Basketball club "Orlando Magic": history of the club, symbols, legendary players

Despite its relatively small age, the Orlando Magic basketball team performing in the NBA Eastern Conference is known to many fans of the popular game. In its time, stars such as Shaquille O'Neill, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter and Grant Hill performed for it.

History of the club

In 1989, as a result of the expansion of the number of NBA clubs, Orlando Magic was given the right to take part in the most prestigious basketball tournament in America. But the history of the team began a little earlier.

In 1985, there was the idea of creating a professional basketball club in Orlando. For this, businessman Jimmy Hewitt together with the mayor of the city Bill Frederic made a pledge of 100 thousand dollars to get the right to participate in the contest.

At the same time, the local press established a prize for the best name of the future club. Of more than 4 thousand options, the word Magic was chosen - "Magic".

In 1986 appeared the first official name of the club - "Orlando Magic". After a season of fans another wonderful news waited: as a result of expansion of a league the command has acquired the right to participate in games under aegis of NBA.

November 4, 1989 the debut game for "Orlando Magic" took place. In a completely filled home arena, they took "Nets" from New Jersey and failed to win, losing with a score of 111: 106. But two days later, after defeating the "New York Knicks" on the road, the club won the first historic victory.

Over the next 21 season, the team played 12 times in the playoffs of the conference, and in 2008-09 managed to even reach the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Command symbols

As you know, any NBA team has its own symbolism: emblem, form and talisman. For its existence, "Magic" three times changed the emblem. Now it's a blue basketball flying under the name of the club.

Traditional shape colors also changed 5 times. The home kit is white with a blue border on the T-shirts. The exit form is made in blue or blue. Front on home T-shirts there is an inscription Magic, while on the guests - Orlando. The design of the form has not changed since 2005.

Since the day of foundation, the official mascot "Orlando Magic" is a green dragon named Staff, who concurrently is a slam-dunk coach for the club's support team.

Legends of "Magic"

The basketball club "Orlando Magic" has always been famous for the fact that it opened new talented players. In 1992, the draft was chosen by a little-known center from Louisiana Shaquille O'Neill, who later became a world-class legend. The number "32", under which he played, has not been issued to any player since. O'Neill played for the "Magic" four seasons, and then moved to the "Los Angeles Lakers", in which several times became the champion of the NBA.

In 2000, a new star appeared in Orlando - Tracy McGrady. With his help, the team for three seasons in a row made its way into the round of the playoffs, and the basketball player twice took part in the match of all NBA stars.

Four years later, the student of Dwight Howard, who was destined to become the new leader of the team, was selected for the "Orlando Magic" draft. In one of the games, the rising star managed to set a personal record - 28 points and 26 rebounds.