General Manager Otis Smith’s opening comments…

“I’d like to introduce to Central Florida and to the Orlando Magic family, the newest member of the Orlando Magic, Courtney Lee. We are excited to have Courtney—he will be a very good addition to our young ball club.”

Courtney Lee’s opening comments…

“I would just like to thank Otis Smith and Coach Stan Van Gundy for the opportunity. I’m very excited about being a part of the Magic, I feel I can bring a lot to the table and I’m just going to go out everyday and just play as hard as I can and get better everyday.”

Lee on his reaction to being drafted by the Magic…

“It was kind of a different reaction. My first reaction was to try to find somebody to hug and my older brother came and tackled me and the tears just started to fall from there.”

Lee on the anticipation leading up to the pick…

“I definitely had a lot of nerves. My stomach was jumping up and down for the longest, when I heard my name it was just a big relief.”

Lee on being looked at as NBA-ready…

“Just knowing the style of play that Coach Van Gundy likes to play, he’s very assertive and he likes to be very aggressive on the defensive end and I feel that I can just come out and bring that intensity on the defensive end. Just being able to come in and contribute right away and having the skill level and being able to go to school for four years and get the experience and to come right in and be able to step in right away.”

Lee on whether or not going to college for four years gives him an advantage compared to other players…

“Oh definitely, I feel it really does because I’ve matured as a person and as a player and just learned a lot of things over that four-year stretch.”

Lee on how he’s matured…

“Just carrying myself off the court and just interacting with players and becoming a better leader, learning more how to interact with all types of players.”

Lee on whether or not he was NBA-ready after one year in college…

“I don’t think so. I was very raw and still had a lot to learn about the game.”

Lee on what role he will be playing…

“When I first got here it was a lot of welcoming, just talking about what was going on today so we really haven’t gotten to sit down and discuss that.”

Lee on rumors he heard during the draft…

“There was quite a few. There were a lot of teams saying they were trying to trade up, but I pretty much didn’t get that many details.”

Lee on what he knows about the Magic…

“I definitely know a lot about the Magic. I feel that they are a great organization, definitely a playoff team and a championship-caliber team. Just watching them I see that they like to get up and down the court a lot and definitely have a big inside presence with Dwight Howard so I feel I can make the transition into the team and fulfill any role that needs to be fulfilled.”

Smith on why he chose a shooting guard…

“Well, for me, our back court, we have a lot of free agents in our back court. We feel like Courtney could definitely play the two, and we watched him back in his sophomore year when he actually had a little bit of time playing a little bit of the point so for us its addressing an area of need at the same time getting a guy that we think can come in and play and contribute and compete. And we like competitors, the guys that are in that position now, J.J. [Redick] and Keith [Bogans], by any stretch of the imagination they aren’t going to lay down and I also think that this kid is not going to lay down. It makes our practices a little bit more competitive, it makes everybody on our team better when you have a lot of versatile pieces, guys that can play multiple positions.”

Head Coach Stan Van Gundy on playing rookies…

“Well I think two things. Number one is, as Otis just alluded to, the guard positions are going to change for us. We’ve got free agent guys out there so there’s going to be changes number one. So, the opportunity, even if we wanted to, to just say we’re going to just stand pat, it’s not going to be there. There’s going to be changes. Courtney will have the same opportunity as everybody else on the team to earn playing time. It doesn’t matter to us, I know it doesn’t matter to Otis and I know it doesn’t matter to me. First year, second year, 15th year—we’re going to play the guys that we think give us the best chance to win games and we expect everybody on our roster to be ready to both contribute and to go out and compete for playing. So he’ll get a great opportunity but he won’t get any more opportunity than anybody else on the roster but the opportunity will be there.”

Lee on coming into a situation where he will have an opportunity to play…

“It definitely feels good and just like coach just touched down on, nothings guaranteed so I still have to come out and practice and work as hard as the next man and compete.”

