Magic Front Office Press Conference Transcript
Bob Vander Weide:
“This is a little different press conference; we aren’t talking about players, we are talking about leadership. I’ve been doing this 20 years and it’s all about winning on the court but it’s also about having the right people leading not only the team, but the team of people that make up an organization like this. Today I’m very proud to be here in front of you and say we have a great team of leadership. Alex Martins leading the business side, Otis Smith leading the basketball side and Stan Van Gundy leading our team. We as a family have been at this some 20, 21 years. Sometimes it’s all a blur, sometimes you want to forget about the adversity you’ve gone through, but the last few years have been pretty darn special and they have been awesome from the standpoint of how we’ve been led. And so today I announce to you not only an extension moving forward into the new Amway Center, but in leadership a new position for President Alex Martins and President of Basketball Operations Otis Smith, and an extension for Stan Van Gundy. I could not sit in front of you and say there are a better threesome to lead the Orlando Magic in where we are going next. There is a lot of excitement, a Finals two years ago, a Conference Finals last year and a great new building to move into for this community. We as a family are really proud of (Alex and Otis) and Stan, and look forward to the years ahead of success on and off the court. I thank you all for being here. Those are my brief comments.”
What were the reason for making the promotions at this time?
Vander Weide: “I think one of the things in any business, let alone sports, is consistency on leadership in an organization. We’ve had a good trend and track record and it’s probably only natural to extend and promote from within based on performance and these folks have performed very well.”
Are these promotions a sign of ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it?’
Vander Weide: “Well I don’t think we are broke in any way, shape or form. We only want to get better and this is a little bit of good, better, best. We have yet to hold up the gold trophy but that’s where we are heading and this team of leadership wants to do that. I don’t think there is any group that’s more passionate than them and we are willing to put dollars, energy and time into from every aspect.”
Will Alex’s and Otis’ day-to-day duties change following their promotions?
Vander Weide: “I think most of it is more of the same. One of the new opportunities we have, I just toured the new building yesterday, and to live the building and all that new revenue and all the new experiences for the fan base and customer base, that’s going to be an extreme new opportunity for Alex to manage. And Otis in front of him is going to be the new collective bargaining agreement, how we work with players a year from now and those challenges. It’s more of the same but we have a lot of change in front of us. I will tell you that they are both up to the task.”
Alex, can you reflect back on your time with the Orlando Magic?
Martins: “If I may, I’d like to start by saying thanks to Bob and the DeVos family. Otis and I have been in this business now some 25-plus years now. We have seen a lot of ownership groups and a lot of management groups and we’ve said it before and we will reiterate it today – the fact that this is the best ownership group in professional sports. They give us the resources and they allow us to do our jobs with the great staff that we have here. I don’t think that Otis or I or the rest of the staff in our organization would be as successful as we have been without this ownership group in place. But looking back on that time, I came to this organization as a young professional sports executive. I had on that first team, my partner to my left (Otis); that relationship has been in place for more than 20 years. I think that it goes all the way back to that time that the relationship between Otis and I started developing. We were very close as management and player at that time, I think we had a unique relationship; one I would say was as strong or stronger than any player that I’ve had over 20 years. It’s been great to grow up in the organization with him as my partner and that is a unique situation in and of itself because the working relationship between Otis and I is one that you don’t find in many other sports organizations, and I would even underscore in our league. We’re partners in this and there have never been any delineation of turf; we work together as a team and I think that’s what we have been able to accomplish with the support of all of our staff, the greatest staff in the NBA and all of professional sports, we’ve been able to get to this point together. It’s been a great ride with this organization; again, I grew up with it. I’ve now had the great fortune of now going on 15 years in it, which you all know doesn’t happen very often in this business and I think that is a testament to the DeVos family and the way that they govern and own and manage this franchise overall. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This is my team, this is the team I grew up with and I think with Otis and Bob and Stan over the last five years there has never been a great cohesive working group together at the top of this organization. The only thing we haven’t accomplished, as Bob said, is to hold that gold trophy. Everybody in our organization wants in more than anything, but I think the three guys up here, plus our head coach, want it more than anything in the world.”
