News broke today that the Orlando Magic fired Coach Stan Van Gundy and GM Otis Smith. After a horrific handling of the Dwight Howard free agency sweepstakes; the Magic organization showed its flaws, lack of leadership and control within the organization. However, I don’t believe that Stan Van Gundy and Otis Smith are completely to blame for the implosion of the Orlando Magic team. In my opinion they gave Dwight Howard way more control than he should have been allotted. Don’t get me wrong, star players should not be ignored when discussing the hiring of staff, their voices need to be heard! However, their opinions should not be the final decision. It is well known that Dwight Howard asked for coach Stan Van Gundy to be fired on multiple occasions. Van Gundy knew of Howard’s demands and as imagined it created tension with their relationship that they could never seem to smooth out. The firing of Van Gundy and Otis is case of how to properly handle a superstar, there is a fine line between taking care of a superstar and appeasing a superstar. For example, Kobe Bryant has openly questioned some of the decisions made my the Laker organization, but when given the option to leave the Lakers he stayed. LeBron James who complained and demanded changes be made, although privately, within the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, when given the option he chose to leave when he didn’t feel like his demands would be met according to his time schedule. Granted, LeBron James was a free agent so he had the right to way his options, but one can’t help but to wonder if boundaries were set from the beginning would he have left the way he did. It seems like The Magic organization is going towards the Cleveland the route, allowing its superstar to dictate who stays and who goes, but they should be cautious about this approach, because it doesn’t necessarily mean that Dwight Howard will stay. While they clean house they should take a good look as to who and what the real problem. In my opinion it wasn’t the coach and it wasn’t necessarily all Otis Smith’s fault, but perhaps ownerships lack clarity as to who runs the team. Time will tell how things will pan out, but let’s hope that this offseason the Orlando Magic makes their organization much more professional.
