That may not be such a big overstatement. For the first time possibly in the history of the city, Orlando will play host to two major league sporting events on the same day. First, the Magic will be playing at home against the Raptors in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Out at Disney, the Tampa Bay Rays will play “host” to the Toronto Blue Jays in the first of a three game series.

I can’t remember the city ever having two games, as large as these, happening on the same day. The thing I just can’t seem to grasp is why in the world the Rays would have scheduled these games at Disney while the Magic are in the playoffs. They saw the NBA schedule just like everybody else, obviously, they didn’t believe the Magic would be that good. How else can you explain why they would have scheduled the games the way they did?

You’ve got to think that the Magic being in the playoffs will have a major impact on the attendance, and overall coverage, the Rays will get out at Disney. I would be out at the baseball game on almost any other day, but I want to see the Magic in the playoffs instead.

You’ve also got to figure that the Sentinel will devote a hefty portion of its space to the Magic, and push the Rays to the back pages.

The Rays supposedly scheduled these games to try and drum support in the Central Florida area, but their target audience is basically the same as the Magic’s.

Where would you rather be if you were a local fan in town, at a playoff basketball game, or a regualr season baseball game?

At least, for once, local fans will be able to make that choice for themselves.

The Magic’s slogan for the playoffs this year is “Blue and White Ignite.” I’ll be the first to admit that when I originally heard that that was the slogan, I thought it was incredibly dumb. Considering that the people in the Magic’s marketing department were the same people who brought us last year’s unbelieveably stupid slogan of “Code Blue,” I wasn’t expecting much.

(For the record the “Code Blue” slogan during last year’s playoffs should go down as one of the single dumbest ideas in the history of sports marketing. The term “Code Blue” is used when a person is on the verge of death and their heart has stopped. I mean, I guess you could say the Magic were “Code Blue” last year, they got crushed by the Pistons. The same Pistons, by the way, who wear blue jerseys on the road. So, when they played in Orlando last year, and everybody in the stands was wearing blue, it looked, to the casual viewer, like everybody was supporting the Pistons….)

Having said all that, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw when I walked in. There was a blue shirt or a white shirt in every person’s seat. Half the crowd was blue, half the crowd was white. It looked good. The problem though, is that unless the Magic plan on giving every fan either a blue or white shirt every game, this Blue and White Ignite idea will never work. Most fans don’t care enough to wear one specific color during the game, let alone one color in regards to where your seat is.

Today, I was a the Blue/White border. I was in blue, the girl next to me was in white. What happens if I sit in a different seat on Tuesday? You get the point. Giving away a free t-shirt that you are supposed to wear, also leads to the always awkward double shirt look. I had on a collared shirt when I walked in, so for the first few minutes, I tried the t-shirt over the collared shirt look, it didn’t work.

Luckily, I had the foresight to take off the collared shirt, and just put the t-shirt on. The same could not be said for the older people sitting in our section. They shoved the shirt on over whatever they had on. It made for some really strange combinations, include the always stellar, t-shirt, long sleeve polo, and tie combination.

There is only one thing that drives me crazier than a person who wears the free t-shirt over the rest of their clothes, and that is the person who doesn’t wear the free t-shirt at all. Usually those people fall into two categories. The first is the, “I’m too cool for the free t-shirt guy.” If Budweiser’s real men of genius haven’t written a song about this guy yet, they should.

Dude, you aren’t that cool. Nobody cares that you are wearing a neon green shirt, when everyone else is wearing a blue or white one. Yes, you stand out, but it’s only because you look like an idiot.

The second person who refuses to wear the free t-shirt is the “I’m too hot for the free t-shirt girl.”

Sweetheart, I’ve got news for you… you aren’t that hot. If you were, you wouldn’t be sitting at the game by yourself in a black mini-dress, trying to flirt with the beer man. Yes, you too stand out, but for all the wrong reasons. Everybody is secretly laughing at you, because aren’t looking good.

