really? Would ANY basketball playoff series approach those kinds of numbers?

I realize this is far from scientific, but you get my drift. If we assume that the league/networks are attempting to squeeze out certain matchups, the numbers suggest that it's a fool's errand. It might have worked in the Jordan era when our choices for entertainment were a fraction of what they are now, but in today's thousand-channel universe, it's pure folly. Somebody's still going to be watching 'Thrillbillies,' no matter who's playing on the other channel.

Which brings me to the second assumption -- that the NBA would risk complete and utter destruction of 50+ years of blood, sweat, and tears by institutionalizing an illicit set of 'unspoken rules' to its referees. If that story ever got out -- that the league somehow communicated a set of instructions to its referees on how to differentiate calls based on player, team, series, or TV network desire -- well, goodbye, pro basketball. Goodbye, multi-billion dollar international business. Goodbye to all of it.

You think David Stern is that stupid? Quite the opposite.

So what's the answer?

Usually, it's the simplest solution, which could be this: Refs are human, and therefore buy into reputation and hype. They're swayed by charisma. Rankled by bad attitudes. Hold grudges. Get stunned by athleticism (witness Dwight Howard whistled for a foul on Lebron's 3-pointer in Game 3 -- there's no way any human could get back that quickly and leap that high to make a block and do so cleanly, so it must have been a foul, right?). The game has evolved faster than the officials' ability to manage it, and the NBA (to date) has stubbornly refused to adjust its practices to help them catch up.

I could be wrong, but it's one theory.

All I know is this: when discussing the possibility of the Magic reaching the NBA Finals this morning, my officemates and I agreed that Denver would be a more favorable matchup than the Lakers -- not because of basketball acumen, per se, but because the Magic would be more likely to get the benefit of the whistle in a Denver-Orlando series than they would in an Orlando-Kobe series. And we can't be the only ones having that conversation right now.

Not exactly how the NBA would like to frame the discussion, is it?

Yes, A Lacrosse Entry

2009-05-25T08:28:00.003-05:00

Just received a note and had to pass it along.

John Griffin was a two-time lacrosse All-American as a goalie at Cornell, leading the Big Red to their last NCAA title, back in 1977. Inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame in '08. Was also a teammate of Eemon McEneaney, widely regarded as one of the best players in Cornell history and a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. A golden era for Cornell lacrosse, with national titles in '76 and '77 and appearances in at least the national semifinals every year from '74 through '78.

John Griffin's nephew is Mike Griffin, who is one of the lead producers on Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida for Rays baseball, Magic basketball, college hoops, FHSAA Finals, you name it. Griff sent me a note this morning reminding me that A.) his uncle was the last goalie to lead Cornell to a national title and B.) I was a lame alum for not mentioning today's championship game in the blog.

So: the Big Red play for another national championship today at 1pm against Syracuse. As Mike said to me, turn it on during the barbecue. I'd love to lay down some smack about Syracuse, but their broadcasting graduates are everywhere and I'll probably end up needing a job from one of them someday, so...

Let's Go Red!

Cleveland? Rocked.

2009-05-21T11:48:00.007-05:00

Got into a minor debate on Wednesday night after the Magic's exhilarating 107-106 win over Cleveland in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

It happened to be via Twitter, which begs the question: what do you call that? I mean, if you're firing snippy Tweets at one another, is there a name for it? A Tweetdown? A snit-Twit? Are you talking Twack? I need to know these things.

Anyway, the Orlando Sentinel has been asking their Twitter followers to come up with headlines for the next morning's paper after each Magic playoff win. I suggested "HEART AND MUSCLE" after the Game 7 clincher over Boston; nice historical reference to the 'Heart and Hustle' teams (coached by Doc Rivers -- get it?) and apropos of the entire vibe of that series. Tim Stephens, the sports editor for the Sentinel, replied @whitwatson that he thought 'Heart And Muscle' applied more to Dwight Howard than the entire team (disagree), but that instead of using it as the section headline, he might apply it to Mike Bianchi's column (which he did).

Okay, then. So on Wednesday night, after returning from Wall Street Cantina in Orlando in a failed effort to give away an autographed Jameer Nelson jersey (go follow Sun Sports & Fox Sports Florida on Twitter for another shot at it), I jumped on to the Twitter website to see what the suggested headlines might be.

Tim wrote that readers had suggested "MAGIC KINGDOM" and "SHOCK & AWE."

(Deep breath.)

1. Any sportscaster, writer, blogger, radio host, or other member of the media who ever -- EVER -- uses the phrase "Magic Kingdom" in reference to the NBA franchise in Orlando should have his/her credentials pulled for life. A flogging wouldn't be a bad idea, either. Preferably, this would take place in public, with stockades involved, and peasants in medieval garb hurling vegetables.

For one thing, I'm pretty sure Disney takes a dim view of attaching that phrase to a basketball team (or anything they don't own). Don't forget: Disney makes the Mossad look like a Rotary Club.

Seriously. The Mouse can get to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Do NOT cross those people.

For another thing, the "Magic Kingdom" thing is lazy, over-used, not cute, stupid, and dead. Do I make myself clear? Or am I being obtuse?

2. The "Shock & Awe" label draws an analogy between a basketball game and a war, which is probably not where you want to go. But more than that, why "shock?" What was so shocking about the Magic beating Cleveland for the third time in their last four meetings, and 9th in their last twelve? Even Brian Schmitz admitted that "maybe it's not a fluke."

The Magic have owned Cleveland of late. I'm not saying Orlando is going to sweep the series, but why are we so stunned that they won the first game? Did they not also beat Boston on the road in Game 1 of that series? I know it was 16 whole days earlier, but have we completely forgotten that the Magic have, umm, done this before?

As I tweeted to Tim:

@twstephens Why "Shock?" What else does this team need to prove? Why perpetrate the myth that this was somehow a fluke? 59 wins = ?

His reply:

@whitwatson I guess the shock of coming from 16 down against team unbeaten in playoffs and 39-2 at home on night LBJ scores 49 ...

Fair enough. However:

@twstephens Point well taken. BTW, Magic's road record (27-14) same as CLE and BOS. Home: 32-9. Again: "Shock?" Maybe they're just *good*.

(Didn't know that, did you? Same road record this year as both the Mighty Lebrons and The National Media's Favorite Team. Only 7 fewer wins at home than the impenetrable Cavs, and only 3 fewer home W's than the defending champs. BURN.)

Tim's answer:

@whitwatson Magic play better when people dis 'em ... :)

(Translation: I'm busy, TV boy. You made your point. Now go away so I can put a freaking newspaper to bed.)

Thus endeth our witty exchange. By the way, they went with "CAVS CLOCKED." Meh.

My suggestion last night: "CLEVELAND? ROCKED." You be the judge.

To repeat: follow @SunSportsFOXFL on Twitter for clues on how to pick up autographed swag and/or admission to Games 3 and 4 of the Magic-Cavs series.

Just don't be surprised if Orlando wins again. It's no shock.

Magic Numbers

2009-05-18T11:11:00.005-05:00

One sure way to know you've played a great game against the Boston Celtics: Bob Ryan admits it.

The Boston Globe's legendary columnist and media personality knows exactly what happened, and to his credit, doesn't tap-dance around the fact that the better team reached the Eastern Conference Finals: "[The Magic] richly deserve that honor after playing as sound and intelligent and skillful a game as a road team can play in a Game 7."

And this line stopped me cold: "You simply cannot overpraise the Magic for the way they played."

Wow. I think I'll leave it at that.

Except for this: the Magic were 5-2 in the regular season against the three other teams still standing in the NBA Playoffs (2-0 vs. the Lakers, 1-1 vs. the Nuggets, and 2-1 vs. Cleveland). That represents the best regular-season winning percentage within the group (.714 to the Lakers' .625).

Raw numbers: LA was 5-3 against the other three semifinalists, Denver was 2-6, and Cleveland was 3-4.

What does that mean in the Conference Finals? Not very much, probably.

Who had the best scoring defense in the NBA this season? Cleveland, at 91.3 points allowed per game.

Next best among the conference semifinalists? Yep: Orlando, 6th overall at 94.3 PPG allowed. The Lakers were 13th in the NBA in opponents' scoring (99.2 PPG allowed) and Denver was 19th (100.9 PPG).

Is that anything? Naaaaah. It's the playoffs.

