duncan228
06-13-2009, 02:40 PM
For Owner, the Magic Is a Family Business (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/sports/basketball/14magic.html?_r=1&ref=basketball)
By Jonathan Abrams
New York Times
ORLANDO, Fla. — With his weight supported by a cane and wearing a steady smile, Rich DeVos, the Orlando Magic’s owner, is 83 years of smooth and steady.
To Otis Smith, a former player and the current general manager of the Magic, DeVos is the same man who greeted the team after he bought the fledgling franchise 18 years ago.
“He walked in the door and had his Rolex showing just a little bit, he had his hand in his pocket,” Smith said of that first meeting. “He was just smooth. And giving the speech to the team, he said, ‘I bought this team with the equivalent of the pocket change that you put in the dresser every night.’ ”
DeVos is a co-founder of Amway, the multilevel marketing company of consumer products. He started it in his garage with $49. He is a wealthy man, and his lesson to his players — then as now — was that they should be careful with their money. That they were themselves rich.
In the nearly two decades that DeVos has owned the Magic, little has changed. The Magic is somewhat of an anomaly as a sports franchise. In a landscape dominated by corporations, Orlando is a mom-and-pop store.
DeVos’s goal is to have the Magic be a legacy and heritage team. Bob Vander Weide, the Magic’s president, is also DeVos’s son-in-law. He has been groomed to be the next patriarch of the organization. He already handles most of its day-to-day affairs.
“There just aren’t many family teams left anymore,” said DeVos, who had a heart transplant 12 years ago. “My years are few remaining. The plans are being made financially that we can do that. The grandchildren are being told this is not something you buy and sell. This is something you respect and take care of.”
With the Magic trailing the Los Angeles Lakers by three games to one in the N.B.A. finals, its goal of bringing the city its first N.B.A. title may fall short. Even so, there is palpable excitement here created by the organization, its young star Dwight Howard and the prospect of a new arena on the horizon.
Before Game 3 of the finals Tuesday, DeVos walked the arena’s corridors and greeted everyone. At this stage of his life, he is less a commander than a cheerleader for the organization. He still talks to his players, dispensing advice about life more than about basketball. Before each season, the players visit DeVos at his home in Boca Raton.
This is the Magic’s first appearance in the N.B.A. finals since 1995, when the franchise was in only its sixth season. It was a perhaps premature accomplishment buoyed by a dominating young center named Shaquille O’Neal. DeVos was accustomed to winning in life. To him and his family, the early finals appearance fell nicely in line with everything that had come before it.
“It came so fast that you thought this was almost routine,” DeVos said. “We didn’t appreciate it enough when it happened. And we weren’t into it enough to enjoy it. It all felt like it was just another game, just another step in the process.”
Instead of stepping forward, the Magic stepped back. O’Neal soon crossed the country and joined the Lakers. Orlando had been his first job. And DeVos had often discussed his excitement and expectations.
“It hurt Orlando a lot,” DeVos said of O’Neal’s departure, then repeated his statement for emphasis.
“I spent a lot of time talking to him about the wisdom of staying in Orlando,” he said. “But he had stars in his eyes. It wasn’t money. It was the glitter of L.A.”
The N.B.A. had yet to establish its current collective bargaining agreement and teams and players did not have the financial incentives now in place to keep them together. The Lakers signed O’Neal to a seven-year, $121 million contract — a package, Vander Weide said, that the Magic exceeded.
“We offered Shaq $18 million more than the Lakers,” Vander Weide said. “It’s not like we were being cheap or weren’t trying to keep Shaq as a player and as an asset to this franchise.”
The Magic then hatched a plan to acquire two of the most enticing free agents available, setting its sights on Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady. It eventually landed Hill and McGrady. But the plan looked better on paper than on the court because Hill struggled with injuries throughout his time with the team.
“Nobody ever thought that Grant would get reinjured and that was tough,” Vander Weide said. “It was a good plan. We created a lot of cap room and Dad has always been on the front end of strategically where are we going. But sometimes plans don’t work because of health.”
As an owner, DeVos can veto player selections and mandates that the organization stays below the luxury-tax threshold — which might become an issue with Hedo Turkoglu possibly opting for free agency.
“But I’m not close enough to the game to tell them much of anything but to watch the money,” DeVos said. “An N.B.A. team in a small town doesn’t make money. You have to be able to hold a team without it returning money to you in your ownership. The only way a small-town team makes money is when you sell it.”
He contemplated that possibility and nearly sold the franchise earlier this decade. The Magic had fallen below expectations. There were tax problems and, perhaps most important, DeVos wondered if his family cared about the team as something more than a hobby.
On a whim, DeVos changed his mind. And as he walked the corridor of Amway Arena with his family Thursday evening, he did so in the same way he has for years, the cane the only addition.
“He always had a saying of ‘Why not us? Why not now?’ ” said Nick Anderson, a former Magic player who is now the team’s community ambassador. “He still says that today, and that has resonated.”
