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ORLANDO -- UCF alumnus Alex Martins, CEO of the Orlando Magic, was selected as the new chair of the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees in a unanimous vote by his fellow board members Thursday. He will serve a two-year term as chair beginning July 1.

Harold Mills, an Orlando entrepreneur who also has held executive positions in several companies, was unanimously chosen to continue serving as vice chair for two years. He was elected as the board’s vice chair in February.

Martins oversees all operations of the Orlando Magic and has spent more than three decades in professional sports management. A well-regarded civic leader, he earned his MBA from UCF, where he is a member of the College of Business’ Hall of Fame and recipient of the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

He serves on the Dean’s Executive Council for the UCF College of Business.

Martins served on the developmental board of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF, which is funded through a $9 million endowment by Rich and Helen DeVos and awards dual master’s degrees in Sport Management and Business Administration. Under Martins’ leadership, the Magic contributed $1.5 million to the construction of UCF Downtown in 2015, the first major private donation for the campus.

“I want to thank the Board for their confidence and for the honor of serving as your chair for the next two years,” Martins said. “I look forward to working alongside you and working closely with President Cartwright and our faculty, staff and students to continue to help us become one of the great universities in this country.”

Martins has previously chaired a number of community organizations, including the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission and The Central Florida Partnership. Martins serves or has served on the boards of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Central Florida Commission on Homeless and the Governor’s Council of the Orlando Economic Partnership.

Mills is the CEO of VMD Ventures, which invests in entrepreneurs in technology and service industries. He joined the UCF Board of Trustees in 2019 and is the chair of the Board’s Finance and Facilities Committee.

He previously served as Chairman and CEO of ZeroChaos, a global workforce management company that he built into a multi-billion-dollar company with operations in over 53 countries. Prior to ZeroChaos, Mills held executive positions in general management and corporate development with leading solutions companies, including, HR technology companies and telecom companies.

Mills serves on the boards of Guidewell and Florida Blue, Rollins College, the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center and LIFT Orlando, among others. He is a past board member for Florida Council of 100, Florida A&M University, and the Jacksonville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the former chairman of Florida Citrus Sports. He also recently led the Heart of Florida’s United Way campaign.

Mills earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

“I’m excited to continue the great work of this university,” Mills said. “We’re grateful to have President Cartwright and the rest of the team that’s pulled together to continue to work and help us on this journey to achieve all of our aspirations. It’s rewarding and fulfilling.”

Martins and Mills thanked current Board Chair Beverly Seay for her service. Seay will remain a Board of Trustees member, focusing the remainder of her term on the board on academic excellence, student success and strengthening UCF’s partnerships with the simulation and defense industries.

President Alexander N. Cartwright praised Seay for her leadership and for helping to convince him to come to “this amazing place.”

Addressing Martins and Mills, Cartwright said, “You have both been incredibly active as trustees, engaged and helpful. You’ve asked all the right questions, and you continue to push for what we are looking for, which is to become an exceptional institution. I look forward to working with you to make that happen as quickly as possible.”

The 13-member Board of Trustees consists of six members appointed by the governor and five appointed by the Board of Governors. The chair of the university’s Faculty Senate and the president of UCF Student Government also are members.

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Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins Elected Chair of UCF Board of Trustees

Josh Cohen

ORLANDO –  Orlando Magic Chief Executive Officer Alex Martins has been named to Orlando Magazine’s Most Powerful People list for the 10th consecutive year, ranking first on this year’s list in the Entertainment Category. Martins has remained a fixture in the rankings of the most dynamic leaders in Central Florida for much of the past decade. He was a “Hall of Power” member after ranking in Orlando Magazine’s Top 5 for five years in a row of their “Most Powerful People” rankings and sat atop that list in 2012.

Martins, who has spent 30 years in professional sports management, has been a fixture and leader in the Orlando community receiving many accolades and community roles over the years. In 2016, he was chosen by the City of Orlando to lead the board of directors for the city-sponsored OneOrlando Fund, which was the largest fund for the victims of the Pulse nightclub tragedy. Martins has led the charge with the future $200 million sports and entertainment complex across from the Amway Center and the Magic’s recent acquisition of the Orlando Solar Bears franchise. Martins was also instrumental in securing the state-of-the-art Amway Center, which was named the 2012 SportsBusiness Journal’s “Facility of the Year” and received the 2013 StadiumBusiness “Customer Experience Award.” In addition, he was an integral piece to bringing the 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend to Orlando and its $95 million economic impact.

For all of his efforts in Central Florida, he has been presented with multiple honors including the Orlando Economic Development Commission’s (EDC) 2015 James B. Greene Economic Development Award, recognizing an individual whose work has contributed substantially to the economic prosperity of the region. He also received the 2013 Charles Andrews Memorial Hospitality Award for Community Leadership by the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association for his achievements and contributions to the Central Florida hospitality industry and the overall community.

In the July 2017 issue, Orlando Magazine wrote:A few months ago, Martins and General Manager Rob Hennigan were under fire: The team, which had shown so much preseason promise with the addition of Coach Frank Vogel and big-name players Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo, struggled to a 29-53 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight year. Martins immediately fired Hennigan and added Jeff Weltman from the Toronto Raptors as president of basketball operations; Weltman promptly hired John Hammond from the Milwaukee Bucks as the new GM. With both moves receiving rave reviews, hope has returned to the land of Magic. Other big milestones for Martins were the Magic’s acquisition of the Orlando Solar Bears franchise and the clearing of land for a $200 million sports and entertainment complex across from Amway Center. Martins was also a huge presence in community service matters, chairing the OneOrlando Fund, which distributed $33 million to survivors of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting and the families of those who died.

During his time in Central Florida, Martins has held several significant roles in the local community. He served as the past chairman of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, The Central Florida Partnership and the Orlando Community Construction Corporation (the entity responsible for the construction of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts). Martins also served on the board of directors of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness. He currently serves on the executive committee of the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center, the Central Florida board of directors for Seaside National Bank & Trust and on the Governor’s Council of the EDC. He is also on the University of Central Florida board of trustees, serving as Chair of the Finance and Facilities Committee.

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Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins Named to Orlando Magazine’s Most Powerful People List for 10th Year

ORLANDO – The plan for this past weekend was for Frank Vogel to take his wife and daughters to Disney World, and in time, the Orlando Magic head coach – who grew up years ago just blocks away from the ocean in New Jersey – hopes to take in some of the beauty of Florida’s beaches for the first time since moving to the Sunshine State.

No offense to the family or Florida’s hundreds of beach towns, but Vogel would prefer pouring over game film or competing in a tense, win-or-else NBA playoff game to some mid-April vacation time now.

