Even if it's broke it doesn't ALWAYS need fixing

You never find a foam 2-finger hand emblazoned with "We're #2". Nobody wears those silly hats and t-shirts that they give out for conference championships. My 5 year old doesn't even like his participation trophies. I don't expect pro franchises to be any happier. There just isn't any celebrating when you don't win it all.

This kind of dissatisfaction is why you can't blame the Magic. They didn't win the Championship; that joy went to the Lakers. So the knee jerk reaction, which they went with, was change. So they trade away Courtney Lee and they aren't really making offers towards Hedo Turkoglu that he is willing to play for. So what is their new solution: Vince Carter. I know it feels right to go with a big name wing-man to help overcome Kobe. But just because they lost didn't mean they we're broken; it doesn't mean they needed fixing. In fact by trying to improve they likely took a step backward.



A big part of their success, in fact the key to it, was the fact you MUST prepare for Dwight Howard in the middle. His size and athleticism make him a force. The second and more important prong of the Magic's attack is that all that time you spent preparing for superman took away the time you could have spent planning for their perimeter shooting. Because Dwight isn't yet developed enough to be a sole force, or even a primary one.

Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu have acknowledged that they tend to shoot in spurts. One of them will be hitting while the other can't seem to find his touch. While they both make a lot of money to combine for a consistent outside shooting threat, the fact is any single shooter goes through streaks. Without one to fill in for the other the Magic wont have the consistent scoring threat they need to support Howard.

Vince Carter is a scorer, and he will get his. He has gotten his everywhere he has played. But he has also never won it all anywhere he has played. He has also shown that when he is unhappy he will NOT play hard. Vince Carter's surly demeanor aside, he just doesn't fit with the Magic's style of play. As he drives and slashes he will find himself with only half a court to play with. He wont be able to drive on the side that Howard is posted and even if he drives on the off side he will still face Howard's man coming with help.

It's not mine but I have learned to like Colin Cowherd's "don't try to get happier than happy". The Magic should be Happy but they are trying to get happier. They have sacrificed a team with no ME players that got to the mountain top as a cohesive unit. In my first prediction for the 2009-2010 NBA season: The Magic wont make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

All Star Dunk Contest

It wasn't that what I saw was amazing. It was that the dunks were unbelievable. Not unbelievable in the sense that we normally use it. I mean in it was unbelievable in the sense that I literally couldn't have thought of some of the dunks that were pulled off.

All totalled Dwight Howard, the eventual winner, puled off four dunks. Every one of them would have been a winning final dunk in most years of the contest. Though it is good he brought them this year, because he needed all of them. Gerald Green had a final dunk type of performance on all but one dunk.

Dwight Howard Round 1 Dunk 1

• Howard came from behind the glass bouncing the ball of the backside and coming under to dunk the ball.

Gerald Green Round 1 Dunk 1

• Green had teammate Rashad McCants place a cupcake with a lit candle on the back of the Rim. Green than ran up, catching the ball in mid air from McCants, blew out the candle and thendunked the ball without disturbing the cupcake.

Dwight Howard Round 1 Dunk 2

• Dwight Howard stripped off his Magic uniform to reveal a superman undershirt. He then put on a red cape. He took off without the ball from mid court and flew from just inside the freethrow to catch the ball in mid-air. He may have made it to the basket to dunk, but he decided not to risk it by throwing the ball down from about 4 feet away

Gerald Green Round 1 Dunk 2

• McCants climbed to the top of a ladder and held the ball out. Green elevated to take the ball from him and throw it down windmill style.

At thie point the first round ended and I knew already this was the best dunk contest I have seen. Magic also made a funny comment regarding the scores the 5 judges were handing out. "3 of us have never dunked." 2 of 3 has to be himself and Karl Malone. I am guessing he meant dunked with style because Darryl Dawkins was the 3rd that he was referring to and the only dunk he knows is the backboard breaker.

Gerald Green Round 2 Dunk 1

• Gerald Green pulled off the Vince Carter style alley-oop between the legs and windmill in dunk. It was good but a re-do of a past duk wasn't gonna get it done, today.

Dwight Howard Round 2 Dunk 1

• Howard left from midcourt lobbing the ball off the bounce to himself in the middle of the key caught the ball with his left hand then threw it back of the glass and dunked with his right. It seems like I left out the part where he went down and jumped back up. That is because he pulled off all of that while still in the air.

Gerald Green Round 2 Dunk 2

• Green pulled off the same dunk he had for the first one this round. The big difference was he took his shoes off and signed them for the judges, then performed the dunk barefoot. Darryl Dawkins didn't think much of it though, he knocked the shoes off the judges table.

Dwight Howard Round 2 Dunk 2

• Howard took a nerf type Orlando Magic mini rim and stuck it to the backboard. He then placed the ball on top of it. He came from the side grabbed the ball from it's mini hoop and slammed it through the real hoop. Though it did take a few tries.

Howard ended up winning not only the 5 judges over, he won the text in fan vote 70/30.