duncan228
09-29-2009, 05:46 PM
Magic using last year's Finals loss as motivation (http://www.probasketballnews.com/story/?storyid=743)
By Tony Mejia
Pro Basketball News
ORLANDO, Fla. - Jameer Nelson acknowledged that the Lakers may have wanted it more than the Orlando Magic did in these past NBA Finals, equipped with the requisite hunger from having been denied by Boston the previous year.
Stan Van Gundy understands some people want to blame Nelson but knows he would've second-guessed himself more if Orlando had lost the Finals and he'd left his All-Star point guard on the bench.
Dwight Howard thought about the pain of losing every day, reminded by increased attention as he enjoyed the fun of movie cameos and having TMZ pop up to bother him. People all want a piece of him because he got the Magic to the Finals - where he lost.
So, yeah, Orlando still has June on its mind.
Good.
The last thing the Magic needed to do on Media Day Monday before officially beginning training camp was trivialize falling short or vowing to completely put that Finals setback in the past.
Good teams take the ego-driven approach of blocking out the bad as if it never happened. Great teams realize their failure was witnesssed by millions around the world and use that shame as fuel.
They re-examine what went wrong and strive for answers.
The spirit of a new day may be in the air as NBA training camps open around the country, but don't think the recent past doesn't play a large role in what's to come. For the Magic, reflection was an essential part of the process going forward.
"I thought as an organization, as a team and as a basketball operations department, we lost focus. We started celebrating at the end of the East and we forgot that we had to win four more games in o rder to win," said GM Otis Smith, who along with Van Gundy, is receiving a contract extension.
"I've watched the game tape, I've seen everything and I've played it all back over and over again and I just see a team that lost it's focus," he continued. "Worrying about things that, for some reason throughout the course of the season, we had a good resolve. Issues that were made to be big, whether it was Dwight and Stan in Boston, in our locker room it was an issue and we were on to something else, able to resolve things and move on.
"For some reason, I thought, in the Finals, we were all over the place like a kid in a candy store and couldn't focus. It happens with young teams."
Make no mistake, despite Orlando's prolific success and its ability to knock off all East comers, that was indeed a young team you saw fall to the Lakers. It may sound cliche, but experience does make a difference. Even though basketball players play big games throughout their lives on every circuit imaginable, there's no stage like the NBA Finals.
Howard, who didn't know just how big the difference was at the time, freely admits that now.
Lewis, one of the most experienced Magic playoff performers a season ago, is counting on June's outcome becoming a driving force.
"I thought about that all summer long, how the Lakers got beat by Boston and came back a second time around and won a championship. That's our goal," he said. "We had a lot of guys that had never been to the Finals and had never had that type of playoff experience, so I thought we did a great job of getting to where we did.
"Experience does go a long way. I thought both teams were very talented and very good, but they had the edge on us with a more experienced coach at winning championships and a more experienced team being in the Finals before. Now, we can't make excuses this year. We've been to the Finals, we've played in games, so now, we'll hopefully get back."
One look at Vince Carter, Brandon Bass, Matt Barnes, Jason Williams, Ryan Anderson, Morris Almond and Linton Johnson strolling around in their sparkling white new uniforms makes it clear this Magic team is different. But even with half the roster gone from the one that took the court just over three months ago, the core that's been tasked by Smith with bringing a title to Orlando remains a fixture.
Howard, Nelson, Lewis and Mickael Pietrus have lucrative multi-year deals linking them to central Florida long after the new arena opens for 2010-11. Those are the guys that have to spread a message of urgency as the Magic sets out to prove last season's emergence was no fluke.
"We believe in ourselves and we believe in one another," said Nelson, finally back at 100 percent after injuring his shoulder in January. "They can say we're non-contenders. They talk about the other two or three teams all last season and we're the team that won.
"Last year was last year. One thing we have to realize is we had a great year, but we didn't reach our ultimate goal. We didn't win a championship. This year we have to work that much harder to get where we need to get."
To Nelson's credit, he hasn't dwelled one bit on his June failures, relishing the opportunity Van Gundy afforded him. He put together another of his summer bonding sessions, inviting teammates up to his Pennsylvania stomping grounds for a week of paintball, bowling and nightly dinners to set the tone for the type of close unit he wants them to be.
After losing a significant amount of muscle during rehab, he's gotten his body back to where it was when he was grooving his way to his first All-Star nod.
Nelson's ability to bounce back and reclaim his previous form will be one many themes to watch over what's expected to be a telling first few months for the Magic. Carter replacing Hedo Turkoglu will be what everyone will focus on early, seeing what that does to team chemistry. With Lewis out the first 10 games after testing positive for a banned substance - he's spooked by Advil these days - Van Gundy will get an opporunity to play with his new toys extensively in order to fill the void.
Barnes, Pietrus and Bass figure to combine for most of the minutes, but there is also the possibility of playing Marcin Gortat at power forward alongside Howard, an experiment that had its moments during the Finals. Despite being denied the opportunity to head to Dallas, Gortat put his good face forward and vowed to do whatever it takes to help the team win a title.
Lip service was in playoff form Monday. From not minimizing June's shortcomings to copping to the experience disadvantage, the Magic said all the right things.
In sharp contrast from a year ago, when the word championship came out of the lips of Howard and the rest of the guys, there were no raised eyebrows. Orlando has reached the level where anything less would be considered a disappointment.