Competing in the playoffs and savoring the white-hot glare of the postseason is something that Vogel grew accustomed to doing five times in his 5½ seasons as head coach of the Indiana Pacers. Out of the postseason following a highly disappointing 29-53 first season with the Magic, Vogel said the failures over the past seven months will drive him throughout what figures to be a busy offseason.

``I do believe in balance in life and I do want to get away from it and let it go a little bit, but it’s going to sit with me all summer,’’ Vogel said candidly last week upon the Magic’s season wrapping up. ``When I get back to work, I’m going to be very driven to do all of this studying and evaluation of our team to get this thing back going the right direction.’’

Vogel’s offseason responsibilities with the Magic increased a bit last week when the franchise fired GM Rob Hennigan and Assistant GM Scott Perry following a fifth consecutive losing season. Assistant GM Matt Lloyd, a Magic employee the past five seasons, will serve as the interim GM and he will work hand-in-hand with Vogel to help the franchise prepare for the June 22 NBA Draft. Vogel, who has been promised that he will return as head coach regardless of who is chosen as the Magic’s next GM, will also join CEO Alex Martins in the search for the team’s next leader of the Basketball Operations department.

Vogel doesn’t mind the extra work to fill time that he’s usually spending competing in the playoffs. Though he just completed his first season in Orlando, he understands the urgency needed to get the Magic back in the playoffs. The franchise has been out of the postseason five straight years – the longest such drought in team history – and Vogel wants to do whatever necessary this summer to get things back on track.

``I’ve never been a big `summer projects’ guy, but I think I am now this summer,’’ Vogel said. ``We’re going to be doing a lot of that stuff with research, evaluation and re-watching a lot of our games. We’re going to take the fundamentals of a lot of the things that we’re trying to get done on the defensive end, offensively and with the running game (and evaluate them).

``It’s a new style of play (for the Magic), it’s a new era of basketball and the game is almost unrecognizable in some ways when you watch it compared to what people were seeing five, six or seven years ago,’’ Vogel continued. ``There’s a lot of studying to be done – something that I’m excited about doing, quite frankly. I obsess about this stuff. We’ve made strides in terms of who we are (as a team) and who I am as a coach (over the final two months of the season). I look forward to getting this team back on top, I really do.’’

Vogel started this past season thinking the Magic had the potential get back amongst the top teams in the Eastern Conference, especially after the franchise went out and acquired defensive-minded big men Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo in the offseason. Vogel, who built his reputation in the NBA as a defensive guru, said he was fully complicit in the addition of those players because he thought their versatility defensively could make the Magic dominant on that end of the floor.

Instead, a Magic team trying to alternately play 7-footer Nikola Vucevic, Biyombo and Ibaka looked like an 18-wheel big rig trying to keep pace in a league full of Ferraris. The sweeping trend in today’s NBA is to go small at nearly every position and depend more on speed and shooting as opposed to size and muscle.

Warning signs were there for the Magic that the plan wouldn’t work all throughout the preseason and a 6-11 start to the season. However, Vogel stuck with playing the bigger lineups for months in hopes that eventually Orlando’s sagging defense and choppy chemistry would come around. When those things never matured, Ibaka – the player Orlando surrendered three assets for back in June – was dealt to Toronto for shooting guard Terrence Ross. The problem, however, was that the Magic were 21-37 and far out of the playoffs chase by the time they switched styles and got Ross on the floor.

Does the benefit of hindsight make Vogel wish now that he had pulled the plug on the big lineups sooner? Does he wish now that he had pushed for a trade sooner so as to possibly salvage the season?

``I really don’t, to be honest with you. I think you have to explore your roster and how you’ve built your roster, you have to see if it can be successful,’’ Vogel said. ``You have to give that enough time to see if that works. You pull the plug too soon and then the other way (playing with a smaller, faster lineup) doesn’t work, then you look like you are just searching for things and that doesn’t give a message of strength to your team. And I also believe in playing your best players and Serge, Vooch and Biz were among our best players. That’s another reason why we stuck with keeping those guys out there.’’

Sticking it with it proved to be a major problem for the Magic when things tended to go bad in the middle of games. Not only did Orlando lose by a franchise record 47 points late in the season in Chicago, they dropped eight games by 30-or-more points and another eight from 20-29 points.

Those failures ultimately cost Hennigan, the Magic’s GM the past five years, his job. And they cost Vogel – a coach who prides himself on being able to motivate and reach players even in the worst of situations – several nights of sleep. It bothered the veteran coach immensely that he could never reach the team fully and do something to prevent the season from spiraling out of control.

``Not the group all together, but there was a handful of times that I felt I wasn’t reaching a couple of guys and it brought all of them back,’’ Vogel admitted. ``But it’s a difficult thing when you lose as much as we did and you have the expectations that we had. It’s almost impossible to not lose a game here or there and (lose players). That’s not any different of any team that I’ve coached. I pride myself in keeping everybody pulling them back (from frustration) and keeping them together and in it. I do believe that we finished that way with everybody bought in, engaged and playing together.’’

Several of the Magic’s players said the way that Vogel kept encouraging them and kept pushing the team – even after it had been eliminated from playoff contention – should speak volumes about the coach’s fight and strong character. Many mentioned that their hope for the future is strong because the prospect of having Vogel as the head coach going forward.

``I know that Frank doesn’t like to lose at all and we have that in common,’’ said Magic forward Aaron Gordon, one of the players who benefitted the most from Vogel’s midseason style change to one that is speedier and more uptempo. ``(Vogel) feels that he had greatness within him and I have the same feeling.’’

Added point guard Elfrid Payton: ``He’s a competitor and he wants to win just as bad as we do. Even when things were bad he was still coming in and pushing us and working with us and that’s something that I really respect about him.’’

Despite a rocky first season in Orlando, Vogel clearly has the respect of his team. The coach has always seen himself as someone who forms partnerships with players – rather than simply bossing them around like a drill sergeant – in order to coax the best out of them. Vogel believes strongly in the young talent that the Magic have in place and thinks the best is yet to come. With a tweak or two here or there, Vogel is hopeful that this time next year he’ll be getting the Magic ready for a long playoff run instead of visiting Disney World or hitting the beaches.

``They’re still very young and if you look league-wide most of the ones winning aren’t doing it with young guys. The book is still out, but I still have a great deal of belief in these guys and what they can be,’’ Vogel said with conviction. ``They haven’t reached that (elite) level yet, but they’ve shown flashes of it, so we know it’s there and we just have to put it all together and add the right mix that is needed.