This whole idea of all fans wearing the same colored shirts during playoff games is played out. It was cool like ten years ago, when I think the Avalanche had a “White Out,” during one of their playoff games. It’s just not cool anymore, because there will always be neon green shirt guy in the crowd, who wants to be different.

Sadly, the Magic aren’t alone in the playoff marketing stupidity. The Cavs, under the slogan of “Rise Up,” tried something similar the other day, when it looked like fans were given a yellowish/gold t-shirt upon entry. That’s great, but as far as I could tell, the Cavs weren’t wearing much yellow/gold at all, and the closest thing to yellow/gold on the court were the jerseys the Wizards had on.

Since when did the playoffs even need a slogan? The playoffs are when fans should want to be at the games the most. It’s the most exciting time of the year. Teams should just save the money on marketing and put it towards something else.

My buddy and I went to the Magic game earlier today and I was impressed with what I saw. Sure, the game was great. At some points, especially early, the Magic dominated. Dwight Howard is so ridiculously good that it’s scary. The team needs to work on its perimeter defesne, but they have time to figure it out.

What impressed me even more than the team though was that the fans were back into the game. The O-Rena (I refuse to call it the Amway Arena) was rocking at different times throughout the day. There were some times when the crowd was out of it, and the lack energy affecte the team, but when the crowd was into the game, that place was loud, like how it used to be in the old days.

The coolest part of the entire day came as we walked out of the arena. Before the game each fan was handed a noise maker as they walked in. I don’t really like noise makers, but it made the place even louder. Anyway, as we walked outside, a spontaneous let’s go Magic cheer was started by the fans.

“Let’s go Magic!!!” And then you heard the thunder from everybody making noise with the giveaway toys. “Let’s go Magic…” It echoed all the way up the street until we walked out of the parking lot.

It’s the first time since the Shaq/Penny era where I can remember fans being genuinely excited about the team. I’m not saying it’s anywhere close to that level of excitement, it’s not. I’m just saying that people around town are getting excited about the team again, where it goes from here is all up to the team.

That’s why this playoff run is the most important one the Magic have had in the last decade. The team is actually good again. They have a chance to get this whole city to fall in love with the Magic again. You could see the seeds being planted today, people want to support the team, but the only way that will happen is if they win.

If the Magic continue to win, mark my words, this city will go nuts for them once again.

For years, I have listened to some of my buddies complain about The Orlando Sentinel. When they do, I always ask them the same question, “What is it that you don’t like so much?” Everybody has different opinions, but the one I hear most often is that the coverage is biased towards a particular person or team.

I am sure it is a criticism that every newspaper deals with, no matter how you report the news, somebody is going to find something wrong with the way you do it.

I have tried to defend the Sentinel in most cases, because I know some of the people who work there, and I know they work extremely hard. As I have said in this blog before, when I left Syracuse, one of the first papers that gave me a chance to write was the Sentinel, and I will always be grateful for that.

Despite what my friends say, I believe that the Sentinel usually does a good job toeing the line between covering the news, and cozying up too close to sources. Having said that, there was something in today’s paper that I felt crossed the line. It was Mike Bianchi’s column about the lack of fan interest in the Magic’s first-round playoff series against the Raptors.

Bianchi argues that the Magic shouldn’t have to beg fans to come see their playoff games. He believes that each game should be a sell-out because the team is good, and as a city, residents should get behind the team.

These are valid points. It’s the rest of the column that I have problems with though. The more you read into this column, the more it starts to sound like a member of the Magic’s PR Department wrote it. Bianchi lists a series of arguments (that I have put into block quotes), my words come after each set of quotes:

“You can’t say this team is just some one-and-done playoff pattycake. The Magic won a division championship for the first time in a dozen years. They have more than 50 wins for the first time since the days of Shaq and Penny. They have not lost a single series this season to an Eastern Division foe and have the second-best road record in the league.”

That’s all true, but this team also has some serious question marks on it. They don’t have a legitimate point guard. They don’t have a big man who can come in and score if Howard gets into foul trouble. And while I think they are going to knock off the Raptors, who says they will? The first time the Shaq and Penny led Magic went into the playoffs in ’94, they were a four seed, and got swept away by the fifth seeded Pacers. Let’s see how Howard and Lewis do in their first trip together.