Lee on whether or not he feels he has something to prove…

“Oh, definitely. Coming from a mid-major school, you get that knock a lot. Now that I’m at the highest level, the Western Kentucky is off the front of my jersey and going into the workouts leading up to this you got to compete with the best in the world and I just want to continue to do that.”

Lee on his maturity during his freshman year when he got homesick…

“Going to summer school leading up to my freshman year I did get homesick. I was thinking about transferring back to somewhere close to home but I had a teammate, Danny Rumph, who passed away going into my sophomore year, took me under his wing and just showed me around and just stayed in my ear and was real supportive and positive with me.”

Lee on how close he was to transferring…

“It was real close, real close.”

Lee on how former teammate Danny Rumph helped him…

“He just stayed in my ear a lot, just talking to me telling me he went through the same thing. Me only just being three hours away really wasn’t that bad with him being from Philly which was 17 hours.”

Lee on how he remembers Rumph now…

“He was definitely one of my early on mentors in college; I just look at him as motivation. Just look at is as a blessing, just never take the game for granted because it can be taken from you any day, that’s why I just want to go out there and compete to the highest level and try to get better every day.”

Van Gundy on teaching Lee to play the point-guard position…

“Well, I think that it’s certainly not an easy thing to do and we don’t see that as his primary position. But a guy with his skills, I’ve obviously been through it when I was in Miami we took Dwayne [Wade] right out of college having played no point and he was a point guard through his entire rookie year. So if you have the skills and you have the mentality and the basketball IQ a guy like Courtney has, it’s certainly possible that he could play some good, productive minutes there for us , it wouldn’t concern me at all. I think certain types of guys, you’ve got to be a smart guy to do it and I think he certainly is that.”

Lee on playing point guard in college…

“I feel I did pretty well with it. The thing that I remember the most is just trying to get the ball up the court, in a reasonable time in the shot clock and just position my teammates to get shots.”

Van Gundy on Lee playing point guard…

“You can certainly tell, if you listen to Otis, his philosophy, and we’re definitely on the same page with this, whether it goes to the pick or how you play, you go get the best players you can get on your roster. The type of people you want the type of competitors you want. Then you figure out a way to get your best players on the floor together and if that’s Rashard Lewis moving to the four or you move Hedo Turkoglu to the two, you get basketball players and smart guys and tough competitors. When you have people like that you’ll find a way to get them on the floor together. I think at times, positions can be a little bit overdone and little bit over thought. Get good basketball players on the floor and they’ll figure it out most times.”

Lee on his game…

“I’m versatile, being able to knock down open shots when I’m open, being able to penetrate and create off the dribble and also being able to create for others.”

Lee on why he went to a mid-major…

“Coming out of high school, I played on a pretty good, talented team. We had a couple guys that went before me that went to bigger schools, but I wouldn’t say that I was overlooked I would just say it was a blessing in disguise.”

Lee on whether or not his grades were a factor in his college choice…

“Not really, coming into my freshman year I made decent grades but I wasn’t that serious but as I matured, my sophomore year as I realized I had the opportunity to play at the next level, I really focused in on that.”

Lee on whether or not he got a degree at Western Kentucky…

“Yes sir, in sociology and a minor in criminology.”

Lee on being prepared for NBA life off the court…

“I feel my family, my mother and two brothers, I have a strong supporting cast and so I feel that she did her best job of raising me and I know how to pick people closely and I feel that I’m prepared for that.”

Smith on Lee playing in summer league…

“Yeah (he’ll play), dress him up right away. Summer league you do for your draft picks and your younger guys so, it’d be hard for me to say he won’t play summer league, so we look forward to having him out there.”

Van Gundy on Lee playing summer league…

“Probably, pretty much every minute of every game. We might give him a little bit of rest but basically if there’s 200 minutes in that week, 198, 199, probably somewhere in there. It will be up to Patrick Ewing, but I guarantee you, this is Pat’s first crack at being a head coach so he’s going to want to win some games so I don’t think Courtney’s going to get much rest.”