``I do still believe in the young core that is here. Not just Elfrid, Aaron and Mario (Hezonja), but Terrence, Evan (Fournier) and Vooch – those guys are still young guys, too,’’ Vogel continued. ``This group is about to enter its prime and that’s how we have to look at this. You have a group that is about to enter its prime and those are the groups that go on year-after-year playoff runs where they are in it every year and they have a chance (to win a title).’’

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.

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Frank Vogel Confident Team Will Get Back on Track Next Season

ORLANDO – Undoubtedly, the DeVos family ownership group and CEO Alex Martins will have the final say on who the Orlando Magic ultimately select as their new General Manager.

But those who will work the closest with the new GM on a day-to-day basis – head coach Frank Vogel and Magic players expected to return next season – have opinions on what they think makes for a great dynamic between GM and coach and GM and players. After all, it is those relationships and interactions that could go the farthest in helping the Magic make major strides in the very near future.

Vogel, for one, is hopeful that the Magic – which fired GM Rob Hennigan and Assistant GM Scott Perry on Thursday – will pick a leader of the Basketball Operations department who understands that the franchise isn’t that far away from being successful and wants to win right away.

``I think our mindset is to win now and I’m hopeful that whoever we bring in here shares that approach,’’ Vogel said a day after the Magic wrapped up a 29-53 regular season. ``I think our fans have endured enough losing and it’s time to get this thing into the playoffs as quickly as we can. That’s my mindset.’’

The Magic had the mindset that five years was long enough to build the franchise into a playoff contender and when that didn’t happen it cost Hennigan and Perry their jobs. Orlando is 132-178 over the past five years – the second-worst mark in the NBA over that time period. Also, after appearing in the postseason six straight years from 2007-12, Orlando has been out of the playoffs each of the last five years – the longest such drought in franchise history.

Matt Lloyd, who has 13 years of NBA experience with the Chicago Bulls and five more with the Magic, was chosen to take over as the Interim GM. Lloyd, who helped to scout and draft many of the players on the Magic’s current roster, will also be a candidate for the full-time GM job.

The NBA Draft Lottery will be held on May 15 and the NBA Draft is June 22, but Martins said the Magic won’t be rushed into picking a new GM because of the importance of the position.

``The factor that is going to dictate (the pace of the search) is that there are some individuals that we’re interested in who (have teams that) are playing in the NBA playoffs and we’re not going to be able to talk to them until their teams are eliminated,’’ Martins said. ``And I think it’s in our best interests to identify the right individual and talk to those who are involved in the playoffs. That’s what is going to dictate the majority of the timeframe.

``In terms of being prepared for the draft, I have no concerns about that whatsoever because I have a very high amount of confidence in Matt Lloyd and his team to prepare us for the draft,’’ Martins continued. ``He’ll have everything lined up and prepared for when we do hire a GM, including if it is him. … Frank (Vogel) will be a big part of that (NBA Draft) preparation as well and he’ll work closely with Matt over the next several weeks in leading the Basketball Operations staff.’’

Martins stressed that whomever the Magic hire as GM will have to be accepting of Vogel as the team’s head coach going forward. Martins feels that Vogel’s track record of success as a head coach and his driven personality will be exceptionally strong selling points in attracting premier GM candidates.

Vogel, who has worked as a head coach, assistant coach, scout and video coordinator in his 17 years at the NBA level, said he has no ambition of a dual role where he is both the head coach and GM. While some in the NBA have had success holding both jobs simultaneously, Vogel feels its better to have different people in those jobs because the difference in responsibilities and perspectives.

``(Being GM) is tough because a lot of times you make the right moves or moves that make sense at the time and for whatever reason they don’t work out,’’ Vogel said. ``You can put the best players in the world together and players don’t click with others. That happens in pro sports all the time and (team-building) is not an easy job, but it’s definitely doable.

``I’m not pushing for that (GM job) because I’m a basketball coach,’’ Vogel continued. ``It’s a difficult thing to do both because you have to separate your emotions. A lot of times, the coach wants to trade a different player every other game and obviously you can’t do that. I like the coach/GM dynamic of them viewing things from afar, them studying the league differently than I do and them taking an entire year studying the NBA Draft versus a coach finishing the year and trying to cram it all in. There’s an important separation there.’’

With NBA GMs there are usually two schools of thought as it relates to handling the day-to-day ebbs and flows of a team. Some GMs are extremely hands on in their approach, wanting to be present for as many practices, games, bus rides and events so that they see the highs and lows for themselves while also building strong relationships with players and coaches. Other GMs prefer to keep their distance so as to not crowd coaches. Also, they prefer to not have tight relationships with players. With that approach, GMs prefer to depend more on the analytical data than their gut instincts – a style that allows them to remove emotion from the equation.

Asked which style he prefers, Vogel joked: ``Not too hot, not too cold, just right – the Goldilocks’ answer, right? In all honesty, my perfect situation is someone who is there every day and we talk about everything every day. They give me ideas and I give them ideas.’’

Magic franchise fixtures Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier said the working relationship between players and GMs can be critical in the success of a team. Players want to be heard because they are the ones out on the court, and Vucevic and Fournier are hopeful that the Magic lean toward a GM with strong communication and leadership skills with their next hire.

``I think it’s important to have a good relationship with the people that you work with and I felt like I had a good relationship with Rob,’’ said Vucevic, who is the longest-tenured player on the Magic at five years. ``We spoke whenever something needed to be talked about and we’d catch up on things. With teammates, you don’t have to be great friends off the court, but on the court it’s important to have a great working relationship. The same goes with coaches and front office (and players) and needing that good relationship if things aren’t going the right way.’’

Added Fournier, who has played with the Magic for three seasons after spending his first years in the NBA in Denver: ``My first General Manager, Masai (Ujiri), we didn’t see him a lot and we’d never hear from him. Rob wasn’t the opposite, but he was more present. It really depends on the individual (as GM). Really, it’s a weird relationship (between player and GM) because it’s business, but at the same time you have to have a trust in one another. The most important thing is being honest and telling each other the truth. Players and GMs both want to win, so you have to work together to achieve the same goal. But, for me, the perfect relationship (with a GM) would be having trust in one another, but knowing that it’s business and don’t have any emotions.’’

Vogel said he will make suggestions to ownership and to Martins a few NBA executives who he thinks will make strong candidates for the Magic. He also has a good idea of some of the traits that he hopes the next GM will possess, such as strong communication skills, a track record of team-building knowledge and a desire to embrace a teamwork approach.

