Another day, another questionable Mike Bianchi column. As I’ve already discussed here, I think Bianchi is one of the best in the business when he puts his mind to it. There are just some columns, like the one in today’s Sentinel, and the one from a couple of weeks ago, that leave me scratching my head.

In today’s column, Bianchi argues that Otis Smith deserves a big share of the credit for the Magic’s playoff success. I agree with him, to a point, because Smith put this team together, but what I don’t agree with is the timing of the column, and the reasons Bianchi lists as to why Smith deserves so much praise.

First of all, Bianchi wrote this column after the Magic advanced into the second round of the playoffs, by beating Toronto. My problem is that the Magic were a better team than Toronto, any Magic fan will tell you that the team they have struggled with the most in the last few years is Detroit.

Now, if they can beat the Pistons in the second round of the playoffs, I will be impressed, and I believe that is when Otis Smith should get all the credit he deserves, and then some. He will have identified what the team needed to get past Detroit, a squad that has given the Magic fits, in the last few years.

It is definitely an accomplishment to be playing in the second round, but if the Magic can’t get past Detroit, what have they really accomplished?

My other problem with this column are the reason Bianchi lists as to why Smith should be praised. His words are in quotes, mine will come after those.

*We critics said Smith was crazy for believing in point guard Jameer Nelson and signing him to a lucrative extension during the offseason. Well, in the first round of the playoffs against the Toronto Raptors, Nelson averaged 17.2 points and outplayed perhaps the best point guard tandem in the league.

It’s true that Nelson played very well in the first round, and outplayed Toronto’s point guard tandem of T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon. The problem though, is that Nelson has never struggled against smaller guards like Ford, and slower guards off the dribble like Calderon. He’s struggled against big, physical guards, specifically, Chauncey Billups, whom he will face in Round 2, when the Magic play the Pistons.

For years, Billups has dominated Nelson, continually posting him up in the blocks on offense, and getting into his head on defense. Again, if Nelson and the Magic can get by Billups and the Pistons in the second round, then this column would make a lot more sense. Otherwise, how can you justify that giving Jameer Nelson a 6 year, 36 million dollar contract before the season was a good move?
If they don’t beat the Pistons, then why does Smith deserve any credit?

*His critics said Smith was insane for signing free agent Rashard Lewis to a $118 million contract during the offseason. Lewis (27 points and 13 rebounds) carried the Magic in Game 4 against the Raptors and his steadiness and unselfishness have been key components to the franchise’s breakout season.

Lewis played very well in almost every game of the first-round series, but Smith will probably still be viewed as insane by his peers, if the Magic don’t win a championship. Again though, that’s my problem with this column, the Magic have made it to the second round of the playoffs, if they go and get beat by the Pistons, and they are still on the hook for almost 140 million to Lewis and Nelson over the next six years, then where do they go? For better or worse, this is the team the Magic will be playing with for the next few years, because of their salary cap situation. If they can’t beat the Pistons, then they’ll be right back where they were before, on the outside looking in.

*His critics claimed Smith was asleep at the wheel for standing pat while other teams like Dallas and Phoenix were pulling off high-profile deals ( Jason Kidd and Shaq) at the trade deadline. Guess what? The Magic are still playing while the Mavs and Suns are out of the playoffs and either firing their coaches or on the verge of it.

Out of all of Bianchi’s claims, this one made the least sense to me. This is like comparing apples and oranges. The Magic play in the Eastern Conference, the Mavericks and Suns play in the Western Conference. The Magic didn’t have to make any moves to get out of the first round in the Eastern Conference, they were the better team, they were supposed to win. The Mavs and Suns had to try and make some moves, because they wouldn’t have made it out of the first round with they way they were both constructed.

A good GM is like a good gambler — you have to know when to hold ‘em (standing pat at the trade deadline) and know when to fold ‘em (dumping Francis). Smith doesn’t make moves just to make moves. He doesn’t just look at talent and technique; he looks at chemistry and camaraderie.

Again, how can Bianchi claim, right now, after the first round, that the Magic were smart to stand pat at the trade deadline? How can he claim, as he did in the column, that it is “easy to overlook Smith’s questionable draft picks,” when you make moves like he has. Consider this: How good would this Magic team be if they hadn’t selected Fran Vazquez and J.J. Redick in the NBA Draft? Or if they hadn’t traded away their pick in ‘07 to get Darko Milicic?

The part of the column that stood out the most to me, were the last few paragraphs.

He regularly walks the halls and asks everyone in the organization, “What have you done to make the Orlando Magic champions?”

If we were to ask the same question of Otis Smith, he’d probably answer, “Nothin’ much.”

But we know better.

We know he’s done just about everything.

Done just about everything? Seriously? After the first round of the playoffs? Look, I have no problem praising general managers, but the praise should at least be deserved. If the Magic can find a way to beat the Pistons, and advance in the NBA Playoffs, then people should praise Smith, but not after a first-round win over the Raptors.

As I flipped through the Sentinel this morning, I realized that there was a huge ad on the back page. Sometimes, a car dealership will buy a full-page ad in the back page so I wasn’t expecting much, but when I saw what the ad was for, I was surprised.

That’s because it was a full-page ad for Powerade, and the person featured in the ad was none other than Rashard Lewis. Now, let me start off by saying that I think Lewis is a very good player. The Magic would not be where they are this year without them, and from all the reports I’ve seen, he seems like a genuinely nice guy too.

Having said that, I think Lewis is extremely overpaid. I am not blaming him for that at all though, hey if somebody wants to give me 118 million dollars I’ll take it. I blame the Magic for making that decision.

The thing is, I can’t understand why a major company, like Powerade, would pay Lewis to be a spokesperson for their product, and why they would feature him in a full-page ad. Like I said, Lewis is a good player, but is he really worthy of a full-page ad, and endoresement deal with Powerade?

Endorsement deals should be reserved for athletes who can actually help sell a product. When was the last time you heard anyone say, “Hey I want to go to the game to see Rashard Lewis play.” Or how about, “Hey, I’m going to drink Powerade because Rashard Lewis drinks Powerade.” I just don’t see that happening.

Having worked for an agent, I know how important they can be to an athlete’s success, especially in terms of how they are marketed. That’s where I think the credit should go in this situation. Lewis’s agent Tony Dutt, not only got Lewis a max contract, he now has gotten him a Powerade endorsement deal as well.

While he’s no Tom O’Connell (my old boss), he has definitely proven that he can make his clients some money.

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.

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.