Fri, Jun 1st 2007, 12:26
Thanks to everyone for responding to my last blog. Many of the suggestions were helpful and I will try to cover as many topics as possible over the coming weeks. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what my reaction is to the coaching situation of the Orlando Magic. First of all, I have nothing but respect for Coach Brian Hill as a person and as a coach. He’s definitely old-school in his mindset and I really believe that he helped the Magic grow over the last two years. While it was tough for me to spend a lot of time on the bench during my rookie year, I can only be positive about my future in the NBA. I started to become more comfortable with the NBA game over the second half of the season and feel that, for the most part, I did a good job when I got the opportunity to play. One of the things I learned this year is that you have to make the most of whatever playing time you get. Moving forward, I am definitely motivated by the results of my rookie campaign. Sitting on the bench for much of the season only gives me more fuel to be a great player in the league. In the last few weeks, the Magic Front Office decided it was time for a change and ended up hiring Billy Donovan. I think it’s a great fit for our team. We have a lot of young guys and Coach Donovan is a guy who can help develop us. I can remember back in high school when I was being recruited, Coach Donovan came up to Roanoke, VA to watch me play in an open gym at my high school. I was supposed to attend Florida’s “Midnight Madness” but I committed to Duke that week. Florida was definitely my second choice though. It’s safe to say things turned out okay for both parties. I had a great college experience at Duke and Florida won a couple National Championships. It’s interesting though how things come full circle. Now I actually get the chance to play for Coach Donovan and I’m definitely excited about it. The Magic are probably gonna make a run at some free agents this summer but all that is out of my control (and to all you Magic fans, I have no inside information. Trust me). As I’ve said before, I’m only focused on my own personal development this summer. It’s up to me to put in the work to become a better player.
A lot of y’all have asked me to comment about the Duke lacrosse situation. I am friends with a couple of the seniors on this year’s team (Matt Danowski and Mike Ward) and am friends with a bunch of last year’s seniors. They’re all good kids and this year’s team represented Duke University very well. I was happy to see them have such an outstanding season and wish it could have ended with a National Championship. The false allegations were unfortunate for both sides and I’m sure everyone wishes it had never happened. Hopefully, everyone can move on and lead a normal life.
Ok, well it’s Friday afternoon and I’m pretty tired from workouts this week so I’m going to go take a nap. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’ll post something soon and hopefully I’ll get some new pictures up next week. Stay classy.