And Vogel is a strong believer that the difference-making abilities of a new GM could help the Magic get over the hump and into the playoffs as soon as next season.
  ``One of the reasons that I took this job is that I believe we have the resources here to get that (GM) job done at a high level,’’ Vogel said. ``The ownership that we have is one of the best in the league, the warm weather (in Orlando), this great (Amway Center) building here, the owners are willing to spend money, no state taxes (in Florida) and they’ve had success here in the past.

``I do believe that (winning and losing) is cyclical,’’ Vogel continued. ``You see it all throughout sports that a team gets down for a few years, the draft picks come around, they get a little bit older, the talent replenishes and you make the proper adjustments and you’re back on the map. I believe that’s the direction we’re going. We will be back on the map and contending in the Eastern Conference very soon.’’

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Magic Begin Search for New General Manager

ORLANDO – Upon making the decision to fire GM Rob Hennigan and change the Orlando Magic’s Basketball Operations leadership department – moves that came on the heels of a fifth-straight losing season – CEO Alex Martins wanted to make one thing explicitly clear on Thursday.

The Magic aren’t facing yet another long-term, drawn-out and massive rebuild, Martins stressed at a news conference to announce the firings of Hennigan and Assistant GM Scott Perry.

Because the franchise already has strong and committed ownership, because it has a solid coach in Frank Vogel and a promising core in place and because there will be multiple avenues available to re-stock the talent this summer, the Magic could potentially be missing only a difference-making GM in their pursuit of a playoff berth in the very near future, Martins said with conviction.

``I don’t believe this is a total rebuild; we’ve got a lot of the pieces and the foundation is already in place,’’ Martins said. ``It’s about taking it to the next step, utilizing the foundation that we have, utilizing the assets that we’re going to have this summer and utilizing the expertise we’re going to have in roster-building (with a new GM). I don’t think we’re that far away.

``Without having gone through the interview process yet, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we’re one year away or two years away – I don’t know that yet,’’ the CEO continued. ``It will play itself out as we identify who is going to lead us. But I believe in Frank (Vogel), who knows how to win, and we’re going to find an individual to lead our Basketball Operations that knows how to win. I don’t think we’re that far away, I really don’t.’’

At 29-53 this season and a franchise-worst 132-278 (.322 win percentage) over the past five seasons – none of which ended in playoff appearances – Martins felt the Magic were still far enough away to end Hennigan’s five-year run as GM. Far too many errors in the NBA Draft, whiffs in free agency, botched trades and stagnant player development convinced Martins that the Magic needed someone else making the calls on personnel decisions. He acted accordingly by firing Hennigan and Perry, while naming Matt Lloyd – an assistant GM the past five years in Orlando and someone with 13 years of prior NBA experience with the Chicago Bulls – as the team’s Interim GM.

``Some things didn’t fall (Hennigan’s) way, some of the decisions didn’t work out and maybe over a longer time horizon it would have turned for him,’’ Martins said. ``But this business is about results and, in my estimation, five years was enough time to get results. Other organizations have proven it during that period of time.’’

Vogel, who just completed his first season with the Magic, has been given every assurance that he will continue to be the head coach regardless of the GM hired going forward. Vogel admitted that he was hurt by Magic failings that led to Hennigan’s departure. Hennigan hurriedly hired Vogel last May after Scott Skiles shockingly resigned his post as the Magic coach following just one season. Vogel wishes the Magic could have had more success this season in order to save the jobs of Hennigan and Perry.

``I’m thankful of them being very supportive of the job that we were trying to do here in light of a very difficult season with a lot of losing,’’ Vogel said. ``They were very inclusive in their nature and our relationship is strong. This is a tough day. They’re both good men and good basketball people.’’

Vogel went along with an offseason plan crafted by Hennigan and Perry to add size, toughness and rim protection to the roster last summer via big men Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo. The problem was that the plan flew directly counter to the NBA’s sweeping trend of smaller, faster personnel and a much heavier reliance on 3-point shooting.

The Magic traded three players – namely standout guard Victor Oladipo – for Ibaka and signed Biyombo to a massive free-agent contract. However, the moves created a logjam along the frontline, forced players such as Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier out of their natural positions and it made the defense slow and immobile. It was apparent early on that the bigger lineup wasn’t going to work – Orlando lost is first three games and 11 of 17 – but Vogel kept trying to get the best out of his flawed roster.

The Magic ended up using Biyombo, the team’s highest-paid player, off the bench most of the season and traded Ibaka to Toronto on Feb. 14. By then, the season was already a wash and hopes of making the playoffs were long gone.

``It was a conversation of, `Hey, we have the opportunity to get Serge Ibaka. What do you think?’ I liked it and I was supportive of it,’’ recalled Vogel, referring to his conversations with Hennigan and Perry from last June. ``That’s the way I had success in the past (by playing two big men). The league was changing, but I thought that would be a successful (move), but it didn’t turn out that way.’’

Vogel, who will have input into the next GM hire, has no desire to do both jobs. He said he is confident that the Magic will pick someone who he can work closely with because ``I’ve got a lot of trust in Alex Martins and the DeVos family.’’

Vogel, like Martins, is hopeful that Orlando can land a strong leader, a persuasive communicator and someone who understands the nebulous dynamic of team building.
  Vogel is hopeful that the new GM is potentially the final piece in the Magic getting over the hump and into the playoffs a year from now.

``My perfect situation who is there every day and we talk about everything every day,’’ Vogel said. ``They give me ideas and I give them ideas on all of the decisions that we make on a daily basis. A lot of them are clear and a lot of them are not.

``Our mindset is to win now and I’m hopeful of whoever we bring in here shares that approach,’’ Vogel added. ``I think our fans have endured enough losing and it’s time to get this thing into the playoffs as soon as we can.’’

So often in the NBA, when teams fail with veteran decision-makers loaded with experience, they look to mix their approach up by turning to younger minds influenced heavily by analytics. Conversely, when the unproven fail to make a difference, there’s often an overreaction toward finding a replacement that has a proven track record at the NBA level.

Martins said there will be no set requirement that the Magic’s next personnel director has previous NBA GM experience. Finding a person with the traits the team is looking for – team-building knowledge, decisive decision-making abilities and strong leadership skills – will be the deciding factors in who becomes Orlando’s next GM.

The Magic thought they had that person in Hennigan, a young executive who emerged five years ago after rising the corporate ladder with the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder – two franchises known for their ability to find talent and build strong teams.

When Hennigan wasn’t able to consistently find talent for the Magic or build a winner in Orlando, he lost his job. The next GM, Martins said, could be the benefactor of the Magic having most of the pieces in place to win in the near future.

``We took a chance on Rob and he was dealt a difficult hand when he first arrived here,’’ Martins said, referring to franchise center Dwight Howard demanding to be traded. ``Some would say that he didn’t have the benefit of luck in the NBA lottery, which is true, but sometimes you have to make your own luck, which we believe we haven’t done enough of.