One more: by the time Orlando and Cleveland play Game 1 on Wednesday, the Cavs will be about as rested as an NBA team can possibly get -- nine days since they completed their second-round sweep of Atlanta. During the regular season, the Cavaliers were 12-1 in games played on at least two days' rest, averaging 104.4 PPG in those 13 games.

Of course, Orlando only gets two days' rest before starting the Conference Finals. The Magic played 15 games this season with at least a two-day layoff.

Their record in those 15 games? 12-3, with a scoring average of 101.5 PPG.

But hey, it's the playoffs. I'm sure that means nothing.

Right?

Board Work

2009-05-15T10:24:00.009-05:00

I wonder what Tim Legler thinks now. For that matter, I'd like to get a reaction from my main man Mike Bianchi.

The former NBA player and the current Orlando Sentinel rabble-rouser were both among the chorus claiming that Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy's job was in jeopardy as a result of Dwight Howard's outburst of frustration after Game 5 of the Magic-Celtics series. In the video link above, Legler makes his case during the latter half of his 'SportsCenter' segment that Magic management would have to take a hard look at Van Gundy's position if the Magic lose this series. Dwight's outburst also gave unnecessary legs to Shaq's 'Master of Panic' comment, which has been in heavy rotation ever since the Philly series.

Van Gundy, who does not suffer fools gladly and honestly doesn't care what you think of him (trust me), has done little to diffuse any of the swirling storylines, which has made this a turbulent postseason for the Magic in terms of PR.

In the aftermath of Game 6, wherein Dwight Howard corralled 22 rebounds (10 offensive) to go with his 23 points, the prevailing storyline among the national and local media was something along the lines of "Dwight finally decided to be dominant." Read Bianchi's follow-up column from Friday morning or Ken Berger's piece at CBSSports.com and that's exactly what you get:

"I don't believe it was Van Gundy allowing Dwight to be dominant in Game 6; I think it was Dwight deciding he had to be dominant...It wasn't so much Van Gundy and the Magic making a more concerted effort to put the ball in Dwight's hands; it was Dwight making a more concerted to go get it." (Bianchi)

"This was about Howard, the most intimidating physical presence to enter the league since Shaquille O'Neal, finally deciding to act his size." (Berger)

Search for Magic-Celtics Game 6 stories on just about any news source you wish, and you'll find something to that effect -- that Dwight just made up his mind to go own the game.

Unless you happened to check the Boston Globe and Bob Ryan's column, which included this little nugget, a reference to a one-hour meeting between Howard and Van Gundy before the pivotal Game 6:

"Van Gundy had a big heart-to-heart with his franchise player, during which he was able to produce a tape showing Howard just how many times he had gotten the ball in this series and what he had done with it after he got it. It was rather humbling. Howard may not have been worth throwing to, given that he really has no go-to move whatsoever...Once Howard understood his limitations, he began focusing on his strengths and one of his great strengths is his strength, if you know what I mean."

Ken Berger mentions this in passing in his article: "...Van Gundy stubbornly [stuck] by his premise that Howard didn't need more touches. He needed to try harder, defend better, rebound more fiercely, and use his unrivaled gifts of size and athleticism to get the results he wanted."

This is a critical piece of information in relation to Van Gundy's coaching acumen, and yes, even his job security. Curious, then, that no Orlando media outlet chose to run with it.

According to ESPN's Lisa Salters, who reported it via telephone on 'SportsCenter' prior to Game 6, the Van Gundy-Howard meeting included not only video of Game 5, but a whiteboard filled top-to-bottom with Van Gundy's handwritten analysis -- shot charts, details of each possession, and most importantly, the number of touches Dwight received in Game 5 and the results of each. It was as if Van Gundy were preparing for trial. All of the evidence was assembled, according to the ESPN report.

So imagine you're Dwight Howard. You've just ripped your head coach in front of the national media, and as expected, you've been called into the principal's office. But instead of a lecture or a screamfest, you end up with a DVD of every possession and a handwritten transcript of the game in question, all right there in black and white.

One can imagine Van Gundy's killer closing argument: "There it is, Dwight. Show me on that board where I'm wrong."

No confrontation, no embarrassment, no retaliation for Dwight's public flogging. Just the facts. A detached, emotionless transcript of what happened in the game -- "here are your touches, and here are the results." Van Gundy didn't just 'stubbornly stick to his premise,' he proved a theorem. Dwight didn't just "decide" to dominate -- he was presented with the facts of the case, and they were inscrutable.

And the result?

23 points, 22 rebounds, a season-saving victory, and a contrite franchise player who now appears to get it: "I guess that's my biggest lesson. Keep my mouth shut and admit when I was wrong."

If Orlando goes on to win this series, somebody -- Tim Legler, Mike Bianchi, Ken Berger, Bob Ryan, somebody -- had damn well better write a column lauding Van Gundy as a genius for the way he handled the Howard situation. Because if the Magic advance beyond Boston, it will be as a direct result of that meeting, and the preparation that Van Gundy devoted to the task of getting his star player back on board. What price, I wonder, can we place on the trust that Van Gundy gained from Howard now that Dwight has seen the results of Van Gundy's due diligence?

It's a players' league, as Van Gundy has said many times before. A head coach gets too much credit for wins and takes too much blame for losses (another Van Gundy favorite). That's the gig, and if you don't like it, there's always a dozen guys lining up behind you to fight for the spot.

Criticize a head coach when he fails, if you wish; it's also part of the gig. But give him some credit when he succeeds. And that Game 6 win rests as much on Stan Van Gundy's whiteboard as it does on Dwight Howard's biceps.

On The Edge

2009-05-13T10:51:00.003-05:00

My main man Mike Bianchi beat me to the punch. Sorta.

In the aftermath of the Magic's painfully predictable choke job in Game 5 against Boston on Tuesday night, Bianchi theorizes that had Jameer Nelson been healthy, none of this would have happened.

"Where's their heart?" Mike wonders. "Where's their toughness?" He points to Nelson, out for half the season with a torn labrum, for a reply.

I agree with Mike to a point. Nelson is the one guy on the Magic roster other than Turkoglu who can manufacture himself a shot under pressure -- although I assign a serious caveat to that statement, as Turk's big shots tend to come from beyond the arc, where the risk often outweighs the reward (i.e., long rebounds that the Magic never seem prepared to corral). That said, I don't know that Nelson's healthy presence on the floor would have been enough to stave off Boston's comeback on Tuesday night.

Instead, Mike's column, and the comments from Sentinel readers that followed it, point to a much bigger issue with the Magic -- a general lack of toughness, or focus, or whatever you want to call it.

An edge. Let's go with that. This team is not edgy. And in the postseason, edge wins.

With 5:35 to go, Orlando was up by ten. Watching at home, I think I shared the sentiments of most loyal Magic viewers when I thought to myself: crap, here we go again.

Sure enough, 11-0 run from Boston. Now, even then, the game isn't over -- a 1-point margin with 1:20 left is nothing. But judging by the body language of the Magic players, well, they were cooked.

Is that lack of toughness? Maybe. But you could also call it a missing "edge," a sharpness of focus and we're-not-losing-this-game-dammit that every other serious NBA contender seems to possess. A desire -- no, wait, an instinct -- to absolutely step on their throats and not let up until the echo of the final buzzer. Great playoff teams are built on that mentality. It's not optional.

There are a few guys on the Magic roster who have it: Redick, Pietrus, even the rookie Courtney Lee. Fearless, all of them. Willing to leave it all on the floor. But none of those players are your go-to guy, or even a second or third option.

Boston? They're a lesson in edgy: Pierce, Allen, Rondo, and now even House, Scalabrine, and the newly reborn Big Baby (who has probably grown up as a player more in the last two weeks than he has in his entire basketball career). The first three players on that list are guys you could theoretically give the ball to in the final seconds and feel good about your chances. The last three are players who have proven in this postseason that they can heat up enough, or make enough key plays, to save a ballgame.

Where are those guys for Orlando? And whose job is it to draw it out?

Dwight Howard called out his head coach, leading Bianchi to conclude that not only is it Van Gundy's job to discover that edge, but that Howard's comments mean Van Gundy's tenure in Orlando is now shaky. And seeing as how this is a "players' league," as Stan himself has said many times before, Bianchi may be right.

Sorta.

Yes, Van Gundy is calling the plays, and yes, he's making the substitutions (the two areas where Howard had the biggest gripe), but isn't it the players' job to play? Who, exactly, is Stan Van Gundy guarding out there? How many wide open shots did he miss on Tuesday? Van Gundy isn't immune to criticism, but he's also not responsible for guarding Eddie House. Just sayin'.