By Jonathan Abrams
New York Times
ORLANDO, Fla. — With his weight supported by a cane and wearing a steady smile, Rich DeVos, the Orlando Magic’s owner, is 83 years of smooth and steady.
To Otis Smith, a former player and the current general manager of the Magic, DeVos is the same man who greeted the team after he bought the fledgling franchise 18 years ago.
“He walked in the door and had his Rolex showing just a little bit, he had his hand in his pocket,” Smith said of that first meeting. “He was just smooth. And giving the speech to the team, he said, ‘I bought this team with the equivalent of the pocket change that you put in the dresser every night.’ ”
DeVos is a co-founder of Amway, the multilevel marketing company of consumer products. He started it in his garage with $49. He is a wealthy man, and his lesson to his players — then as now — was that they should be careful with their money. That they were themselves rich.
In the nearly two decades that DeVos has owned the Magic, little has changed. The Magic is somewhat of an anomaly as a sports franchise. In a landscape dominated by corporations, Orlando is a mom-and-pop store.
DeVos’s goal is to have the Magic be a legacy and heritage team. Bob Vander Weide, the Magic’s president, is also DeVos’s son-in-law. He has been groomed to be the next patriarch of the organization. He already handles most of its day-to-day affairs.
“There just aren’t many family teams left anymore,” said DeVos, who had a heart transplant 12 years ago. “My years are few remaining. The plans are being made financially that we can do that. The grandchildren are being told this is not something you buy and sell. This is something you respect and take care of.”
With the Magic trailing the Los Angeles Lakers by three games to one in the N.B.A. finals, its goal of bringing the city its first N.B.A. title may fall short. Even so, there is palpable excitement here created by the organization, its young star Dwight Howard and the prospect of a new arena on the horizon.
Before Game 3 of the finals Tuesday, DeVos walked the arena’s corridors and greeted everyone. At this stage of his life, he is less a commander than a cheerleader for the organization. He still talks to his players, dispensing advice about life more than about basketball. Before each season, the players visit DeVos at his home in Boca Raton.
This is the Magic’s first appearance in the N.B.A. finals since 1995, when the franchise was in only its sixth season. It was a perhaps premature accomplishment buoyed by a dominating young center named Shaquille O’Neal. DeVos was accustomed to winning in life. To him and his family, the early finals appearance fell nicely in line with everything that had come before it.
“It came so fast that you thought this was almost routine,” DeVos said. “We didn’t appreciate it enough when it happened. And we weren’t into it enough to enjoy it. It all felt like it was just another game, just another step in the process.”
Instead of stepping forward, the Magic stepped back. O’Neal soon crossed the country and joined the Lakers. Orlando had been his first job. And DeVos had often discussed his excitement and expectations.
“It hurt Orlando a lot,” DeVos said of O’Neal’s departure, then repeated his statement for emphasis.
“I spent a lot of time talking to him about the wisdom of staying in Orlando,” he said. “But he had stars in his eyes. It wasn’t money. It was the glitter of L.A.”
The N.B.A. had yet to establish its current collective bargaining agreement and teams and players did not have the financial incentives now in place to keep them together. The Lakers signed O’Neal to a seven-year, $121 million contract — a package, Vander Weide said, that the Magic exceeded.
“We offered Shaq $18 million more than the Lakers,” Vander Weide said. “It’s not like we were being cheap or weren’t trying to keep Shaq as a player and as an asset to this franchise.”
The Magic then hatched a plan to acquire two of the most enticing free agents available, setting its sights on Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady. It eventually landed Hill and McGrady. But the plan looked better on paper than on the court because Hill struggled with injuries throughout his time with the team.
“Nobody ever thought that Grant would get reinjured and that was tough,” Vander Weide said. “It was a good plan. We created a lot of cap room and Dad has always been on the front end of strategically where are we going. But sometimes plans don’t work because of health.”
As an owner, DeVos can veto player selections and mandates that the organization stays below the luxury-tax threshold — which might become an issue with Hedo Turkoglu possibly opting for free agency.
“But I’m not close enough to the game to tell them much of anything but to watch the money,” DeVos said. “An N.B.A. team in a small town doesn’t make money. You have to be able to hold a team without it returning money to you in your ownership. The only way a small-town team makes money is when you sell it.”
He contemplated that possibility and nearly sold the franchise earlier this decade. The Magic had fallen below expectations. There were tax problems and, perhaps most important, DeVos wondered if his family cared about the team as something more than a hobby.
On a whim, DeVos changed his mind. And as he walked the corridor of Amway Arena with his family Thursday evening, he did so in the same way he has for years, the cane the only addition.
“He always had a saying of ‘Why not us? Why not now?’ ” said Nick Anderson, a former Magic player who is now the team’s community ambassador. “He still says that today, and that has resonated.”