``The facts are that we’ve regressed this year and we made the decision that five years with this leadership team was enough to show improvement,’’ continued Martins, pointing out that the Magic had a top-10 payroll this past season and still came up short. ``This organization has seen great success over the years, but this five-year period unfortunately hasn’t seen that same success. We feel as if we’ve fallen behind several of the teams that started this (rebuilding) process at the same time that we did or even after. But we also believe that we can catch up quickly with different leadership and a different approach.’’

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Magic GM Change Not Expected to Result in Total Rebuild

ORLANDO – Out of unspeakable tragedy has come incredible strength, perseverance and teamwork all throughout Orlando. And the hope now is that Orlando’s togetherness and resiliency will ultimately define the area more so than the heinous crime that stunned Central Florida and the nation alike.

Helping with the healing of a community still picking up the pieces from the devastation of recent events are Orlando’s professional sports teams.

In a combined effort, the Orlando Magic, Orlando City, Orlando Pride, Orlando Solar Bears and Orlando Predators joined forces to display to the nation and the world Orlando’s strength and solidarity. The Magic, Lions, Pride, Solar Bears and Predators will be selling T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, ``#OrlandoUnited’’ and the net proceeds will be donated to the City of Orlando’s One Orlando Fund. OneOrlando.org has been set up to support those impacted by the June 12 terror attack at Pulse nightclub that left 49 people dead and another 53 victims injured.

The black, blue and purple T-shirts ($22 in adult sizes and $18 in youth sizes) will be available on Thursday (June 16) at the Orlando Magic Team Shop at Amway Center, at a pop-up store at Wall Street Plaza and at the Solar Bears offices. The T-shirts can also be purchased on the Solar Bears’ online shop (orlandosolarbearshockey.com) on Friday, at Camping World Stadium on Saturday during Orlando City’s game against San Jose and at the June 24 AFL game between the Predators and Tampa Bay at the Amway Center.

``Thanks to our local sports teams for their efforts to raise funds to support those impacted by the Pulse tragedy,’’ Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer posted on Twitter.com.

On Tuesday, the Magic committed $100,000 and the DeVos Family Foundations contributed $400,000 to the City of Orlando’s One Orlando Fund, a community foundation initiative to support and distribute funds and other services to individuals who were affected by Sunday morning’s tragic events. The Magic and the DeVos family joined others such as Disney, Darden, JetBlue, AT&T and Mears in making significant contributions to the One Orlando Fund.

``Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those personally affected by the loss of loved ones following this weekend’s tragedy of hate in Orlando,’’ Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins said. ``We are proud to join with our fellow professional sports teams to assist those impacted by this tragedy and we will continue to be in contact with the City of Orlando, Red Cross, and our partner agencies such as the Zebra Coalition to provide assistance in our community.’’

The Magic have also been active in trying to help Orlando’s healing following Sunday morning’s unspeakable tragedy.

The Magic Community Relations Team mobilized at the Blood One Center on Sunday, passing out water to those donating blood. The Magic have remained in close contact with the Blood One Center and is poised to assist with an additional blood drive if supplies run low. Additionally, Magic employees have been given the freedom to visit blood banks to donate during work hours.

The Magic have been in contact with The Zebra Coalition about ways that it can assist following the 49 murders and 53 injured at Pulse, a predominantly gay nightclub near downtown Orlando. The Zebra Coalition, a network of organizations which provide services to LBGT youth, was the recipient of a $100,000 grant from the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation earlier this year.

Amway Center, home of the Magic the past six seasons, has used its main video marquis to honor and acknowledge the victims of the heinous crime. It read: ``In memory of our neighbors who have tragically been taken from us … #PrayForOrlando #OrlandoUnited’’

``Our community will heal because there are so many great things about our Central Florida community, including the fact that we are a community of inclusion and acceptance,’’ Martins said recently. ``We need to band together as we do during difficult times. And certainly the things that we have been through in the past pale in comparison to what happened to our community, and quite frankly our country and the world, over the weekend with Orlando as the focal point. Our community does a great job of coming together, whatever situation it is, that we need to come together to improve or heal and I know our community will.’’

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Orlando Community Showing Incredible Strength, Perseverance and Teamwork

Dan Savage

Mike Bianchi: Let’s welcome in Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins, a man who has lived in this community a long, long time and has seen the good and the bad and now he has seen the very worst the city has ever endured. Alex, how do you make any sense of this?

Alex Martins: Well, good morning Mike. I’m sorry to speak under these tragic circumstances. First, I would say that our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those who were tragically taken from us yesterday morning. I would also say that our thanks and our hearts go out to our first responders Chief (John) Mina and Sherriff (Jerry) Demings and all of the police officers that have responded and saved lives during this. And our fire departments, they’ve done a spectacular job and we just want to thank them for their service and everything that they’ve done to help during this tragic time.

Mike, you can’t make any sense of it. It’s a heinous act of hate. As we always do in this Central Florida community, we need to come together. And we need to try to band together as a community over this senseless tragedy and help educate people and bring them together. And create an atmosphere in our community as we do of inclusion and acceptance. And help educate people that these kind of things cannot happen, particularly in our community of Orlando, Florida.

Mike Bianchi: Alex, how do you heal from this?

Alex Martins: Well Mike, our community will heal because there are so many great things about our Central Florida community, including the fact that we are a community of inclusion and acceptance. We need to band together as we do during difficult times. And certainly the things that we have been through in the past pale in comparison to what happened to our community, and quite frankly our country and the world, over the weekend with Orlando as the focal point. Our community does a great job of coming together, whatever situation it is, that we need to come together to improve or heal and I know our community will. As a sports organization, we have the forum, we have the opportunity, we have the podium to be able to help our community heal and we’re going to do that. In the NBA in particular led by our Commissioner Adam Silver and David Stern before him, we’ve always been and will always be a league of inclusion and acceptance. We have celebrated that in many, many forms in our league, in our team, in our community and we will continue to do that. And we will utilize our podium, our forum as an opportunity to help the families that have been personally impacted by this, to help our community heal and to create the forum for our community to truly continue to be one of inclusion and acceptance for everybody in our Central Florida community.

Mike Bianchi: How can sports help a community heal? Is it just go out and entertain? How do you do it?