You can’t say management hasn’t spent money in an attempt to get better. The Magic paid $118 million for Rashard Lewis in the offseason and another $120 million extending Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson. That’s $230 million for three players. Who do these guys think they are — the Yankees infield?

No, but you can say that they haven’t spent it well. Signing Howard was a no-brainer, but they so obscenely overpaid for Lewis and Nelson that even Steinbrenner is probably laughing at them.

You can’t say the Magic don’t have star power. I mean, come on, they have Superman on their roster. Does it get any better than that?”

Yes, it does in fact, get better than that. Howard is great, but I would rather have the star power of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen on my team heading into the playoffs.

The list goes on, but when reading those it just sounds like they came straight from an employee of the Magic.

My other big problem with this column is that Bianchi is too good of a writer to continue to use this same angle. I can’t tell you how many times in the last few years he has played the “Come on Orlando, we’re a Major League Town” card in some of his columns.

Conference USA Title Games…”If we don’t fill the stadium up we won’t look good on ESPN.”

New downtown stadium project…”If we don’t build them, we’ll end up like Birmingham!”

I love the passion, but you can’t write the same thing so many times. Orlando is just not a good sports town. Period. I’ve lived here pretty much all my life, and the only time I have ever really seen people get excited about sports was when the Magic were good in the mid ’90s, and when two local Little League teams made it to Williamsport. That’s it. People care about football here, but the only true local team we have, aside from the Magic, is UCF, and they are not a major program right now, no matter what they say.

Instead of writing this column, I wish Bianchi would have written about why fans don’t seem as into the Magic, as they were in the Shaq/Penny era. There have been glimpses this season that things are going back to how they used to be, (both Boston home games come instantly to mind) and there have been a lot of sellout crowds this season. But, I have also been to several games where there are scores of empty seats, and people just don’t seem to care.

Even more than that though, back in the days of Shaq and Penny, you couldn’t walk around town without somebody talking about the Magic. You just don’t hear that anymore though. Why doesn’t somebody write about that?

Now, do I really believe that the Magic had anything to do with the way this column was written…no. I don’t think the people at the Sentinel would let that happen. Furthermore, I think that Mike Bianchi is one of the best columnists in the country, when he puts his mind to it. But, in this case, I think he could have done a lot better.

While we’re on the topic of the Magic, I was watching Jim Rome is Burning yesterday, and caught Rome’s interview with Doc Rivers. Doc always seems to be honest in his interviews, and that was the case yesterday as well, something he said at the end though really got my attention.

Rome essentially asked him what it was like to know that Danny Ainge had his back, even when the Celtics stunk. The full transcript of the question and answer is below.

Rome: How much does it mean to you that Danny Ainge stood by you and extended you and said this is my guy, we’re in it with him?

Doc: Well, it was key. It was really important. He has been fantastic with me. He understood what we had. You know before the year started last year he told me it’s going to be a tough one, you’re going to have to have to stand in there, and I really need you to do that, and I’ll stand behind you…

You know Jim it’s rare in our profession when that happens. You know how it works, a lot of times they (other teams) tell you you’re going to work with a young team, and then in the middle of that when the losing starts, you don’t feel the support.

I didn’t have that in my case (with the Celtics), I’m very lucky and I understand that every day I coach that I had great ownership and Danny Ainge behind me and that was very important to my success.”

The conclusion I drew from this is that Doc is still mad at the Magic for dumping him. He liked it in Orlando (he still has a house in town), he wanted to stay for a long time, and he felt that he wasn’t given the time to turn things around. While he didn’t flat out say it in this interview, I belive that Doc feels like he was lied to by the Magic’s front-office people, and if I had to guess, it might be John Gabriel he is still most upset with.

I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again now, I think Doc is a good coach. He shouldn’t have been fired when he was, but even he conceded, that’s just how it is most of the time in the NBA. Even in that last year in Orlando though, his teams always played hard, that team in 2003 was just TERRIBLE.