When did you know that the current leadership group was going to work together?
Vander Weide: “You look at it two ways. From a relationship standpoint the way they work together and at their consistency. You always want to have great people around you to make it look better and complement each other. I don’t think there is a better GM/president of basketball ops and coach that complement each other than Stan and Otis. In every aspect; the way they deal with players on and off the court, the way they deal with adversity, the way they handle passion to win. Likewise, Alex and his team of leaders. We have great Directors and VPs and Senior VPs that lead this organization with consistency. In business, you have to look at performance and results and we are on a nice trend, a very, very successful trend.”
Is your promotion a validation of what the team as accomplished the past few years?
Smith: “I think for me it is a lot of reiterating of what Alex said. It’s good to have that support from ownership, the DeVos family. I look at titles as not very important to me and I think Bob knows that, I’m more concerned with how I beat Miami and how we beat the Lakers more than the promotion part of it. I can speak to what Alex said, I was talking with my assistant Stephanie about this yesterday; we grew up together, he as a young executive and me as a young basketball player. I think that helps our relationship today and helps us run an organization and when we need to take the gloves off, we take them off and talk and move the organization forward. It is a unique relationship but it all starts at the top with ownership and they are such a good group of owners to have, and you wouldn’t know that unless you’ve been somewhere else and we’ve both had the misfortune of being somewhere else to know that, but to me good ownership is trust and validation in me to take the organization over the top and to keep it at the top for years to come.”
Statement From Stan Van Gundy:
I am fortunate to work for a great organization and I am honored that they have chosen to extend my contract. I am extremely happy with the promotions of Alex and Otis and under the leadership of Rich DeVos and Bob Vander Weide the three of us, as well as everyone else in the Magic organization will continue to work toward bringing a championship to Orlando and the DeVos family.
Bob Vander Weide:
“This is a little different press conference; we aren’t talking about players, we are talking about leadership. I’ve been doing this 20 years and it’s all about winning on the court but it’s also about having the right people leading not only the team, but the team of people that make up an organization like this. Today I’m very proud to be here in front of you and say we have a great team of leadership. Alex Martins leading the business side, Otis Smith leading the basketball side and Stan Van Gundy leading our team. We as a family have been at this some 20, 21 years. Sometimes it’s all a blur, sometimes you want to forget about the adversity you’ve gone through, but the last few years have been pretty darn special and they have been awesome from the standpoint of how we’ve been led. And so today I announce to you not only an extension moving forward into the new Amway Center, but in leadership a new position for President Alex Martins and President of Basketball Operations Otis Smith, and an extension for Stan Van Gundy. I could not sit in front of you and say there are a better threesome to lead the Orlando Magic in where we are going next. There is a lot of excitement, a Finals two years ago, a Conference Finals last year and a great new building to move into for this community. We as a family are really proud of (Alex and Otis) and Stan, and look forward to the years ahead of success on and off the court. I thank you all for being here. Those are my brief comments.”
What were the reason for making the promotions at this time?
Vander Weide: “I think one of the things in any business, let alone sports, is consistency on leadership in an organization. We’ve had a good trend and track record and it’s probably only natural to extend and promote from within based on performance and these folks have performed very well.”
Are these promotions a sign of ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it?’
Vander Weide: “Well I don’t think we are broke in any way, shape or form. We only want to get better and this is a little bit of good, better, best. We have yet to hold up the gold trophy but that’s where we are heading and this team of leadership wants to do that. I don’t think there is any group that’s more passionate than them and we are willing to put dollars, energy and time into from every aspect.”
Will Alex’s and Otis’ day-to-day duties change following their promotions?