Alex Martins: No, it’s not just about entertainment. Of course, that’s our business and it helps distract people from the things that are of concern to them. In some ways, we will do that. But most importantly, we’re a forum because of the mass amount of people that follow us whether it’s through social media or through our fans or through our broadcasts, we have a forum to help educate. And we’ve tried to do that at the Orlando Magic in many, many different forums through our associations. Through the Chamber of Commerce for example, that celebrates every gender, ethnicity in our community, we’ll continue to do that. We’ll continue to partner with those in the LGBT community as we have over the course of the past several years to help educate our fans about the differences that exist among all of us. And we will also utilize our podium as a forum to help raise funds for those that have been personally impacted by this and need our financial assistance.

We have a great forum as a sports team with the hundreds of thousands and millions of followers of our league. I can’t tell you the outpouring of support that we as an organization have received from all of our member teams throughout the NBA over the course of the past 24 hours. It was overwhelming to me yesterday, the number of teams and the league – one of the first people that reached out to me yesterday morning was Commissioner Adam Silver, pledging his support and the support of the league to help our community heal, to help our community in any way that is necessary as a league to help us rebound from this tragic situation. We have an incredible network of sports teams and sports leagues and sports organizations, not just in this community, but throughout our entire country that stand ready to assist whether it’s financially or whether it’s through education or whether it’s utilizing the power and the forum of sport that we have to help impact the world.

We’ve done it in so many other instances. The sports world was one of the first to react after 9/11 and help in any way that they could in the New York City area and in Washington D.C. and the other communities that were affected by 9/11. I can remember in similar scale, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the NBA was one of the first leagues to go in immediately after and keep All-Star game there and have a complete day dedicated to service to rebuilding the Ninth Ward. These are the things that we have the forum and the podium to do as sports teams, because of our notoriety, because of our popularity. It’s our responsibility and we take it seriously. And we will utilize that podium and that forum to help those families who have been tragically impacted and to also help our community heal, particularly through education and helping our entire community understand that we are a community of differences. And we need to accept those differences and we need to embrace them. We truly need to come together like we come together at sports events. The interesting thing about sports events is that people from all walks of life come and cheer for one thing, one team. That’s what we need to do in this instance as a community. We need to band together in that same way to help rebound from this and to help those who have been personally impacted by it.

Mike Bianchi: You’ve been in this community a long time, how troubling is it that Orlando, the happiest place on Earth is now one of the most violent places on Earth, it seems like?

Alex Martins: Well, first of all, it certainly hurts. It hurts as someone who has lived in this community for some 25 years. You certainly hope that these things never happen in the world, Mike. And when they happen in other places, you certainly don’t believe that they can happen in your hometown. And unfortunately now, it’s happened. We will rebound from this. We will not be defined by this, because as a city, as a community, as a Central Florida community, we are much more than what one person can have an impact on us on. We are millions of Central Floridians that have developed this community. We’ve come together on many, many occasions to make this community better. And we will come together in this instance and rebound and ultimately get on the other side of this and get back to being the happiest place on Earth. We cannot be defined by one individual who had unbelievable hate, because that is not who we are as a community. We’re a community that truly comes together. We’re a community of inclusion. We’re a community of acceptance. And we will rebound from this, but it’s going to take some time. And we need to lean on each other and help each other get through this as a community. And ultimately we will come out on the other side of this and we will be Orlando as we have been and come together in a way that we always have.

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Magic CEO Alex Martins Reacts to Tragedy in Orlando

Good afternoon everybody… It is good to see everyone. I  wanted to start with a few brief statements to say how excited we are for our organization and team today to be able to welcome Frank as our new head coach. When we started this process in matter of days ago, it was important for us to find the right coach for the roster, and certainly for the organization. We feel very, very fortunate and lucky that a man of Frank’s character and coaching caliber happened to be available as we were looking for a new head coach. We are excited about Frank, we feel that he fits our team to a ‘T.’ We feel the things that he is about as a human being fit our organization. And we really feel good about everything Frank will be able to bring to this community and organization. Frank’s track record speaks for itself, as far as we are concerned. He is someone who has built a team of defense, first and foremost. He has shown over the years that he is someone that is able to mold and cultivate players, two very important things to us as we started this search. We could not be more excited as I said. And with that I would like to welcome the new head coach of the Orlando Magic – Frank Vogel.

Thanks, Rob. Thank you to the DeVos family, Alex Martins and Rob Hennigan for this great opportunity to be the head coach of the Orlando Magic. This team and organization has a great reputation. I have been an admirer and have great respect for what they have accomplished in the past and what they represent as a franchise. As the process played out, it became very clear to me early that this is the perfect place for me to continue my basketball journey. As I look at the overall situation, it also became clear that it is the right landing spot for my family. We are very excited to be here. The city of Orlando has so much to offer. My family and I are very much looking forward to calling ourselves Floridians. I want to commend Rob for putting together a heck of a roster. You have a lot of talent at a high character. That was one of the biggest attractions to this job for me, and wanting to take this job with the young core that he has put together. I think it is a core that will also be attractive to prospective free agents thinking about coming to play for our team. The future is bright for this group. In my mind this team is ready, ready to take the next step. We’ve got a great young core. We have the cap flexibly to add a key veteran or two … or three. And I think our fans should be really excited and have real reason to believe that we are at the beginning of what should be a great era in Magic basketball. We are going to play a similar type of play that we did at Indiana. We will have a defensive identity, which worked for us, but we will also play a style offensively where we adapt to the way today’s NBA game is played on the offensive end. We are going to play with pace. We are going to take advantage of the athleticism that we have on this roster, run the floor. We are also going to space the way that a lot of these teams are playing in today’s NBA. We are going to win. And we are going to have fun winning. I am excited about this group.

Can you get into specifics of players, who you like moving forward?

Frank: I like all of them. They’re my guys now. I like Evan Fournier, in the back of the room there. Victor [Oladipo], who was in the building, working out when I got here today.  I joked with Victor that we never really spent a whole lot of time together, maybe it is the Indiana connection or whatever, but we would always kind of make eye contact during games.  I feel like I have known him for 20 years.  We have good chemistry. I believe in Elfrid [Payton]. I believe in playing with defensive length, which he brings to the table. So establishing our defensive identity, he will be a part of.  Mario is a guy I was a big fan of at the draft last year. He wasn’t available when we chose, but he is a guy that I am excited about what he can become. I love his confidence. I love his athleticism, his ability to shoot the ball. He fits the way we want to play. Vooch [Nikola Vucevic] is a monster inside.  He kills us every time that he played. You can go on and on, down the roster, there is a lot to be excited about with this group. I am excited to get started.

How might your presence here help in the acquisition of free agents? Have you talked to Rob about this? With the limited information you have about Orlando, what do you think will be the lure to get guys to player here?

