Heating Up the ’House

Shaquille O'Neal was walking around the TD Waterhouse Centre after an exhibition game earlier this year when someone asked him about Brian Hill's return as the Magic head coach.

"First thing he's going to try and do, is make this place hell to play in again," O'Neal said, waving his hand around the arena. "When he was coaching here the first time, he used to tell us all the time: 'Dominate at home! Don't let teams come in here and mess with you on your own floor!'

"And that's how we played. The crowd got into it, there was always a lot of energy ... and we were good. We dominated." There are some things Hill can't re-create in his second go-round as Magic head coach, but turning the TD Waterhouse Centre into a home-court advantage is one he's certainly working on.

There are plenty of cynics who question whether such a thing even exists in the NBA today. They point out that players get accustomed to hostile environments in high school or college and get so detached by the time they reach the NBA that where they play doesn't matter at all.

"If that's what you think, my response is: Take a look at the standings," Hill said. "Look up how many teams have a winning record on the road."

Last season, there were only six teams with winning road records. The year before that, there were five.

"What that tells me is that the home court obviously makes a big difference," Hill said. "The number of fans you have in the building, the energy they create ... players draw off that. When they walk out on the court and see a big crowd, a really loud crowd, I don't think there is any question that has a positive affect on them."

As O'Neal said, that was the case in Orlando during the mid-'90s run when the Magic were winning division titles and going to the NBA Finals. The Magic had a sellout streak that ran 247 games long. It's not a coincidence that their best home records - 39-2 in 1994-95 and 37-4 in 1995-96 - happened during that stretch.

"We thought we were unbeatable at home and pretty much, we were," said Dennis Scott, one of the Magic players from that era who clearly was better at home than he was on the road. "We were young and every time we played at home, we could feel the energy from the crowd and we fed off that. We'd get going, and the crowd would get going, and the next thing you know, we'd blow the top off the building. Nobody could beat us at home."

Hill remembers those teams and smiles broadly at the memory.

"Those were some pretty good teams, but there have been a lot of good teams since then and nobody has duplicated the record we had those two years," he said. "Our fans had a lot to do with it. They showed up every night, they were rabid every night and it got to be a little bit of an intimidation factor."

None of the current members of the Magic roster played in Orlando during those days, but they all know the feeling. There are some stops in the NBA where scenes like Scott described happen every night and visiting teams can't help but notice.

"Any night you go into Sacramento, it's going to be packed and the people are going to go crazy," Pat Garrity said. "That's the only game in town, and whether the Kings are winning or losing, it's always sold out, it's always loud and it's always a tough place to get a win."

"Utah is like that, too," said Bo Outlaw. "The seats are right on top of you and they've got the same people that have been going to games for 15, 20 years. They've always been loud and they're always behind their team.

"I know a couple of guys who've had the same seats under the basket forever. Every time you're shooting a free throw, they're standing up screaming at you, waving the same signs, saying the same stupid things that they did five or 10 years ago. They're just fanatics and to tell you the truth, it's great."

Hill wants that kind of atmosphere again at the TD Waterhouse Centre. He knows how important it is to rule your home court, not just in the regular season, but also in the playoffs.

"You're not going to be as successful as we want to be unless you dominate at home," he said. "We preach that to our guys every week. They have to develop the mindset that when they get on the floor at the TD Waterhouse Centre, they are not going to get beat.

"The X factor in that is the crowd. If you have a packed building, if the fans have a lot of energy and are really behind you, it's going to carry you on nights when our players just don't have the focus they need. I've seen it happen. That's part of today's NBA. It's what home-court advantage is all about and we need to get it back in Orlando."

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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.