By Tony Mejia
Pro Basketball News
ORLANDO, Fla. - Jameer Nelson acknowledged that the Lakers may have wanted it more than the Orlando Magic did in these past NBA Finals, equipped with the requisite hunger from having been denied by Boston the previous year.
Stan Van Gundy understands some people want to blame Nelson but knows he would've second-guessed himself more if Orlando had lost the Finals and he'd left his All-Star point guard on the bench.
Dwight Howard thought about the pain of losing every day, reminded by increased attention as he enjoyed the fun of movie cameos and having TMZ pop up to bother him. People all want a piece of him because he got the Magic to the Finals - where he lost.
So, yeah, Orlando still has June on its mind.
Good.
The last thing the Magic needed to do on Media Day Monday before officially beginning training camp was trivialize falling short or vowing to completely put that Finals setback in the past.
Good teams take the ego-driven approach of blocking out the bad as if it never happened. Great teams realize their failure was witnesssed by millions around the world and use that shame as fuel.
They re-examine what went wrong and strive for answers.
The spirit of a new day may be in the air as NBA training camps open around the country, but don't think the recent past doesn't play a large role in what's to come. For the Magic, reflection was an essential part of the process going forward.
"I thought as an organization, as a team and as a basketball operations department, we lost focus. We started celebrating at the end of the East and we forgot that we had to win four more games in o rder to win," said GM Otis Smith, who along with Van Gundy, is receiving a contract extension.
"I've watched the game tape, I've seen everything and I've played it all back over and over again and I just see a team that lost it's focus," he continued. "Worrying about things that, for some reason throughout the course of the season, we had a good resolve. Issues that were made to be big, whether it was Dwight and Stan in Boston, in our locker room it was an issue and we were on to something else, able to resolve things and move on.
"For some reason, I thought, in the Finals, we were all over the place like a kid in a candy store and couldn't focus. It happens with young teams."
Make no mistake, despite Orlando's prolific success and its ability to knock off all East comers, that was indeed a young team you saw fall to the Lakers. It may sound cliche, but experience does make a difference. Even though basketball players play big games throughout their lives on every circuit imaginable, there's no stage like the NBA Finals.
Howard, who didn't know just how big the difference was at the time, freely admits that now.
Lewis, one of the most experienced Magic playoff performers a season ago, is counting on June's outcome becoming a driving force.
"I thought about that all summer long, how the Lakers got beat by Boston and came back a second time around and won a championship. That's our goal," he said. "We had a lot of guys that had never been to the Finals and had never had that type of playoff experience, so I thought we did a great job of getting to where we did.
"Experience does go a long way. I thought both teams were very talented and very good, but they had the edge on us with a more experienced coach at winning championships and a more experienced team being in the Finals before. Now, we can't make excuses this year. We've been to the Finals, we've played in games, so now, we'll hopefully get back."
One look at Vince Carter, Brandon Bass, Matt Barnes, Jason Williams, Ryan Anderson, Morris Almond and Linton Johnson strolling around in their sparkling white new uniforms makes it clear this Magic team is different. But even with half the roster gone from the one that took the court just over three months ago, the core that's been tasked by Smith with bringing a title to Orlando remains a fixture.
Howard, Nelson, Lewis and Mickael Pietrus have lucrative multi-year deals linking them to central Florida long after the new arena opens for 2010-11. Those are the guys that have to spread a message of urgency as the Magic sets out to prove last season's emergence was no fluke.
"We believe in ourselves and we believe in one another," said Nelson, finally back at 100 percent after injuring his shoulder in January. "They can say we're non-contenders. They talk about the other two or three teams all last season and we're the team that won.
"Last year was last year. One thing we have to realize is we had a great year, but we didn't reach our ultimate goal. We didn't win a championship. This year we have to work that much harder to get where we need to get."
To Nelson's credit, he hasn't dwelled one bit on his June failures, relishing the opportunity Van Gundy afforded him. He put together another of his summer bonding sessions, inviting teammates up to his Pennsylvania stomping grounds for a week of paintball, bowling and nightly dinners to set the tone for the type of close unit he wants them to be.
After losing a significant amount of muscle during rehab, he's gotten his body back to where it was when he was grooving his way to his first All-Star nod.
Nelson's ability to bounce back and reclaim his previous form will be one many themes to watch over what's expected to be a telling first few months for the Magic. Carter replacing Hedo Turkoglu will be what everyone will focus on early, seeing what that does to team chemistry. With Lewis out the first 10 games after testing positive for a banned substance - he's spooked by Advil these days - Van Gundy will get an opporunity to play with his new toys extensively in order to fill the void.
Barnes, Pietrus and Bass figure to combine for most of the minutes, but there is also the possibility of playing Marcin Gortat at power forward alongside Howard, an experiment that had its moments during the Finals. Despite being denied the opportunity to head to Dallas, Gortat put his good face forward and vowed to do whatever it takes to help the team win a title.
Lip service was in playoff form Monday. From not minimizing June's shortcomings to copping to the experience disadvantage, the Magic said all the right things.
In sharp contrast from a year ago, when the word championship came out of the lips of Howard and the rest of the guys, there were no raised eyebrows. Orlando has reached the level where anything less would be considered a disappointment.