Our editor, Mike Wargo, just walked into my cubicle and laid this one down on me: if the Magic win the Boston series, they have A. reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in over a decade, B. knocked off the defending World Champions in the process, C. come back from a handful of truly dreadful and deflating postseason performances to do it, and D. captured the attention of the entire league. Even if they go on to lose to Cleveland, there's hardly any shame in that (see: James, Lebron), and the season can be considered a success.

If they lose tomorrow night, the entire season is a disappointment, a 59-win mirage rendered meaningless by a lackluster postseason. There's really no in-between.

Good stuff, this NBA. No pressure, fellas.

Rays, Magic, and Records

2009-05-12T18:52:00.002-05:00

Are we rowing out to a sinking ship?

We'll find out soon enough.

As I recently mentioned in this space, Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida are about to unleash a hard push to convince you to follow us on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook. The benefits of same are TBD; I did find (via Twitter) at least one media professional who is convinced that we're onto the Next Big Thing. My jury is still out.

Anyway, I've been in meetings this week discussing Twitter; we're about to shoot a short feature that explains how to follow us or be our fan on Facebook (it'll run during Marlins and Rays pregame shows on Sun Sports and/or Fox Sports Florida). By the way, there's also NBA playoff basketball going on, and Evan Longoria just played about as perfect a month of baseball as is humanly possible.

With Game 5 of the Magic-Celtics starting as I write this, I'll save the hoops commentary for a while...save for this:

--The fact that Rajon Rondo and Eddie House both remained on their feet throughout Game 2 of this series was very, very disappointing. Or, put another way: someone in a blue shirt needed to put one or both of those guys on their ass, and it didn't happen. Rashard Lewis, who has otherwise been a revelation in this postseason, should have been fined for allowing Rondo that dunk.

Seriously, that's been bothering me. If Orlando loses this series, I think I'll deem Game 2 the tipping point -- not just for the Rondo dunk, but because the Magic curled up in a ball and let that game happen.

Pick a championship team from the last 20 years -- the Bulls with Jordan, the Spurs with Duncan, the Lakers with Kobe, anybody. Do any of those teams allow themselves to be embarrassed like that without sending a hard-foul message on the other end? Never.

The Big Baby Davis thing bothers me much less. The Magic forced Boston into the shot Orlando wanted, and had the Magic been a shade better than 5 for 27 (!) from three-point range, that final possession would have been irrelevant. That game was lost way before the chubby guy made an open jumper and (didn't) knock over a kid in the front row.

And just for fun, how about Evan Longoria's stats after his first 31 games: 44 hits in 123 at-bats (.358 batting average), 11 homers, 27 runs, 44 RBI, 92 total bases, a slugging percentage of .748 (!). That's ridiculous.

He's missed a couple of games this year, and is unlikely to play every day all season long, so let's say he plays in 150 this season. At his current pace, Longo would finish the year with 212 RBI -- and that's in 150 games. The more he plays, the better his odds of driving in a few more runs.

The single-season MLB record for runs batted in? 191. Hack Wilson, 1930. Just sayin'.

See you on TV.

Whither Twitter?

2009-05-06T11:10:00.005-05:00

Well, the end is near, apparently.

In a recent column for Advertising Age, Simon Dumenco predicts the coming nothingness of Twitter, Facebook, and their ilk. Seeing as how my employers at Fox (and just about every other media outlet on Earth) are currently chest-deep in various and sundry 'social networking' action plans, this is a bit disturbing.

Dumenco's central argument, by the way, is one that I happen to agree with completely: the whiz kids behind Twitter and Facebook launched their killer apps before performing the necessary due diligence that might result in workable business plans. Or, as I wondered out loud the very first time I saw Twitter: "How are they going to make any money at this?"

For Fox Sports Florida, Sun Sports, or any other business, the benefit of a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page is pretty obvious -- it's low-cost advertising, and a perfect method of engaging your audience. You invest time and energy (which have a monetary value, but negligible) to update your page, provide some compelling content, and hope to attract followers/fans who might turn into viewers/customers. Simple.

The challenge for Twitter and Facebook, as Dumenco so eloquently explains, is figuring out how to monetize those sites -- or how to gain revenue from users, as opposed to users potentially gaining revenue through them.

One of my Cornell classmates -- who I stay in touch with via Facebook, oddly enough -- is a very successful entrepreneur. MBA from the Sloan School at MIT, experience in a variety of startups, she's been there and done that. Once, in a speech to students back at Cornell, she pointed out that nine times out of ten, when the founders of a startup are asked "why are you doing this?", the answer is something along the lines of "because I created this really cool technology." Her argument -- one that Dumenco would probably agree with -- is that the "why" should be "to make money." In other words, create long-term value. Viability has to come first, or at least within the top three -- otherwise, it's not a business, just a neat idea.

Twitter and Facebook -- like Mark Cuban's old Broadcast.com, like YouTube, like Lord knows how many other Internet flavors-of-the-month -- strike many as "cool technologies" that were created with the intent of someday being sold, the dot-com model of the late '90s that produced the infamous 'bubble.' Critics like Dumenco argue that there's no obvious long-term value, no consistent revenue stream, and little flexibility to adapt to changing markets. That's fine for those who started the business -- Cuban did fairly well for himself when Broadcast.com was sold to Yahoo in '99 for $5.7 billion -- but what about the business itself?

Without a workable business plan, the "cool technology" becomes a paper tiger. There's no inherent value in it. It's just "cool."

(BTW: Rumor has it that Apple is in negotiations to buy Twitter for $700 mil in cash. Again, the Twitter guys will do fine, but what will that do for the site itself? Clearly, Apple wouldn't do the deal without a plan...would Twitter become closed to those without iPhones? They're gonna want return on investment somehow. As my buddy Drew likes to say, "someone must pay." With him, usually on the golf course. I'm digressing again.)

I lack an MBA, but I'm very much in touch with my Common Sense side, so let's break it down: Facebook offers the possibility of micro-targeting advertising messages at users based on their activity on the site -- for example, if I list myself as a member of the Orlando network, I might see an ad for a Central Florida-based product or service on my front page the next time I log in. Fine. In the long term, that might work, and it might not, depending upon a number of factors, including the speed with which Facebook keeps up with me and the gazillion other users who sign on every day, the accuracy of the message, and my motivation to act upon it.

But with Twitter, I just couldn't see it. Dumenco explains this more eloquently than I, but the bottom line is, there's no bottom line. Short of charging users to post, selling ads on the site, or some other fee-based plan, there's no way that Twitter can turn a profit under current circumstances. It's the Internet equivalent of the Orlando/Miami condo boom: where is the money gonna come from?

So let me throw this out: if we were asking you to follow Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida on Twitter, what would motivate you to sign up? And further, what value can a business provide via this particular app that would compel you to STAY with Twitter if (and when) their business model changes? Because it seems like that day is coming, and when it does, Twitter will see a drop in traffic that could politely be termed "dramatic."

We're all accustomed to getting it for free, myself included. So, just in case -- what could Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida deliver via Twitter that would compel you to stick around?

In the weeks to come, you're going to see and hear us asking viewers for feedback on what kind of content they'd like to see on the Sun Sports / Fox Sports Florida Twitter page. I'm simply taking the next step beyond that question -- if you learned that using Twitter meant incurring a cost, what could our networks provide that would still satisfy you? It may not happen soon, but it's clearly on the radar. I'm curious as to what our viewing audience feels about the value of the Twitter/Facebook approach.

Comments or questions are welcomed.

Marcin On To The Second Round

2009-05-01T10:41:00.004-05:00

Last night, while driving home from St. Petersburg after the Rays punk'd Boston in the opener of their four-game series, I was listening to game six of the Magic-Sixers series on XM when Philly radio announcer Tom McGinnis casually mentioned that Marcin Gortat was in a contract year. Seeing as how Gortat had just recorded an 11-point, 15-rebound performance in place of the suspended Dwight Howard, my first thought was this: "Great. Now there's NO WAY he comes back to Orlando."

After twenty years in the business, this is where I've arrived -- unable to enjoy the most improbable win of the 2009 NBA Playoffs because I realize that one outstanding performance has just guaranteed that some desperate GM is about to throw stupid money at Orlando's backup center. It'll happen, too. Sigh.