Vander Weide: “I think most of it is more of the same. One of the new opportunities we have, I just toured the new building yesterday, and to live the building and all that new revenue and all the new experiences for the fan base and customer base, that’s going to be an extreme new opportunity for Alex to manage. And Otis in front of him is going to be the new collective bargaining agreement, how we work with players a year from now and those challenges. It’s more of the same but we have a lot of change in front of us. I will tell you that they are both up to the task.”
Alex, can you reflect back on your time with the Orlando Magic?
Martins: “If I may, I’d like to start by saying thanks to Bob and the DeVos family. Otis and I have been in this business now some 25-plus years now. We have seen a lot of ownership groups and a lot of management groups and we’ve said it before and we will reiterate it today – the fact that this is the best ownership group in professional sports. They give us the resources and they allow us to do our jobs with the great staff that we have here. I don’t think that Otis or I or the rest of the staff in our organization would be as successful as we have been without this ownership group in place. But looking back on that time, I came to this organization as a young professional sports executive. I had on that first team, my partner to my left (Otis); that relationship has been in place for more than 20 years. I think that it goes all the way back to that time that the relationship between Otis and I started developing. We were very close as management and player at that time, I think we had a unique relationship; one I would say was as strong or stronger than any player that I’ve had over 20 years. It’s been great to grow up in the organization with him as my partner and that is a unique situation in and of itself because the working relationship between Otis and I is one that you don’t find in many other sports organizations, and I would even underscore in our league. We’re partners in this and there have never been any delineation of turf; we work together as a team and I think that’s what we have been able to accomplish with the support of all of our staff, the greatest staff in the NBA and all of professional sports, we’ve been able to get to this point together. It’s been a great ride with this organization; again, I grew up with it. I’ve now had the great fortune of now going on 15 years in it, which you all know doesn’t happen very often in this business and I think that is a testament to the DeVos family and the way that they govern and own and manage this franchise overall. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This is my team, this is the team I grew up with and I think with Otis and Bob and Stan over the last five years there has never been a great cohesive working group together at the top of this organization. The only thing we haven’t accomplished, as Bob said, is to hold that gold trophy. Everybody in our organization wants in more than anything, but I think the three guys up here, plus our head coach, want it more than anything in the world.”
When did you know that the current leadership group was going to work together?
Vander Weide: “You look at it two ways. From a relationship standpoint the way they work together and at their consistency. You always want to have great people around you to make it look better and complement each other. I don’t think there is a better GM/president of basketball ops and coach that complement each other than Stan and Otis. In every aspect; the way they deal with players on and off the court, the way they deal with adversity, the way they handle passion to win. Likewise, Alex and his team of leaders. We have great Directors and VPs and Senior VPs that lead this organization with consistency. In business, you have to look at performance and results and we are on a nice trend, a very, very successful trend.”
Is your promotion a validation of what the team as accomplished the past few years?
Smith: “I think for me it is a lot of reiterating of what Alex said. It’s good to have that support from ownership, the DeVos family. I look at titles as not very important to me and I think Bob knows that, I’m more concerned with how I beat Miami and how we beat the Lakers more than the promotion part of it. I can speak to what Alex said, I was talking with my assistant Stephanie about this yesterday; we grew up together, he as a young executive and me as a young basketball player. I think that helps our relationship today and helps us run an organization and when we need to take the gloves off, we take them off and talk and move the organization forward. It is a unique relationship but it all starts at the top with ownership and they are such a good group of owners to have, and you wouldn’t know that unless you’ve been somewhere else and we’ve both had the misfortune of being somewhere else to know that, but to me good ownership is trust and validation in me to take the organization over the top and to keep it at the top for years to come.”
Statement From Stan Van Gundy:
I am fortunate to work for a great organization and I am honored that they have chosen to extend my contract. I am extremely happy with the promotions of Alex and Otis and under the leadership of Rich DeVos and Bob Vander Weide the three of us, as well as everyone else in the Magic organization will continue to work toward bringing a championship to Orlando and the DeVos family.
