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DARK DAYS TO COME?

Brian Hills recent comment about Tony Battie starting and Darko coming off the bench and having to earn his playing time is downright stupid. Battie is a fine role player who should be coming off the bench. Hasn't Darko shown enough from last season, and his excellent international play this summer to warrant a starting spot on this team until and unless he shows otherwise? All players want to start, and for those who think it doesn't matter as long as he gets his minutes, they're wrong. The more minutes he plays with the starters will make life that much easier for both him and the other four players. Let's hope we don't fall that much behind the rest of the conference waiting for the coach to come to his senses!

DARK DAYS TO COME?

Brian Hills recent comment about Tony Battie starting and Darko coming off the bench and having to earn his playing time is downright stupid. Battie is a fine role player who should be coming off the bench. Hasn't Darko shown enough from last season, and his excellent international play this summer to warrant a starting spot on this team until and unless he shows otherwise? All players want to start, and for those who think it doesn't matter as long as he gets his minutes, they're wrong. The more minutes he plays with the starters will make life that much easier for both him and the other four players. Let's hope we don't fall that much behind the rest of the conference waiting for the coach to come to his senses!

Even Steven?

With respect to the Magics' decision to let Deshawn move on and sign back Keith Bogans, Otis Smith has picked up an equal talent at a much better price. This was a smart move in my opinion.

HOORAY FOR JJ !

In my humble opinion, there were four potentially great picks in last nights N.B.A. draft. The fact that the Magic were able to snare one of them, JJ Reddick, at pick #11, makes last night a success in my mind. The other players that stood out to me were Tyrus Thomas, Adam Morrison, and Rudy Gay. Of course, this whole draft was pretty much a crap shoot and who knows for sure? I don't know much about Augustine, or the guy from Israel, and I guess one could make a case that we could have taken someone like Pittsnogle or Washington in the second round, but I believe the Magic made the right choice with JJ.

THE BIG FOUR

In my humble opinion, and after silently watching this team since the trades, I feel the Magic have four players to build around. Dwight, Darko, Jameer and Carlos. Everyone else should be replaced as circumstances permit. Like just about everyone, I love the Darko deal, but i'm not convinced that Steve needed to be moved for Pennys' contract. The cap room is nice, but I think we could have done better by waiting till the summer.

INSULTED, PARANOID? AND PI$$ED OFF!

Yesterday, after returning to work from the holidays, I noticed the latest issue of Magic magazine in my stacked up pile of mail. After getting thru the more pressing stuff, I picked up the mag and came accross their new"what's on the web" column on pg. 20. Three items piqued my curiosity, computer display settings, rss feed, and message boards and chat rooms. Computer display settings said that if your computer is set at 800x600 pixels you may not be seeing some elements of our site! It went on to suggest changing it to 1024x768. O.k., no problem. The rss feed described as orlandomagic.com's new rss feed (http://www.nba.com/magic/rss.xml) can be typed into your rss reader or directly brought over to your desktop via my yahoo or similar means for the latest Magic updates. O.k., not bad. I've actually had this for some time, although I 've found their updating to lag somewhat. I thought their message boards and chat rooms entry would be most interesting. Actually, when I went to the site I didn't see any message boards or chat rooms link to click on (maybe my pixels are off or it's under construction or something) but I did come accross what appears to be a new blog section (I don't go to the Magics' own site that often, so if it's been there, I must have missed it) recommending a bunch of Magic related blogs that I've never heard of, and probably for good reason. What upsets me is there was no mention of my blog, Magic Ramblings, ( I know for a fact that they are aware of its' existence ) and even if you think that's petty and conceited, they fail to acknowledge other long standing and respected efforts such as Magic Fan and Believing In Magic, as well as some others that I may be forgetting. If you want to see what is being touted,go to http://www.orlandomagic.com. Anyway, that's why I'm insulted. Last time, I re-mentioned that the Magic's P.R. department has someone scan the Magic related fan forums, message boards, and blogs to get the essence of the feelings out in cyber-space. I suggested that even though we had won a few games in a row, I as well as many other forum readers felt that the team shouldn't get too caried away, and that some roster changes still needed to me made to make our team a serious playoff contender. I said keep the pressure on Dave/Otis to get something done. It was pointed out to me that the P.R. guy was probably an un-paid intern.Probably right. I'm probably being paranoid but my Magic account executive hasn't come by my seat to say hello the last couple of home games. We are pretty friendly and he was supposed to be at my company Christmas party. He didn't show up and hasn't called me. This is somewhat unusual. I hope he's o.k. I may want to put my season ticket up for sale ( great first row seat,downstairs,reasonably inexpensive,great bang for the $) or I may feel differently tomorrow. I don't really know. I do know one thing though. If the Magic web site does follow thru with fan forums, message boards or chat rooms (assuming it isn't there already) I wouldn't expect to see any links over to what the team most probably considers the "nuisance", albeit legitimate sites such as ezekielbear, Magic Real G.M. forum, Magic Pride forum, and never to Magic Fan, Believing In Magic, and certainly never to Magic Ramblings!