Gortat's breakout performance was only one of about a hundred storylines from that game. There was JJ Redick, who at times this season appeared to be the most miserable human being in Orlando, firing away for 15 points and -- who knows -- perhaps lifting the Eeyore-like rain cloud that's been following him all year.

There was Rafer Alston's 10-assist, 1-turnover night, the final touch on a masterful series for Skip To My Lou: six games, 33 minutes per night, an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.14 -- 9th-best in the NBA this postseason.

Regardless of where the Magic end up this season, Rafer Alston will not get the credit he deserves. All he did was leave a team (Houston) that he loved, step into a locker room where the chemistry and pecking order was already established, replace an All-Star in the starting lineup, fit in beautifully, keep all the shooters happy, and put up great numbers while leading his new squad to a series win. It's not supposed to be that easy, folks. It's just not.

There was Rashard Lewis, who, if the Orlando print media had anything to do with it, should legally change his name to Rashard Lewis And His Six-Year, $118 Million Contract (it's in there. It's always in there. Scroll halfway down). This is a player who is always the first to arrive on game day, showing up a good thirty minutes ahead of everyone else in accordance with a pregame ritual that he learned in Seattle from Ray Allen (who you might notice is also having a fairly decent postseason). Lewis, the Quiet Man, flat-out put the Magic on his back. Yes, he scored 29, but it was more than that -- as Brian Schmitz noted before getting to the really important stuff about the Six-Year, $118 Million Contract: "Lewis buggy-whipped his team like a 6-foot-10 jockey."

Indeed, he did. With Dwight Howard Tweeting away in a hotel room and Hedo Turkoglu coming unglued late in the ballgame, Lewis just went about his business and won the damn game. It may not fully justify the Six-Year, $118 Million Contract, but perhaps it gives you a better idea as to why the Magic wanted him in the first place.

And then, there's Gortat. The Polish Hammer. The Warlock (one of my personal favorites). A 25-year-old former second-round pick who didn't play his first NBA game until last March. Averaged 4 points and 4.5 rebounds in 12 minutes per game this season. All HE does is pull 15 rebounds in the biggest game of his professional life so far, just a few weeks before his Magic contract is up.

Remember Jerry Maguire catching the eye of Arizona Cardinals GM Dennis Wilburn in the hallway after Rod Tidwell's breakout performance on Monday Night Football? Jerry points at the GM and mouths the words "you are gonna pay." Wilburn, played by singer Glenn Frey, shakes his head and replies, "I know, I know."

After the game on Thursday, I texted a member of the Magic's traveling party with comments to that effect -- "Has the Polish Hammer just priced himself out of Magicland forever?" -- and, well, there was no argument.

Otis Smith, meet Dennis Wilburn.

I can't wrap this up without a special word of thanks to Sixers GM Ed Stefanski, head coach Tony DiLeo, and especially the Sixers TV crew at Comcast SportsNet for relentlessly banging the "suspend Dwight" drum during and after Game 5. Not that they were wrong -- as I told Brigham Avery and Ricky Reynolds on Tampa's CBS Radio 1010 the following morning, I watched the same video as everyone else and agreed that Dwight earned the suspension per the NBA rulebook -- but the rising chorus from the Philly contingent not only prompted some of the most entertaining Stan Van Gundy press conference sound of the year, it was also a clear and obvious factor in motivating the non-Dwights to shove it down their throats in Game 6. I suppose the lesson is to be careful what you wish for, no?

My friend Mike Freeman has already written off the Magic as far as the Eastern Conference Finals are concerned, but that's okay (and I'm not being facetious -- I happen to think Mike is a daring and talented writer, and he's dead-on in his comments about knuckleheadedness, which Turk displayed in spades in the 4th quarter on Thursday). Yes, this team is talented, but yes, they cannot afford brain cramps against better teams than Philadelphia. By all rights, this series should have gone 5 games, max. The Magic should have had at least a few more days of rest before tangling with whoever shall remain standing after Boston and Chicago finally get done killing each other. All of that is true, but all that matters right now is wins and losses.

And that was one memorable win for Orlando, for a variety of reasons.

Weight Of The World

2009-04-24T11:16:00.005-05:00

Just in case anyone is scoring at home:

First, I signed up for my own Twitter page.

Next thing you know, Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida has its own Twitter page.

So now I'm supposed to double-Tweet?

I did, on Wednesday night, during game two of the Magic-Sixers series. Fox has jumped into the Twitter-Facebook-social media world with both feet, asking all of the regional networks to figure out how to utilize these outlets to engage fans.

Interesting note about Wednesday -- I was "signing" all of my SunSportsFOXFL tweets with "@whitwatson," which allowed people to know who was doing the posting and direct them to my personal feed as well.

With zero advance promotion, one or two mentions on-air during the Magic Live pregame show, and one pretty funny segment during the game in which David Steele and Matt Guokas admitted that they pretty much had no clue what I was doing, our Twitter traffic jumped noticably -- about 50 new followers for the SunSportsFOXFL page, and about 25 new followers for me, all during the game telecast.

Okay, I'm sold. But what do we DO with it?

That's the question, and the answer is: stand by. We're still trying to figure that out.

As for tonight's Game 3 -- was anyone else a little curious about Stan Van Gundy's comment after Game 2 that some of his players "look like they have the weight of the world on them"?

Stan made that comment in comparison to his rookie, Courtney Lee, who scored a career-high 24 on Wednesday and played, in Stan's words, "freer and looser." I was surprised that there wasn't more follow-up to that comment in the press room that night.

Why would a rookie be playing "freer and looser" than a group of veterans? Or, more to the point, why would most of Van Gundy's players appear to have "the weight of the world on them?"

I can guess at one of Stan's possible answers -- the veteran players are tight because of all the hype and expectations placed upon them by us dimwitted media types.

You should have heard him at the end of practice on Tuesday. He was in rare form when it came to teeing off on the local media. Nothing malicious, mostly good fun with guys like Mike Bianchi, and it was all off-the-record stuff after the TV cameras had departed, but it was certainly a hint as to Stan's true feelings about the press.

And "press" is exactly what the Magic players, minus Lee, are doing right now. Pressing. Trying too hard. Playing with the weight of the world on them. We can only speculate as to why, but is it possible that it has something to do with Van Gundy's high-wire act on the sideline?

Shaquille O'Neal called it "panic," a word that was repeated in a Polish newspaper by Marcin Gortat, but those are both sketchy sources. For one, it's likely that there was something lost in translation (literally) from Gortat's interview, although he didn't deny the comment. For another, Shaq has a history of napalming bridges once he leaves a team -- he did it in Orlando, did it in LA, did it in Miami (where a lot of people who once worshipped him now refer to him as a "fraud," and that's a direct quote), and will assuredly do it once he leaves Phoenix, which might be sooner than you think.

As Van Gundy himself said back in March, "He's taken shots at [Hall of Famers] Phil Jackson and Pat Riley, so maybe I should consider it an honor." In other words, getting ripped by O'Neal doesn't exactly place one in exclusive company. And for a guy who adopts a different nickname every other Thursday and claims to be working towards A. taking over as Orange County Sheriff and/or B. preparing to purchase the Orlando Magic -- in between naked walks on the beach, something he promised he would do when he came to Miami -- well, Shaq's about as reliable as your 401(k) right now. If he were 5-9 instead of 7 feet, he'd be your screwball co-worker who's got a new hobby every week and is at this very moment trying to sell you MonaVie.

(As an aside, once Shaq leaves Phoenix for his fifth NBA team -- and you better believe it's going to happen -- will he secure the record for Most Teams Played For By A Hall Of Famer? I mean, he's first-ballot Springfield, we all know that, but is there any player already enshrined who played for as many teams as Shaq will have played for? Can someone look this up?)

Anyway, neither Shaq nor Gortat are reliable sources, so let's drop the "panic" angle for the moment. Is it fair to say that Van Gundy, who admittedly treats every possession like his last and has been publicly critical of both his players and his own coaching ability (I've been holding the microphone when he said "I'm doing a terrible job"), has begun to wear on his players? Are they playing tight because they know he's three seconds from ripping them a new one on the sideline? Watch him during a game -- nobody gets disgusted faster than Stan Van Gundy. Is it possible that the vapor-lock demonstrated by most of the Magic players in Games 1 and 2 is somehow connected to SVG's now-elevated-because-it's-the-playoffs intensity?