Frank: The biggest thing that free agents want to hear is ‘are they going to win?’ I believe they are going to win here. We’ve had some success at Indiana, making over a team at a similar point in their development that this team is at right now. We just need one or two veterans to come in, to help us get over the hump. But the number one thing that a free agent wants to hear is ‘are they going to win?’ and the pieces are in place here. We have had regular season success at Indiana, and we have had postseason success in Indiana, with the young core that we have here, I believe that we can take the big step with the right free agents.

How do you your principles in terms versatility and flexibility adjust to the style of play depending on the roster?

Frank: Every style is dictated by the personnel you have on your roster. We had some teams that were built around size and strength, so you have to play to that strength, play to that style of play. We did pick it up, from a play standpoint, dramatically this past season because we changed our personnel a little bit.  There was more a desire to do so. I have a great desire to play up and down, great desire. I feel like we have the athleticism and youth to achieve that, right away. As these guys grow they will get better year after year, but it is predicated on your personnel.

Everybody knows that this is a star-driven league; do you think that there are guys on this roster that can develop into superstars? And do you see a potential Paul George on this roster?

Frank: I do think there are guys that have the ability to take that next step, there are a few different ones. It is not like we’re coming into this situation and you got that one guy, and then we have to say that is the guy that is going to carry us.  Any of these guys that I mentioned earlier have the ability to explode, take the big jump. It will be my job to make sure that I am inspiring them, giving them discipline on the basketball court and showing them the way.

You built your reputation on defense; do you see the pieces in place to build a similar defense here?

Frank: Well, you can always add pieces. But I do feel like we have good athleticism, mobility and strength with this roster. I think length is a big factor in being a great defensive team, and we do have that. We have size at the rim. Obliviously, we are going to look at some other pieces, but I do feel like we have the pieces in place right now to be at least a very good defense.

There were quite a few vacancies right now around the league, you touched on this being the right landing spot for you and your family right now, but can you give us some detail as to why this was really a selling point, why you wanted to be here?

Frank: How long do you have? Everything about this job was appealing to me, starting with the ownership. I’ve got a lot of coaching friends in the business, in basketball and in other sports, that really when you talk about choosing jobs, you want to make sure that you have a strong ownership group and the reputation of the DeVos family is as good as it goods. So it starts there. I think after that you have to look at the interpersonal communications and relationships you’re going to have with your front office, the people you’re going to work with. And Rob and I, from the minute we picked up the phone with each other, I felt like we had a great connection. We have similar backgrounds; we both played Division III, we both lived in Boston around the same time. And we have similar leadership styles. We rely on the group to give great input. We know we don’t know it all. We make group decisions, and we study and we work. And we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We have sort of a ‘have fun but work our butts off’ type of mindset. From the ownership down to the front office, things looked good. The roster, as we talked about before was very, very attractive to me. Very attractive to me. I really see a lot of similarities to this team that I saw in the team we took over in Indiana with Lance Stephenson, Paul George, and Roy Hibbert. You know, still trying to find our way to get over that hump and became a monster in the East and I see that similarity there. I wanted to make sure my family was comfortable. My wife and I grew up in the Northeast but my daughters are sort of small-town girls, from the Midwest. And the similar market size here in Orlando, than what we had in Indiana, was very attractive to us as well. The weather, state taxes, Disney World. Those were probably at the bottom of the list but all still factors. You basically can check off every box, with the pros and cons you’re weighing, with this job versus other teams and I just think this is a great, great fit for me.

When you took over in Indiana your success came quite quickly, how quickly do you expect success to happen right here in Orlando?

Frank: If we don’t get a ring then it’s a failure. That’s the only way to look at this. Again, we don’t take ourselves too seriously here. We’re gonna win. It’s that simple. We’re going to go out, we’re going to work our tails off, we’re going to instill discipline, we’re going to inspire our guys. We’re going to develop our young players, we’re going to develop our veteran players into being better veterans and we’re going to win games. You know, obviously this group hasn’t been to the playoffs so, if you want to look for a bar of where we’re going to set the standard on our goals, we’re going to get into the playoffs this year. We’re going to start there, but more importantly to me, we’ve got to build something that we know can win in the playoffs. It’s not just about getting there, it’s about building the level of offensive sharing and passing, building the defensive toughness where you’re going to defend and rebound and it’s going to be hard to score against our team. So, that when you get into the playoffs you have a reasonable expectation that you’re going to succeed in the playoffs.

This is actually for Rob. Your relationship with Coach Vogel and having to approach player personnel, the roster, will that be different than the relationship you had with Coach Skiles and Coach Vaughn before that?

Rob: No, it’ll be the same, Joe. It will always be mutuality. Making sure we get in there and we collaborate and we talk about things as a group. We really do believe in the wisdom of multiple viewpoints and opinions. So, that’s one of the things that Frank and I talked about at length, was just how to arrive at decisions and just making sure that we’re focusing all our energy on trying to make the best decision together. So, yeah, it’ll stay the same as it’s always been.

It seems like in the past you’ve really enjoyed grooming young players and helping them grow into superstars. Is that true and do you look forward to that here?

Frank: Well, any teacher or coach derives his greatest pleasure in their profession or their process when they see their pupil succeed, so I would say I definitely enjoy that part of the game. And I do enjoy the preparation and strategy, the adjustments, the chess match and all that stuff. But, you know, watching your guys have success, when they work really hard for it, connecting with guys, inspiring guys, that’s the most rewarding part of any teacher or coach’s journey.

As quickly as this process went, with the conversation on Sunday, the conversation between the two of you on Monday, was there enough time to ensure that the two of you were philosophically aligned and temperamentally aligned?

Frank: I believe so. You know, it was one of those things that just my confidence level picked up speed as the process went along, comfortable in the first 15 minutes. Then once we’re an hour into it, really excited. Then once we got two hours into it, feeling like this is the spot for me. It was that quick and accelerated. So, we did talk about everything you can talk about in terms of what our relationship is going to look like, the direction of team, the style of play, how we execute practices, all those types of things.

Rob: I agree with everything Frank just said.

Talk about what the timetable will be now to finalize this coaching staff. What are you looking for in your staff? What type of voices do you want? And between you two Division III guys, who would win a game of one-on-one?

Frank: He’s nine years younger than me. Nine years ago I would’ve kicked his butt. I wouldn’t today. But I wouldn’t finish the game; I’d pull a calf muscle or something. The coaching staff is something that is going to take some time to put together. I don’t expect to have a big staff. But we’re going to sit together, discuss all the names that I’m interested in, gather some of his names, and like everything we’re going to do going forward, it will be a group effort, and we’ll choose the people that put us in the best position to have success. But one the thing I would say is that the coaching staff, to me is, the chemistry of your staff is just as important as the chemistry of your team. So, as we add guys, we will add the next two or three guys to complement that first selection.

