After a decade of near-misses and bad luck, the Orlando Magic finally had their moment on Tuesday night when they won the NBA Draft Lottery. A fantastic turn of events for a franchise that is in dire need of a bounce to go their way, with one of their more famous fans missing the lottery in the hopes it would give the franchise a better chance to win.
Superstitious as that may be, it worked. The Magic will have their pick from an intriguing 2022 draft class. One that features possible standouts like Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero, and Jabari Smith, all of whom look like they could be a potential cornerstone for an organization that has been searching for one since 2012.
Orlando Magic fans everywhere are feeling a bit giddy by this turn of events, so let’s really lean into the optimism of it all and go a bit wild here.
It is time to look at some of the more wild and outrageous directions that the Magic are going to go after nabbing the top pick. After all, the two times that they’ve taken and kept the first pick before, they ended up with two Hall-of-Fame players in Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard. Both nicknamed Superman (sorry Shaq), and who both led the team to the finals.
We’re some way off that, but with the Magic having a young collection of intriguing talent already at their disposal, this feels like the moment when things begin to turn for them. We are still some way off free agents actually choosing to come down to Orlando to play, but no matter what, this group just became much-watch League Pass television next year.