Again, just asking if it's possible. I can't believe that nobody in that press room on Wednesday had the temerity to try that angle.

It would have been a great question, too, because one thing about Stan -- he would have answered it, and honestly. Like I said, the man isn't afraid to weigh in on himself. If he believed that his behavior had anything to do with the Magic's performance, he would have said so. And it would have been wildly entertaining. But more to the point, it might have broken the ice, and freed up those very players who are currently struggling to find a shot.

Then again, it may simply be that the Magic are slumping at a bad time. But it was worth the question, Shaq's opinion notwithstanding.

One final note -- if the Magic had known that Courtney Lee would turn out to be this good, is there any way that Mickael Pietrus gets a $25 million contract in Orlando?

Let me answer that: no.

I went back and looked up the Magic's draft history. You may insert your own joke here.

No, seriously. As far as lottery picks go, the team has done quite well for itself: JJ Redick, Fran Vazquez (meh), Dwight Howard, Keyon Dooling, Mike Miller, Chris Webber (traded for Penny Hardaway and three number-one picks, utterly brilliant and I will argue this to the death), Shaq, Brian Williams (double meh), Dennis Scott, and Nick Anderson. Some misses, but nothing to be ashamed of as far as lottery picks go.

But players taken by the Magic outside the lottery? Well, you can't count Jameer Nelson (20th overall in 2004), because he was drafted by the Nuggets and traded to Orlando. No, we're well into the Jeryl Sasser - Ryan Humphrey - Reece Gaines conversation now, which has been beaten to death. Short version: their history outside the lottery is not good.

(Personally, I love the '94-'97 run: Brooks Thompson, David Vaughn, Brian Evans, and Johnny Taylor. Mmmmm, tasty. Who'd they miss on in each of those seasons? Not much, it turns out. They could have had Othella Harrington or Malik Rose in '96; Scot Pollard was still out there in '97. '94 and '95 were pretty dreck-y after the Magic picked.)

Point being, "Courtney Lee at 22" may turn out to be just as crucial for the long-term future of the Magic as "Nelson at 20" has been. This kid can play. As I said during the postgame show on Sun Sports on Wednesday night: who would have thought when this series began that Sixers head coach Tony Dileo would be saying after Game 2, "We have to pay more attention to Courtney Lee?"

Enjoy the Magic-Sixers series on Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida, and I'll see you on TV. And Twitter. And Facebook.

Orlando To St. Pete To Orlando

2009-04-16T18:29:00.011-05:00

Blogging from the home of the Rays, Tropicana Field in St. Pete, where I am filling in for Todd Kalas on Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida broadcasts. Always fun to come work these games, but the circumstances -- the passing of Todd's father, legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas -- are far from ideal.

Game tonight (Thursday) after two games on Monday and Tuesday for me; I am off tomorrow and then back here Saturday and Sunday. The crowd tonight is a fraction of what it was earlier this week for the home openers against the Yankees. I sincerely hope the Rays can pull in a few more warm bodies this season; they deserve it.

These random thoughts are in no particular order:

Does anyone REALLY believe that Isiah Thomas will last more than one season as the head coach at FIU?

Look, I admire what he's doing. By accepting this job and donating his first year's salary, he's laying himself bare to the basketball world: "This is my last shot to prove I'm a remotely competent coach/administrator/leader, and I know it." You don't take that job because you dream of winning the Sun Belt; you take that job to set yourself up for the next one.

But as I've written in this space before, Thomas the coach/administrator/leader has never, not once, left a situation better than he found it. Not the Contintental Basketball Association, not the Toronto Raptors, not the Indiana Pacers, not the New York Knicks. Everything that Thomas has touched since he retired as a player, he's either killed or come close to it. He must be one hell of an interviewee, because his resume' is a path of destruction.

That said, I'd love to see him make it at FIU, if (and only if) it proves he's learned the concept of humility. America loves a story of redemption; Isiah Thomas enjoying enough success at Florida International University to land a gig somewhere else -- dare I say Indiana? -- would be about as good as it gets.

But only if he finally 'gets it' in the process.

BTW, I just interviewed Senator Connie Mack in the stands tonight...he and his wife Priscilla are both cancer survivors, and are heavily involved with the Miles For Moffitt road race in Tampa on May 9th. If you're reading this in the bay area, go sign up. Proceeds benefit the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, good things, positive vibe, etcetera.

I have the drive from Orlando to St. Pete memorized now. Ever notice how a long drive seems shorter the more often you make it, up to a point, and then the roller-coaster gently creeps over the peak and said drive turns into Slog City? I'm not at the peak yet. But the track is going click-click-click-click.

I'll be here a lot this summer, working pregame and postgame shows for the Rays as well as shooting episodes of "Inside The Rays," which is a new assignment for me this year. So far, I've enjoyed it immensely. This club is a fun bunch to work with; they're solid people. Great ownership and smart baseball minds.

That said, the NBA Playoffs are getting underway, and I've got the Magic to think about. Sun Sports is televising at least the first four games of the Philly series, possibly as many as six games. Orlando should waste the Sixers; personally, I think the Magic have been laying the weeds for the last couple of weeks, Stan's postgame tirades notwithstanding. To me, it feels like a setup -- the Magic have been overplaying the "nobody respects us" card all season long, and their little swoon in April hasn't exactly struck fear into anybody. I like the fact that players are ticked off at the lack of attention; turn that into defense, and you've got yourself a ticket to at least the conference finals.

Of course, Garnett being out doesn't suck, either. Then again, I've felt all season that Cleveland was the team to worry about, not Boston.

Okay, better go watch some ball. See you on TV -- a lot.

It's Official

2009-04-06T09:47:00.004-05:00

Pretty fascinating exchange going on over at Mike Bianchi's blog, where the Orlando Sentinel columnist is still fielding responses to a piece he wrote on Sunday regarding college basketball versus the NBA.

Mike makes a pretty good argument that the NBA game is a better sport than the college game; having spent the better part of 20 years covering both, I tend to agree. NBA players run faster than college players, jump higher, can catch the ball better, make sharper passes, can get themselves out of trouble at a much better rate, and can make mid-range jump shots. In my view, most of that is a simple matter of age and experience; despite the lamentations about early entry into the NBA Draft, professional players are older and vastly more experienced than college players -- remember, the NBA season is twice as long as the college season, and that means a lot more reps -- and have therefore learned how to maximize their skills. Plus, as one of Mike's readers astutely points out, there are 30 NBA teams with a dozen active roster spots each, while college basketball, at all levels, encompasses hundreds of teams and thousands of players. Obviously, the pool of talent has been pared down, with only the strongest players surviving.

I once asked former Magic GM John Gabriel to identify the first thing he looked for when scouting a college player. His answer: "A baseline of athleticism." In other words, there's a minimum that has to be met before any player can be considered for the pros, regardless of his size, attitude, or particular skill set. He's either good enough or he's not. In my opinion, that makes for a better game on the floor.

If I want to see fans doing funny stuff and kids playing with heart, I'll watch a college game. If, however, I want to see basketball played at its highest level, I'll watch the NBA.

Some of Mike's readers express their affinity for the emotional aspect of college hoops (the "heart") versus the perceived lack of same in the pros, and I won't deny them that stance, although I've been around the NBA long enough to know that there are plenty of professional players who leave their guts on the floor every night (and that list includes star players like Kobe, Lebron, Wade, and Dwight). For that matter, there are guys who dog it in the college game, too. What's more disturbing, although not surprising, are those who still cling to the "thug image" of the NBA. The racial undertone to that sentiment is so obvious, I'm not even sure how to address it. We'd like to think we've progressed on that front, but it's pretty obvious we still have a long way to go.

One point that does bear more attention, however, is the nature of officiating in the NBA. I've never been a "blame the refs" guy, and I know that Bill Simmons at ESPN.com has been all over this topic for a long time, but in covering the Magic and the Heat this season, I cannot escape the fact that NBA officiating has become a completely arbitrary and subjective process. Note that I do not write "they're atrocious," because it's not a question of good or bad. Rather, it's become something that coaches and players have to account for in game planning -- who's calling the game tonight? -- because outcomes of games are unquestionably being decided by judgment calls on the part of the officials. I know, I know, hardly groundbreaking news, but I never paid much attention to it until this season.