The team won its first game and then lost 10 in a row and Doc was gone. I think the team ended up losing 18 or 19 in a row…whatever…they were bad. It just goes to show you that no matter how great a coach is, they can’t win without talent, and that team in 2003 didn’t have much at all.

Look at some of those names…Desmond Penigar, Sean Rooks, Britton Johnson, Mengke Bateer, Derrick Dial, Reece Gaines, Steven Hunter….I know Grant Hill was hurt, but come on, they signed Juwan Howard to a big deal. I mean nobody would have won with this team, even with Tracy McGrady on it. The ’03-04 Magic team reminds me a lot of this year’s Heat squad…

It brings up an interesting point though, especially when you look at those last two names, Reece Gaines, and Steven Hunter. Those players were first-round draft picks by the Magic. Who pulled the trigger on those picks? Was it Gabriel or Doc? If it was Gabriel, that really wouldn’t surprise anyone, he made lots of bad picks as the GM, just like lots of other GMs.

But if it was Doc, then that proves two things. First, the Devos Family got fed up with his personnel decsions, and let him go because of that. And secondly, this time around in Boston, Ainge makes all the personnel calls, and Doc just focuses on coaching.

Either way, both Doc, and the Magic, are in much better situations than they were before, but there is no doubt that Doc still harbors some ill-will towards the team that let him go.

There are reports coming out of Memphis that Derrick Rose will declare for the NBA Draft. If this is indeed the case, the Magic need to do everything in their power to get him to Orlando. He would be the perfect fit for the team.

The Magic are a solid squad, but they are still missing a couple pieces that would be push them closer to the top in the NBA. What’s the most glaring hole? The lack of a top of the line point guard. I still can’t understand for the life of me why Otis Smith gave Jameer Nelson a 6 year, 36 million dollar deal before the season started. That deal doesn’t even kick in until next year.

Jameer Nelson is a solid NBA backup point guard, he is by no means a frontline starter. So here is what I am proposing: The Magic should put together a package for whichever team gets the pick that would land Rose, (probably #2 or #3)

That package would include Nelson, a couple first round picks, and….Hedo Turkoglu. In exchange the Magic would receive the draft rights to Rose, and probably one or two really crappy contracts, to make the numbers work.

A couple things to consider: First, I love Hedo. He should have been an all-star this year and he has had an outstanding season. He’s in the prime of his career, at age 29, and is a bargain at about six million dollars a season.

It would be tough to let him go, but it would be the best thing the Magic could do. Rose would give the Magic something they have been missing for a long time…a real-life point guard, who looks to pass first, and gets others involved. The last time the team had one of those players, the guy also came from Memphis….his name was Penny Hardaway…and he helped lead the Magic to the Finals….a place they won’t be going as long as Nelson is at the helm.

The addition of Rose would also get Rashard Lewis back to his preferred spot of small forward, giving the Magic this starting line-up next season: PG–Rose, SG–Maurice Evans. (assuming the team re-signs him), SF–Lewis, PF–Battie, C–Howard…

Assuming that Smith decides to re-sign either Dooling or Arroyo…the team becomes set a point guard….at shooting guard…Dooling, or Bognas would continue to spell Evans….Smith could use the mid-level exception to bring in a replacement for Evans, or a quality 2/3 to come in for Lewis….

Battie would hold down the four spot, and if Adonal Foyle re-signs, he would provide a solid 10-12 minutes a game. The five spot is reserved for Howard, who is only getting better.

This trade would give the Magic a young, and talented nucleus, of Howard, Lewis, and Rose, and would make them a powerful contender for years to come. Rose will be 20 years old when the season starts next season, and Howard will still be just 22….the possibilities with these two on the same team are endless.

So, can it work? I don’t know. The numbers would have to work, and there can’t be many teams that would be ecstatic about adding Nelson. The Magic have a great bargaining chip in Turkoglu, but that might not be enough. As a long-time NBA fan though, one of the many things I’ve learned is that there is always a GM who is stupid enough to make a bad trade.