So just how important is practice to a NBA team?

"PRACTICE!" squealed Magic guard Steve Francis, doing a dead-on impression of Allen Iverson's one-word quote that will go down in history.

"You talking about PRACTICE!"

Teammates and even a few members of management close enough to hear it, got a good laugh at Francis' near-perfect re-enactment of Iverson's disdainful discourse on the value of practice. To hear AI tell it, practice is no big deal. The real show starts when the curtain goes up at game time and anything else is just foolin' around time.

Magic players laugh at that notion.

"What you do in the game is just a reflection of what you do in practice," said Francis, turning serious about the issue. "You can't be out there learning offensive and defensive schemes during games. You've got to get that stuff down at practice. I know the best feeling a coach can have is seeing something we work on in practice work out in a game."

"Allen [Iverson] probably don't think much of practice because of the way he plays," Bo Outlaw said. "You can't practice the way that man plays in a game. He's all over the place doing all kinds of things.

"But most of us need practice. We need the feel of being in a game situation where there is some contact and movement and you can start to build an understanding of what everybody is supposed to do out there. If everybody is working hard like they should, you can gain a lot of confidence at practice as far as how you run your plays and how you can stop the other team from running their plays."

Practice is where Brian Hill is expected to make his most lasting impression on the Magic team this season. Hill is a graduate of the New York-New Jersey school of basketball that says practice is your classroom and if you're not turning out A students, your won-loss record is going to show it. Hubie Brown is the dean of that school that includes Mike Fratello, P.J. Carlesimo, Richie Adubato and Hill, to name just a few.

"Practice is where you lay down the foundation for everything you do, and yes, I do regard it as my personal classroom," Hill said. "It's where you establish your work ethic, your ability to fight through fatigue, your ability to concentrate, your willingness to go a little farther than you thought you could to get something accomplished."

Coaches and players agree the key ingredient to any practice is a commitment to hard work. No practice in a team sport can re-create the intensity and speed of a real game, but basketball comes closest. Even your local YMCA player can attest that it's easy to get competitive when somebody delivers an elbow to the head on a rebound or outruns you down the floor for a fastbreak layup. The action tends to speed up for both sides when something like that happens.

And it happens a lot.

"I know I always feel better about the next game after a good practice," Magic forward Pat Garrity said. "You get so much confidence when you know you've worked hard and really have a handle on what the coaching staff is trying to teach. They [the coaches] know it, too." The length of Hill's practice often changes based on the effort he's getting from players.

"I've said it many times to our players: We can get it all accomplished in 90 minutes if everyone stays focused and works hard at every drill," Hill said. "Or we can be out there two, two and half hours trying to get people motivated enough to work hard. It's really up to the players to decide and fortunately for us, we've got a good group. They come prepared to work, and we've got a lot accomplished because of it."

"A lot of that has to do with the coaching staff," Garrity said. "Brian likes a lot of five-on-five, game-type situations, and if we're not doing something right, even if it's just a little nit-picky thing, we keep doing it until we get it right. That's not always the way it's been done here."

The Magic coaching staff prepares for practices in much the same way they do for games. They meet for 90 minutes before each practice to identify areas of concern that need to be addressed. They may use film of recent practices or games to verify or pinpoint those areas. The practice time is then divided into teaching blocks and detailed assignments are issued for each coach on what he is expected to accomplish in that block.

"Brian demands a certain level of proficiency during practice and he won't stop until we reach that level," said Magic assistant Tom Sterner, who is on his second tour of duty as a member of Hill's staff. "Every aspect of our practices gets critiqued. When things start slipping a little because of fatigue, Brian doesn't allow players to give in. He forces them through those periods and makes them realize that we're not going to move on until they get it right."

Sterner said that aspect of Hill's coaching is really evident near the end of practice. Sterner compares it to the last period of a school day when students are more interested in hearing the final bell [or whistle] than learning any more about the subject.

"Most people aren't going to push themselves through a wall we all hit at some point in the day," Sterner said. "That's when Brian tries to get players to realize you can push yourself through the wall. When you get to the end of a game and all those same elements are there -- fatigue, frustration, conditioning -- you realize you've pushed yourself through it at practice so you can do it in the game."

Not every practice is successful. Players lose confidence during losing streaks or show fatigue from travel or simply can't find the right gear that day.

"That's when you have to decide whether to keep banging away at it until they get it or move on to another topic or maybe even come back to it another day," Hill said. "It happens, but you try and make sure it's a rarity. You're not going to accomplish much if you're not practicing well."

There are more days when things do go well and it feels almost like you've won a game.

"You know you've had a good practice when your team stays focused through every drill and there's not a lot of sloppy stuff like careless passes or bad shot selection or just running plays randomly with no purpose," Hill said. "When there is a lot of communication, especially at the defensive end, when guys are going through practice at game speed, when there is a lot of energy on the floor ... those are really good days and believe me, it shows up in the next game.

"I've always said: Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect."

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This story originally appeared in the December issue of Magic Magazine. Get your favorite Magic fan a subscription to Magic Magazine! To subscribe call 1-877-841-7070 or e-mail subscription.service@skies.com and specify you want Magic Magazine. A one-year subscription is $18.95 and two-year is just $24.95.