Two recent Magic games jump to mind -- the road game at Cleveland on March 17th, and the road game at Miami on March 30th. One was a Magic loss, the other a Magic win, so don't think I'm making excuses for losses. In these two games, Courtney Lee (a rookie) picked up crucial fouls in the closing moments while trying to guard Lebron James and Dwyane Wade (superstars). In fact, Lee fouled out of the Miami game, picking up his 6th with 43 seconds to play, sending Wade to the line for two shots that could have made it a one-possession game (Wade would split the pair). Wade finished the game with 42 points on 10-13 shooting at the free throw line, while no other Miami player attempted more than 5 free throws (in fact, only two other Heat players got to the line at all).

In that Cleveland game earlier in the month, Lebron James went to the line 10 times and made 9, while no other Cavalier attempted more than 2 free throws all night. The Magic, as a team, attempted 13 foul shots in a 4-point loss.

These are two examples of the obvious disparity that every NBA fan recognizes: star players get calls. It happens every night, in every game, every year. Are the referees "bad," or are they simply advancing a system that's become ingrained in professional basketball? And what does it mean for guys like Lee, who is a pretty good on-the-ball defender? Will his reputation grow as a defensive stopper, thereby earning him some leeway down the road, or will he become another Jeff Turner -- a guy who got no respect from referees, regardless of whether or not he actually committed a foul?

(By the way, JT still holds the Magic team record for career disqualifications. Having seen just about every game he played from 1993 through 1997 while I was working in the Magic's broadcasting department, I can assure you he wasn't that bad of a defender.)

The NBA's star treatment is what really galls most sports fans who rage against the league. Theoretically, referees should simply administer the rulebook; in reality, certain players "get calls" while others don't, referees issue "make-up calls" to level the playing field after they miss one, and players with reputations as good defenders (Bruce Bowen, Ben Wallace in his day) are allowed to maul ballhandlers without cost. That, I think, is what turns off fans the most. And like I said, I never really paid much attention to it until this season, when the inconsistencies have become ridiculous. Not sure what can be done about it, but if there is an Achilles heel to the NBA, that's it.

That said, the basketball is much better in the pros.

That Was The Week That Was

2009-04-03T10:41:00.005-05:00

SUNDAY: Arrive on cargo side of Orlando International Airport at 2:40pm for 3pm departure on Magic team charter to Miami. There's our Northwest Airlines-branded chariot, gassed up and ready to go; one need only to park the car next to the Magic's hangar, get wanded and bag-searched by charter service's security detail, and march up the old-school steel staircase into the belly of the plane. Total time, from slamming of trunk to sitting in seat: 10 minutes. Take that, CLEAR card!

Hotel for the Miami trip is the Four Seasons on Brickell, which is okay if you like stunningly gorgeous hotels with breathtaking views of Key Biscayne. Out for dinner that night with my buddy Carlos, a high school friend who has built a very successful OB-GYN practice in South Florida; so successful, in fact, that not only does he deliver a baby shortly before we meet for dinner at Garcia's, he zips back to Mercy Hospital and delivers another one in between dinner and drinks. Seriously. We had just arrived at a local sports bar to say hello to the rest of the Magic broadcast crew when Carlos got the phone call; he was back at our table before anyone had finished dessert. David Steele, Matt Guokas, and the rest of the crew were very impressed. Having known Carlos since we were in 7th grade, I'm still stunned that anyone actually granted this kid a medical license, but that's another story entirely.

MONDAY: Game day. I get up early and head for the health club on the 4th floor of the Four Seasons for a 7:45am power yoga class that doesn't start until nearly 8, thanks to the late arrival of our instructor, who appears to have stepped off the pages of a fitness magazine. She has the demeanor of a drill sergeant and the flexibility of Gumby. I will feel pain tomorrow.

Sun Sports TV crew meets at a local breakfast joint off Brickell to discuss that night's broadcast, with special attention paid to the fact that our halftime will be extended due to a jersey retirement ceremony for Alonzo Mourning. We're told that instead of the NBA-standard 14 minutes, the Heat have petitioned for 24. Nobody believes we'll stick to that number. I retire to the hotel room to write the pregame show, which takes me a couple of hours (jotting notes by hand onto a format provided by the pregame show producer, using my laptop to dig up research). Given the view out the window and the early arrival of my yoga-induced soreness, I decide that hanging out in the hotel room is pretty much going to be the agenda until the bus rolls for American Airlines Arena.

Arrive at Triple-A shortly after 5pm and scope out my press seat, which is two rows off the floor and right next to the Magic bench -- pretty much grade-A real estate for a sideline reporter. Say hello to Eric Reid, Tony Fiorentino, and Jason Jackson, the Sun Sports crew in Miami. The over-under on 'Zo's halftime has now been set at 30 minutes. I'm taking the over.

And I was right. 43 minutes from start to finish, with speeches from Pat Riley, John Thompson, Patrick Ewing, Governor Charlie Crist (greeted with a smattering of boos, oddly enough), and Alonzo himself, who turns the whole thing into a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech. Stan Van Gundy is livid about the delay. From the locker room, he keeps asking Magic PR Director George Galante to provide updates on how long it's taking; George has entrusted the Sun Sports production truck to keep a running clock. I'm serving as messenger. We hit the final number of 43 minutes. Both teams are looking tight and anxious. What a delightful decision to do this at halftime as opposed to before or after the game.

One note on the game itself: Dwyane Wade has officially surpassed Kobe Bryant and Lebron James as the most-respected player in the league among NBA officials. Courtney Lee fouls out trying to check Wade, who goes for more than 40 while getting every call imaginable. I hate to sound like a Kool-Aid drinker -- and remember, Sun Sports is the home of the Magic AND the Heat, so I've got two dogs in this fight -- but Wade's treatment is laughable. Honestly, it's a joke. You can pick up two quick ones just for looking at him cross-eyed. Breathing on him would probably cost you two shots and the ball. It was one of those nights that gives credence to the conspiracy theorists who claim that the refs fouled Dallas out of an NBA title in 2006. Yet, Miami loses, because they have absolutely nothing behind Wade, while Orlando gets big plays from Rashard, Dwight, and Turk in the final minutes. That's called depth.

Highlight of the flight back to Orlando: Dwight Howard gets on the PA and launches into one of his infamous comedy routines, delivering impersonations of former Magic player Brian Cook (spot-on), Van Gundy (not as good as I had been told), and Magic owner Rich DeVos (hilarious). Biggest laugh from the traveling party comes when Howard, as Van Gundy, notes that Wade is averaging 60 points a game this season against the rookie Lee (not quite, but close enough). When your superduperstar franchise player skewers you in front of the team, you've gained acceptance, and it's pretty cool to see how Lee has become an integral part of this team. He's worked for it, and he's earned it.

The flight back to Orlando takes about 35 minutes, which is actually shorter than 'Zo's halftime ceremony. I mention this to Van Gundy as we depart the hangar, and he agrees enthusiastically. Having done my part to give the man a chuckle, I climb behind the wheel and head for home.

TUESDAY: Sleep late. Roll into downtown office around lunchtime to record some voice-over for an upcoming Tampa Bay Rays feature (see how quickly I did that? NBA to MLB. Boom.) Return home, pack up the car, and get on I-4, heading west to St. Pete, where I have to stop by the Rays' offices to get my photo taken for a season credential (they've warned me that trying to get this done any closer to their home opener on April 13th would be sketchy at best). From there, it's across the Sunshine Skyway bridge to Sarasota, where I will catch up with Mrs. Watson and the kids at the in-laws' house, where they have been visiting for the last couple of days. 6am wake-up the next morning in order to make it to Port Charlotte by 8am, where we are scheduled to interview Evan Longoria and Scott Kazmir for upcoming Rays productions. Wasn't I just doing a basketball game?

WEDNESDAY: Damn, I hate waking up early. South on I-75 to Port Charlotte, the new home of Rays spring training. The facility there is pretty terrific -- six fields plus a practice infield, weight rooms, meeting rooms, kids' play areas, a 'party deck' beyond the outfield fence complete with tiki-hut concession stands, all brightly painted in the Rays' blue-and-gold color scheme, gleaming and ready for a new season. All of the Rays' minor leaguers are in camp with the big club, so there are dozens upon dozens of young men taking cuts in the cages, working out on the outer fields, what have you. Joe Maddon will later say that the advantage of the new Charlotte Sports Park arrangement is having "everyone under the same roof and on the same page," and it's obvious what he means. This feels like a major league club.

