Posts Tagged ‘Dwight Howard’

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Say Hello To The Big Executive?

May 24, 2012  ·  10:26AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – We can see it now: Peaches and Herb’s “Reunited”  blaring from the sound system and a suited and booted Shaquille O’Neal walking to the podium as he’s introduced as the Orlando Magic’s new general manager.

Don’t laugh. It might not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

An ESPN report that TNT’s O’Neal will speak with the Magic about the opening next week has NOT been confirmed by either side. But it hasn’t been scuttled by either side either … not yet, at least. O’Neal’s Inside colleague Charles Barkley confirmed Shaq’s interest it this morning on The Dan Patrick Show:

Dan asked Barkley if Shaquille O’Neal has told him he’s is interested in the Orlando GM job. “Yes,” Barkley said. “I do know he’s interested in the job and he’s going to interview for it.”

Barkley said O’Neal and Dwight Howard have had issues in the past, but that doesn’t mean Shaq can’t go to Orlando.

Barkley thinks Howard needs to make a decision and stay or go in Orlando. He’s sick of talking about it.

“They’re trying to do anything they can to keep Dwight there and get a buzz,” Barkley said. “They have to do something whether Dwight stays there or not. Bringing in Shaquille is an attention getter.”

This gives folks a license to let their imaginations run wild with images of O’Neal back in the city where his Hall of Fame playing career began, the same city he calls home. If Shaq is on the short list of people the Magic want to talk to about replacing Otis Smith, it is noteworthy. Especially considering the nature of his departure from the Magic in 1996 for the Los Angeles Lakers.

O’Neal hasn’t even finished his first year of retirement and already his name is popping up in a GM search. That’s impressive, no matter how it all transpired.

(more…)

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (25) /

Hang Time Podcast (Episode 80) With Evan Dunlap Of Orlando Pinstriped Post

May 23, 2012  ·  10:03PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – With the eyes of the basketball-loving public focused squarely on the playoffs and who will emerge from the Eastern Conference semifinals, we decided to take a mini-detour this week on the Hang Time Podcast.

With all the news coming out of Orlando, we simply could not let an opportunity to dig a little deeper into the goings on down there slip away.

So we turned to our good friend of the program Evan Dunlap, the founder and managing editor of the Orlando Pinstriped Post blog, which covers all things Magic. We had to know if Dwight Howard was really behind the departures of both Stan Van Gundy and Otis Smith, as so many people believe, or if someone else is really calling those shots?

We also had to talk about the potential replacements for both Van Gundy, the coach, and Smith, the general manager. Names like Brian Shaw, Jerry Sloan and Phil Jackson, yes the Zen Master himself, have popped up on the short list of replacements for Van Gundy. Meanwhile, names like Donnie Walsh, Jeff Bower and TNT’s very own Shaquille O’Neal have popped up on the surprising short list of candidates to replace Smith.

(We first heard these rumblings about O’Neal being a candidate Monday night … talk about things getting interesting if the Big Fella were to return to the Magic after all these years.)

You get conversation about all that and more, we talk plenty of playoffs, flagrant fouls, suspensions and everything else with our main man Evan Dunlap of the OPP.

Check it out on Episode 80 of the Hang Time Podcast:

LISTEN HERE:


As always, we welcome your feedback. You can follow the entire crew, including the Hang Time Podcast, co-hosts Lang Whitaker of SLAM Magazine and Sekou Smith of NBA.com, as well as our superproducer Micah Hart of NBA.com’s All Ball Blog and the best engineer in the business, Jarrell “I Heart Peyton Manning” Wall.

– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.

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Call It A Comeback For Sloan?

May 23, 2012  ·  9:46AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – If Dwight Howard thought Stan Van Gundy was tough to deal with, can you imagine how he’d react to Hall of Famer Jerry Sloan?

The former and longtime coach of the Utah Jazz is apparently contemplating a coaching comeback at 70, with feelers from both the Charlotte Bobcats and potentially the Magic, who fired Van Gundy Monday and are currently searching for his replacement.

Sloan has already spoken with the Bobcats about their opening and is “intrigued” by the possibilities in Orlando, per the Salt Lake Tribune:

Asked about his reported interest in Orlando, Sloan said, “I’m sure a lot of people are interested. But I really don’t know what the parameters are going to be or what’s going on. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens.”

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Van Gundy And Smith Out In Orlando

May 21, 2012  ·  3:56PM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – At least Stan Van Gundy and Otis Smith will get to walk out of the door together in Orlando.

