On Thursday night, the Orlando Magic selected Paolo Banchero from Duke with the first overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft.
Not to pile on too much pressure on this gifted young player too soon, but he’s going to have to do everything for this franchise, that has determined that mediocrity is good business.
Banchero will not only have to perform on the court (which shouldn’t be too hard given how much we lose) but be a catalyst for change for this Magic team off the court as well.
He’ll basically have to make us look cool in the eyes of the rest of the league.
Orlando doesn’t exactly appear on many wish lists for star free agents. LeBron James makes fun of us on HBO. Many of the previous young stars we’ve drafted end up just getting injured.
That’s not the fans fault. It’s probably not the fault of anyone that will end up reading this post. It’s the front office’s fault for being content with taking our money and consistently giving us a team that can’t win.
This won’t be anything too wild for our newest star. He played at Duke. He’s a Coach K player. He knows what its like to arrive on a team and have excellence demanded from him almost immediately.
If anything, the Magic organization will have to level up for him.
I’ll certainly be happy to see that. A bad NBA team makes for a bad downtown partner. Less fans in the seats means less customers for Church Street businesses.
Welcome to Orlando, Paolo. We hope that you can show us what a winning culture looks like.
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