Longoria sits down for his interview at 10am; we are producing an episode of "Inside The Rays" featuring the All-Star third baseman. He is slow to warm up, but excellent once he gets going. Kazmir is also good. He looks bigger. I'm told he devoted himself to an off-season workout routine, and I believe it.

Leave before the game starts at 1pm, drive 20 minutes to find a place to eat lunch (not much going on in Charlotte County, folks), and then head back to Sarasota. Celebrate mother-in-law's birthday with dinner at an Italian place on Siesta Key. Drive home, arriving 10:30pm. Sleep as if drugged.

THURSDAY: Up at 7am (meh) to attend Board of Trustees committee meeting at the alma mater, Trinity Prep in Winter Park. Drive across town to Wayne Osley's loft studio to record new radio spots for upcoming Magic broadcasts. Back in the office at 2pm for a "webinar" on Fox's new performance review process (still fascinated by Live Meeting technology). Record more tracks for upcoming Rays productions in our newly soundproofed voice-over booth at the downtown office (means nothing to you, but a very big deal for us). Make it to son's flag football practice by 5. Mexican take-out for dinner.

FRIDAY: Head to Florida Hospital to visit with Magic and Rays TV producer Kevin Patterson, laid up with a bizarre case of strep that spread to his lungs and caused pneumonia, a freak illness that has hospitalized him for over two weeks and necessitated surgery (really). We discuss the Rays spring training shoot, the Magic's loss to Toronto, and the upcoming matchup with the Lebrons. I deliver him a copy of USA Today and three more magazines to replace the ones I brought him last week -- I know he's bored out of his mind. Hoping they'll let him go home this weekend. Return to downtown office and bang out a blog entry, something that I have had increasingly less time to accomplish each week.

Tonight, Magic vs. Cavs (just watching at home, not working this time). Next Tuesday, Lightning home game vs. Penguins (working). Week after that, the Rays open at home against the Yankees (very much working).

And that's a pretty typical week.

A New Fish Tank

2009-03-24T13:16:00.004-05:00

After ten years of trying, it looks like they finally did it: the Marlins may get a new stadium after all.

I write "may" because, despite the successful votes in Miami and Dade County, we've all been around the block enough to know that these things aren't done until they're done -- or at least, until the concrete starts to rise from the earth, as is already the case with the Magic's new building in Orlando.

(On that note, you have to scroll down more than 30 paragraphs in the Miami Herald story to find this little nugget: "If the county, city or Marlins can't find proper financing by July 1, any of the entities can kill the deal." Umm, hello? Shouldn't that be a little closer to the top of the story?)

It's a minor miracle that the Marlins were able to pull this off in light of Florida's current economic reality -- and judging by the number and tone of reader comments attached to the Herald article, a lot of folks in South Florida are skeptical, to say the least.

During the groundbreaking ceremony for the Events Center in Orlando back in July of 2008, one Magic executive admitted to me privately that had the Orange County Commission vote been delayed by even a few more weeks, there would have been a very slim chance of completing the deal. And that was in July -- still a couple of months away from the bottom falling out of the markets.

So, again, the Marlins deal is pretty stunning.

From a baseball standpoint, there's no question that the Marlins needed a new park. Dolphin Stadium, while a lovely facility for football, was never well-suited for baseball, and it's my opinion that the building itself has a lot to do with the team's notoriously poor home attendance (lowest average in the majors in each of the last three seasons, 28th out of 30 in 2005, 26th in '04 -- you get the idea). Mind you, it's clean, relatively safe, and easy to find on the highway, but it's not a 'ballpark,' and it's not a destination for baseball fans along the lines of a Fenway, or even a Turner Field.

The team's abysmal home attendance has long been used as a touchstone by those who opposed a new ballpark in South Florida. However, I dispute the notion that there's no interest in the Marlins in South Florida, based mainly on something I deal with every day -- TV ratings.

Win or lose, the Marlins and the Rays (even before their American League pennant-winning season) have delivered the most consistent television audiences for Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida over the last few years, ahead of our NBA and NHL telecasts, and well ahead of any studio show or other original programming. On a local and regional level, baseball is a ratings powerhouse. So I know there's interest -- even if it's from the living room.

So the question becomes, will a new stadium -- in the same oft-maligned neighborhood where the Orange Bowl once stood, but sporting a retractable roof (read: no rainouts) and all the amenities of modern-day ballparks -- draw South Florida fans out of their homes? The Marlins are banking on it, in much the same way that the Magic are banking on the Events Center.

But again, that assumes that the stadium actually goes up in Miami. Stay tuned.

Teeing It Up At Tavistock

2009-03-18T09:59:00.005-05:00

So I witnessed a Col. Nathan R. Jessep moment at the Tavistock Cup yesterday.

The Tavistock event, for those who have better things to do, is an annual two-day Ryder Cup-style golf tournament between members of Isleworth Country Club and Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, both located in Orlando and both owned by British billionaire Joe Lewis and his Tavistock Group. It's become one of the hottest tickets in town, mostly because said tickets cannot be purchased. The Tavistock Cup is invitation-only, so you gotta know somebody or know somebody who knows somebody.

One of the great attractions of this event is the intimacy. With a crowd that probably barely exceeds 4,000 people and nearly unrestricted access to the course and the players, it's a rare opportunity to see the best players in the world up close -- and I mean *really* up close. I literally had to take a step backwards on the 14th tee at Lake Nona yesterday to give Tiger Woods room for a practice swing. And yes, I'll be repeating that line for the rest of my life.

The Tavistock people absolutely lavish the players with every conceivable perk and luxury, up to and including the now-iconic helicopter rides back and forth between the two clubs:

...which is pretty cool, I have to admit. (Photo credit: Getty Images)

In an effort to provide these elite players with a relaxed, collegial environment, Tavistock insists upon no cell phones or cameras anywhere on the property. It's printed on the badges, in the programs, and on the pairing sheets. One cannot miss it.

Yet, this crowd being what it is, everybody ignores that policy and brings cell phones and/or cameras. Fortunately, the marshalls who work the course aren't naive, especially the ones who walk with Tiger's group. They know full well that a snapshot of Tiger at close range would be worth the risk of flaunting Tavistock's policy, and they also know that seeing Stevie throw a well-heeled patron into Lake Nona might speak ill of the event.

So every time Tiger stepped onto a tee box yesterday, the marshall would step forward and announce loudly, "Please put down all cell phones and cameras." In fact, he said it at least twice. In other words: please put away the cell phones and cameras that we ordered you not to bring, lest Tiger and his caddie become irate.

First thing I thought of when I heard that? Lt. Daniel Kaffee nailing Col. Jessep to the wall: "If you gave an order that Santiago wasn't to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would he be in danger? Why would it be necessary to transfer him off the base?"

This is how my mind works, by the way. My wife reeeeeeeeeaaallly hates watching movies with me.

Anyway, seeing Tiger up close is pretty fascinating, especially in relation to all of the other star players in close proximity. Every eye on the golf course is fixed on Woods, and he's got to know it. So, too, do the other players, who I think secretly enjoy the fact that he's there to divert the attention. What struck me the most, other than the ridiculous skill level of every player in the event, is the 'normalcy' of Woods while in the company of fellow pros.

On that same tee where I had to step back to avoid a Nike driver to the noggin, Woods and Charles Howell III were discussing how long it would take them to finish the round (they had a long wait on the tee, as the 14th at Nona is a drivable par-4). Apparently, their over/under on completing the round had been set at 5:45pm; it being about 3:45 in the afternoon at the time, and with only 5 holes to go, Woods was convinced that his selection (the under) was a mortal lock. Apparently, Woods had somewhere he was supposed to be later that evening.

(There may or may not have been actual money riding on this over/under; I couldn't gather from their conversation if this was just for fun or if they had actually put a bet on it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there was actual coin on the line. Tour pros are notorious for betting on anything and everything during practice rounds, and the rumor out there yesterday was that the unofficial handle between players, while not approaching the 'official' $3.5 million purse, was plenty big enough. But that's just (ahem) a rumor.)

As the 5:45 over/under discussion heated up, Howell turned to Woods and said, "Pards, you're toast." He then promised to take 30 minutes over every tee shot from that point forward and grind over every putt like it was Sunday at Augusta. Tiger cracked up. It was the kind of needling that you and I would do during a Sunday afternoon round at the local muni, up to and including the speculation on whether or not we'd be home in time for dinner (and avoid the evil eye from the missus).