In what has to rank as the least surprising move of this NBA season, both the Orlando Magic coach and general manager, respectively, parted ways with the organization this afternoon. Van Gundy was relieved of his duties after five seasons with the organization and Smith came to a mutual agreement with the organization to end his tenure, the Magic announced via their website:

“On behalf of the DeVos Family, we sincerely appreciate and thank Otis and Stan for all that they have done on and off the floor for the Orlando Magic,” said [Magic CEO Alex] Martins. “These are the days you dread in this business, but we feel it’s time for new leadership and new voices.

“They both brought die-hard dedication and an unmatched work ethic on a daily basis,” added Martins. “Their success is well documented, as the Orlando Magic has had the fourth best record in the NBA over the last five years, and entering the playoffs this year the third most playoff wins over that period of time. The disappointment of getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs these past two seasons played a primary role in our decision, as we feel our momentum towards winning a championship has paused. We wish Otis and Stan all the best and we look forward to taking the next step towards winning that championship.”

Martins, the man credited with keeping Dwight Howard in the fold at the trade deadline, when Howard could have opted out of the final year of his current contract and become a free agent this summer, is now tasked with rebuilding the front office and coaching staff in an image that pleases Howard.

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Best Big Man … Where’s Bynum?

May 18, 2012  ·  12:19PM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Is anyone else still waiting for the recently crowned (at least by some) “best big man” in basketball to show himself in the Thunder-Lakers Western Conference semifinals?

We’ve yet to see the dominant force that Andrew Bynum was billed to be heading into this postseason. You remember the arguments for him overtaking Dwight Howard as the most dominant low-post force in the league. All of that bluster has faded with each minute of decent-but-far-from-dominant outing from the largest man still working in these playoffs.

No one is denying that Bynum has the potential to be whatever it is he wants to be. The talent, skill and behemoth size package remain in place. But this notion that Bynum was going to use this postseason to cement his place atop the totem pole of the league’s best big men has turned out to be little more than an urban myth.

He’s not even the big man having the biggest impact in this Thunder-Lakers series. That honor belongs to Thunder power forward and the league’s shot blocking king Serge Ibaka. In fact, Bynum doesn’t even rank in the top four of big men in this postseason, not with Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett dominating like it’s 1999 and Pacers All-Star center Roy Hibbert making life miserable for the Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

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@NBA Twitter Feed Tops 5 Million

May 15, 2012  ·  7:14AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – We’re still more than a few weeks away from some team claiming the Larry O’Brien trophy, but we can go ahead and crown the undisputed champ of professional sports leagues on Twitter.

The NBA wins in a runaway.

The NBA’s Twitter feed has a robust 5 million-plus, and counting, followers (5,011, 814 as of this morning). That dwarfs the National Football League’s 3,332,082, Major League Baseball’s 2,044,861 and the National Hockey League’s 1,166,503.

World Wrestling Entertainment also has about 1.1 million followers and the world’s soccer governing body, FIFA, has almost 800,000 followers.

It certainly can’t hurt that many of the league’s biggest stars — LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and many others — are all active on this particular social networking platform.

James, the 2011-12 KIA Most Valuable Player award winner, tops the league on Twitter as well with 4,495,705 followers. TNT’s own and recently retired future Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal has the largest Twitter flock with more than 5,598,557. They both rank among the top four pro athletes (active or retired) in followers.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (7) /

No Decision On Van Gundy — Yet

May 9, 2012  ·  10:41AM



A decision on the fate of Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy is not expected today, according to a league source, as the Magic’s front office undertakes a review of the just-completed season that is likely to take a few days.

The Magic’s season was overwhelmed by the trade demand of franchise player Dwight Howard, and his on-again, off-again desire to remain with the team. Howard ultimately decided to “opt in” for the final year of his current contract, 2012-13, rather than opt out in July and become an unrestricted free agent.

But his relationship with Van Gundy was ruptured after the coach disclosed to reporters after an April shootaround that someone in Orlando’s management had told Van Gundy that Howard wanted him fired. That disclosure came seconds before Howard, trying to quell rumors that the two didn’t get along, came up to Van Gundy and put an arm around him.

Howard missed the Magic’s last regular-season games and all of Orlando’s first-round playoff series loss to Indiana after undergoing back surgery in Los Angeles April 20 to repair a herniated disc.