When you were an assistant with the Celtics and Rob was playing Division III basketball at Emerson were you guys aware of each other at all back then?

Rob: I was aware of Frank because he was working for the Celtics. I’m sure he wasn’t aware of me.

Also, Rob, was there any sense of urgency because other teams were looking for coaches and obviously Coach Vogel was in the mix?

Rob: There certainly was a sense of urgency just because of the way things shook out and obviously there were other vacancies. So, we knew we had to move quickly and we did move quickly, but Frank’s name obviously was available and we got to know Frank and it became very obvious for us that we had reason to move as quickly as we did.

Veteran coaches have been through these types of situation before when one organization lets them go for various reasons and then they become the favorite for a new organization. Going through this process for the first time, in your young coaching career, and Larry Bird kind of admitted that you were campaigning to keep your job, can you just share what this roller coaster has been like for you?

Frank: It’s been a really crazy time, to be honest with you. Probably the craziest two weeks of my life. Just from the emotions of being let go by the Pacers to just figuring out what our next step was. The phone was ringing, so that was a good thing. It was a good kind of chaos. There was interest. I enjoyed meeting with some of the other teams that I met with. Ultimately, finding this situation here, with everything aligning to the ways or the things that I was looking for, for my family, for my career, that part made it a joyful time, as opposed to a stressful time, knowing that the opportunity to have a job like this as one of the options, and let’s go for that one more than the rest, and then getting it, was a very exciting thing for me. We’re excited to be down here.

You said you liked the roster, and you mentioned some of the guys by name. There’s a lot of cap space out there, what exactly do you think you need?

Frank: Well, we need some tough guys. Some tough guys that our leaders, and I think bringing in a guy that has a presence about him that the younger players will respect, both with his presence, his voice, his approach. But also the ability to kick some tail on the court, to deliver on the court, that’s the best way to lead. So, I think we’ll be looking for that, a guy that has that experience, that winning experience. But can lead in the locker room but with his play as well.

Have you had any conversations with Coach Skiles or do you anticipate having a conversation with him about what his concerns were so that you can address or resolve those going forward?

Frank: I have not talked to him. I don’t plan on talking to him. I believe every situation is different. I’ve seen a number of relationships not work out that are completely different than what my relationship would be. I like to make my own judgements on people and situations and I’ve done that in conversations that we’ve talked about with all the people in this organization I feel good about what it looks like and what it’s going to be like for us here, and I don’t intend to have any further conversations with coach.

What have the conversations been like with your current players here, I know everybody’s kind of scattered all over the place, and what’s been your single message and also when do you plan to get everybody on board? What’s that first step with everybody?

Frank: Well it’s summer, it’s tough because everybody’s scattered. I do want to get in front of all of our guys face-to-face as quickly as possible. Hopefully most of those meetings can happen here in Orlando, but if I have to travel to see someone, we’ll travel to see someone. But the main message is ‘we’re going to win.’ We’ve got the formula, we have the ability, we’re ready from the standpoint of our growing pains being behind us. We’re going to add a key couple of free agents and this is going to happen. Be excited about what we’re about to embark on.

Alex: It was a quick timetable. A lot of it was driven by the fact that Frank [Vogel] was available and in high demand. Although, I felt Rob and we were thorough about the process, we did move expeditiously.

Alex: Once we quickly got over the realism of Scott [Skiles] departing, we immediately had Frank on our list. We were aware of the fact that he had been interviewing already. We were aware of the fact that he potentially had an offer from another team already. And so, we knew that we had to move very, very quickly. We moved quickly over the weekend, Rob spent, as he said, a considerable about of time with him on the telephone first. And then we moved quickly as we were in Grand Rapids for our quarterly meeting with the family, we quickly got Frank to Grand Rapids on Monday.

Even though the wins have not been there, what does that say about the organization that you can get a coach of his caliber?

Alex: Well, first and foremost, and Frank said it himself, we do have a reputation of winning. Over the years, this organization has won quite significantly, one of the few teams that have been able to go to two separate NBA Finals. We are still amongst the East leaders in playoff appearances over the last 20 years. I think Frank saw through the fact that we have been rebuilding. It takes some time to do that, but he also recognizes that we’ve got quite a bit of talent on the roster that he’s excited about coaching. He feels he can get us back to the playoffs, as he said, quickly.

What are your thoughts when he says that we are going to go to the playoffs this year?

Alex: We believe him. It is exactly what we feel. We feel like we were on that path before. To add his experience of having been to the playoffs, five of the last six years, having been to the Eastern Conference Finals twice in the last six years – it is one of those pieces that we talked about, in addition to veteran players, that is necessary to tell our young guys who have never been there, how to get there. And to truly transition them from not having been to the playoffs to regularly being in the playoffs, that level of experience for somebody who hasn’t been there - you can only say it, but for someone who has been there, you can prove it and you can talk in detail about how we’re going to get there. We believe Frank is going to be able to do that right away.

Is there any thought amongst the organization that Scott leaving was a blessing in disguise?

Alex: No departure is fun. Obviously it is part of our business, but I am a firm believer that when one door closes a better one can open. We believe that could be the case here. As the door closed on Scott’s short tenure here, the door opened for us to be able to attract a coach of Frank’s caliber and of his success. We believe it opens a door that could be a lot more successful.

The response from the fans has been overwhelmingly positive, since you have had such a long tenure with the team – is the excitement level towards this coach the highest you have ever seen?

Alex: You know, as I look back on all of our coaching hires, the closest I will equate it to is when we hired Stan Van Gundy. But I also believe that at that point in time, Frank comes in with a greater track record as it relates to having been to the Eastern Conference Finals twice and has been to the playoffs five of the last six years; the only year being the year that Paul George was unavailable because of his broken leg. Of course, they are going to be excited, they see the track record. In that regard, I would agree with you, I would say ‘yes,’ the fans seem to be excited for this Magic coach as they have ever been.

Have you spoken to players at this point to get a sense of how they are feeling?

Alex: I have spoken to a few of them, particularly the guys who are here today. They are very excited about it. They, like the fans, recognize that Frank’s been there. He’s been successful. He’s gotten to the Eastern Conference Finals. It’s where they want to go. So, it excites them to have that kind of leader.

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Frank Vogel's Introductory Press Conference Transcript

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We appreciate your understanding and flexibility.

Due to Tropical Storm Nicole, the NBA has announced that the Dallas Mavericks at Orlando Magic game on Wednesday, November 9 will tip-off at 5:30 PM. Amway Center doors open at 4:30 PM.