It was just guys playing golf. Only it wasn't just guys, it was Tiger Freaking Woods and Charles Howell III, two professionals whose combined career earnings exceed $120 million (that's mostly Tiger). The fact that all of this occurred within earshot of civilians like me and my two golf buddies in attendance is what makes the Tavistock Cup so unique. I guess you had to be there. I'm glad I was.

Tournament Time

2009-03-16T10:28:00.004-05:00

Cheapest round-trip ticket from Orlando to Boise, according to Expedia: $654, including taxes and fees. Meh.

So much for that.

The wild hair was prompted, of course, by Cornell's second straight Ivy League title and subsequent bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Big Red earned a little respect this year, once again receiving a 14-seed, earning a first-round matchup with 3-seed Missouri. As my friend and fellow alum Jeff has pointed out, at least we're not dealing with 14 feet of Lopez twins, as was the case last year when Cornell jetted to Anaheim to get throttled by Stanford.

This year, it's 28-6 Mizzou, champions of the Big 12. Their RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is 10, which means the Tigers have played just about everyone up to and including the Lakers and Celtics this year. Cornell's is 115, meaning, well, we played the Ivies and Ursinus.

(Actually, there were some decent games on the Big Red's calendar this year -- an 11-point loss to St. John's, a 10-point loss to a ranked Syracuse team, non-conference wins over La Salle, Boston University, and Eastern Michigan. Plus, they beat Harvard, Princeton, and Yale at least once and beat Penn twice, which is all we really care about anyway.)

As fate would have it, Boise is also the first-round destination for Florida State, a 5-seed in the East, facing 12-seed Wisconsin. Seeing the Seminoles in the Big Dance for the first time since 1998 at the same venue where Cornell makes a second consecutive appearance would have been fun, but not $654 worth of fun (plus hotel).

I have, however, been to Boise, and it's lovely. Honestly. Much rockier and mountainous than you probably think.

While I'll be rooting hard for Cornell to make a game of it against Mizzou, I've got a keen interest in how Florida State does in the tournament. I've had the good fortune to call a couple of their games for Sun Sports over the last few seasons, including one this spring, and they strike me as an official Team Nobody Wants To Play. Their defense is downright salty -- among the ACC leaders in field goal percentage allowed and scoring defense all season long -- and they've got some depth (I love Ryan Reid). They're long, big, energetic, cohesive, and have Toney Douglas, who is precisely the kind of Bryce Drew - Juan Dixon - Shane Battier experienced-leader-type who could shoulder a team throughout the tournament. In short, a perfect recipe for the NCAA's, especially when you consider that they don't have to score to win. I really like their chances of a Sweet 16 or even better.

Of course, our fair state's sexiest team, Florida, is NIT-bound for a second straight season, which has created its fair share of hand-wringing among the Nation. Those who follow the Gators closely look at the roster and mouth the word "thin" -- literally and figuratively.

In a weak year for the SEC, Florida was the worst rebounding team in the league, and sported the lowest blocked shot average in the conference as well. That's been the largest concern for Florida all season -- a lineup that is thin, as in not much depth, as well as a lineup that is thin, as in physically unable to prevent themselves from getting pushed around. The Gators need size, and they need glue guys. In short, they need what Florida State had this year.

(Sidebar: if this season taught us anything about Florida basketball, it should be a testament to how special that Noah-Horford-Brewer-Green squad was. We may never see such a combination of size, skill, toughness, and cohesiveness in college hoops ever again.)

Anyway, root for the Red, and watch out for the Noles. That is all.

High School Hoops Finals

2009-03-09T13:41:00.003-05:00

(Click for Sun Sports broadcast schedule of 2009 FHSAA boys' and girls' high school basketball finals replays)

While still feeling dreamy over Cornell's second straight Ivy League title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, a summary of my fifth trip to Lakeland for play-by-play duties for the FHSAA boys basketball state championship games (in the order the games were played):

Class 1A: Orlando Christian Prep wins again, in a 3-point nailbiter over Boca Raton Grandview Prep. UCF signee Keith Clanton goes for 16 and 14. He's a player. Very polished, no wasted energy. Not sure what position he'll play for Kirk Speraw at UCF -- he's a legit 6-8, but needs more bulk to play the 4 -- but he'll be a factor immediately. Former Lake Howell and USF star Reggie Kohn earns his first state championship as a head coach and was very appreciative. OCP still hasn't lost a game against 1A competition in the last two years -- and Grandview Prep came into the game with a perfect 28-0 record.

3A: Pine Crest of Ft. Lauderdale goes back-to-back, beating Orlando Jones 60-44. Junior star Brandon Knight, who is atop everyone's wish list for 2010 (UConn, Duke, Florida, you name it), delivers 27 points and 9 rebounds on volume shooting (7 for 23). Jones shoots themselves out of this game by going 2 for 25 from downtown, scoring only 7 points in the 2nd quarter and 7 more in the third. Knight is pretty special, but he will certainly benefit from another year of high-level high school competition. Senior Ed Waite, who will play at Monmouth (NJ) next season, is the underrated star of PC's championship team, with 13 points and 11 rebounds in the final.

5A: Terrific game between Gainesville High and Clearwater High, two programs whose tournament histories date back to the 1920's. Tremendous energy at the Lakeland Center with vocal crowds. Clearwater outscores Gainesville 19-13 in the final period to make it close, but Gainesville had enough to hold them off. First state title for the Hurricanes since 2000, their fifth overall. These two teams were number 1 and 1A in the classification all season long, and they delivered a game worthy of their lofty rankings.

2A: Arlington Country Day, again. The powerhouse from Jacksonville ties a state record with five consecutive state championships, all under head coach Rex Morgan, who played with Artis Gilmore at Jacksonville University and has created an absolute dynasty at ACD. Three players at ACD are already committed to Division I programs, about to join the eleven Apache alumni currently playing college ball at that level. This game went to the "mercy rule" running clock in the 4th quarter. Summit Christian of West Palm Beach gave it all they had, but they didn't hold a candle to ACD's size and talent. Hat tip to Emari Bailey, who graduates with five championship rings, having been on the ACD roster since the 8th grade.

4A: THE game of the weekend. Cocoa High rallies back from a 16-point deficit to win by 15. Seriously. Springstead High, a school in Hernando County that has never won a state championship in any sport, brought in a 31-0 record and a fabulously smooth senior named Isaiah Mason, but they couldn't match Cocoa's depth. CHS head coach James Rowe told us before the game that he believed his was a team of destiny, and by the end of the game, we believed him. The Tigers outscored Springstead 49-23 in the second half to give Cocoa a second basketball championship (first since 1960) and a rare double-dip -- the Tigers also won a football title this past fall. Eight players on the basketball roster were also on the state champion football team. How's that for a high school year? Of note to other coaches: the Tigers practiced at USF's Sun Dome before going to Lakeland to get their kids accustomed to the depth perception challenges inherent in playing in a cavernous arena. Result: 52% FG overall, 5-10 from downtown, and a state title.

6A: Can you call it an upset when both teams had to play the same number of games to get there? Orlando's Olympia High was the top-ranked team in 6A for much of the season, but they fell to Miami's Coral Reef HS 69-60. Truth? I've never heard of Coral Reef. It's a magnet school in Miami with a stellar academic reputation -- an "A" rating by the State of Florida in 10 of its first 11 years of existence -- but no state titles in anything until this season. Remember this name: Charles Hankerson, Jr. Only a junior, but drawing interest from VCU, Florida State, and Auburn, among others. His stock went through the roof after the final -- 27 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists. His point guard, Steven Lopez, had the best handle of anyone I saw in Lakeland. A really, really fun team to watch, and head coach Gaston "Chachi" Rodriguez, a gravelly-voiced firebrand at just 38 years of age, was their Pied Piper. Olympia brought an (ahem) enthusiastic crowd and a regal bearing as one of the top teams in the state, but got outplayed and probably outcoached. Second-best game of the weekend after Gainesville-Clearwater.

Congratulations to Bill Koss for jumping in to a very tough assignment and nailing it as a color analyst. Also, keep an eye out for Jessica Blaylock, who joined us this year as a sideline reporter and just killed it. She's going places, fast. Great weekend all around. Sun Sports will begin replaying all of these games, plus the girls' title games, on March 16th.

Neener, Neener, Neener.

2009-03-06T23:59:00.001-05:00

Let's go Red.

Let's go Red.

Let's go Red.

Let's go Red.