The Magic thus have to reach a decision on whether to keep Van Gundy, who has a 290-163 record (including playoffs) in five seasons as head coach, while also trying to determine how the Howard situation will be resolved. Orlando will not have a repeat of this past season, however; Howard will be dealt in the offseason if the Magic determine he does not want to stay long-term. Several teams, most notably the Nets, want him.

The Magic made The Finals in 2009 under Van Gundy, who stressed defense and half-court execution on offense with great success, with the emerging Howard becoming the league’s best center.

But Van Gundy’s demanding, relentless style soon became an issue for Howard and other players. General manager Otis Smith told Van Gundy he had to ease up and be more positive, and Van Gundy made a great effort to do so the last couple of years. But Orlando has not been able to get back near the top, losing in the first round each of the last two seasons.

The Magic traditionally take time after the season to make major decisions. Smith does not conduct the postseason “exit interviews” with players that most teams have, figuring everyone knows what happened during the year and needs time away from one another to decompress.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (54) /

Hawks Survive For Another Day

May 9, 2012  ·  6:27AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Survival came in the form of a furious 6-foot-10, 245-pound package for the Atlanta Hawks. You might remember him. His name is Al Horford. He’d been missing from the scene for months, stuck on the Hawks’ bench in a suit, courtesy of a torn pectoral muscle that cost the All-Star center all but 11 regular season games.

Horford made up for lost time Tuesday night, though, scoring the final four points and saving the Hawks’ season with a last second defensive stop on Rajon Rondo to preserve his team’s 87-86 win over the Boston Celtics to push this series to a Game 6 Thursday night in Boston.

Rondo’s steal of a Josh Smith inbounds pass intended for Joe Johnson with 9.5 seconds to play was thwarted when Horford closed off all driving lanes on the sideline in front of the Hawks’ bench. Rondo lost his dribble and then flung a pass to Kevin Garnett that Smith batted out of bounds before laying his head on the scorer’s table, knowing full well that Horford had just saved him from being the Hawks’ playoff goat.

In his first full-game action in four months, Horford battled his way to 19 points, 11 rebounds, three assist, three steals and three blocks. It helped the Hawks stave off elimination and provided their fans a glimmer of hope that the home-court advantage Horford’s teammates earned in his absence might still be available for use by the weekend.

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Now Is Not The Time For Nice, Indiana

May 8, 2012  ·  10:46AM

INDIANAPOLIS — They represent a hospitable Midwestern city that’s fond of greeting strangers with a folksy “hi, ya’ll!” Their coach is friendly and approachable. Actually, the players themselves are really nice guys, quite a contrast from the rough and tumble clowns that engaged in the bloodiest fight in NBA history.

Yep, these Pacers are mighty swell and fun to be around, which is all good. Unless they’re trying to close out a tight game or a playoff series. That’s when being nice guys is all bad.

“You’ve got to be a little angry,” said Danny Granger, Indiana’s leading scorer in the playoffs at 20.5 ppg.

You’ve got to step on the other guy’s throat, and then again just to make sure the body isn’t twitching. Such is the mentality that’s necessary this time of year, when a team is ready to move to the next challenge. The Pacers took a commanding 3-1 lead over the Magic into their house Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, NBA TV), an ideal setting to clinch the best-of-seven first round, although the Pacers’ cut-throat mentality has been anything but against Orlando.

They blew an eight-point lead with three minutes left in Game 1 (which they lost), then saw a 19-point lead evaporate in Game 4. They were able to salvage that game in overtime, but the question persists with this group: are they nasty enough to challenge for a conference title?

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Stan And Dwight: We Talk!

May 5, 2012  ·  1:48PM





ORLANDO — You could probably safely assume Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has spoken with Derrick Rose daily, hourly and minute-ly, if possible, because that’s what coaches do. They’re always in communication with their superstar, especially in tough times, as Rose is going through as he prepares for knee surgery.

But Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard? The coach who said his superstar was trying to get him fired, and the star who hasn’t strongly endorsed the coach?

Well, although they’re currently on separate coasts, they’re keeping in touch. So they say.

Howard was found on the mean streets of Beverly Hills recently by gossip site TMZ, in the wake of back surgery, which was performed in Los Angeles. And Howard made it appear he and Van Gundy are downright chummy.

They’ve talked “a bunch of times” said Howard.

Which means, more than once.

“What’s the definition of a bunch?” asked Van Gundy with a shrug before Game 3 of the Pacers-Magic series. “We’ve communicated before the playoffs started and then after Game 2 texted back and forth.”

Pressed for details, Van Gundy took a pass.

“Can we talk about basketball instead of relationships? We’re communicating.” (more…)

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