ORLANDO - In all of his infinite wisdom, Pat Williams was dead-on accurate back in the mid-1980s that NBA basketball would be able to thrive in a relatively small city such as Orlando because of the enormous passion and potential there.
Where Williams was also dead-on accurate was the manner in which he constructed the first Magic roster for the 1989-90 NBA season. Then the GM of the Magic – in addition to also being the franchise’s co-founder and top pitchman – Williams made sure to stockpile that inaugural squad with gritty veterans who would keep the Magic in the fight most nights against more established teams.
Ultimately, a veteran-laden roster led by Reggie Theus, Jerry ``Ice’’ Reynolds and Terry Catledge helped Orlando capture the franchise’s first victory in just its second game in existence – a 118-109 defeat of the Patrick Ewing-led New York Knicks on Nov. 6, 1989.
With the NBA season suspended in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, Fox Sports Florida will be using the next two weeks to show select classic games from the Magic’s glorious, 31-year history. After debuting the Magic’s first-ever preseason game – an Orlando defeat of the defending champion Detroit Pistons – on Saturday, Fox Sports Florida will be re-airing the first official NBA win on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The Magic’s debut in Central Florida, when they toppled Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Bill Laimbeer’s Pistons, will be re-aired at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Beating the Knicks and winning so early in their first season was important for the Magic, who had witnessed the rival Miami Heat open their first NBA season 0-17 a year earlier. Williams avoided suffering through a similar fate by selecting Sidney Green (a six-year NBA veteran at the time), Theus (an 11-year NBA veteran at the time), Catledge (a four-year NBA veteran at the time), Sam Vincent (a four-year NBA veteran at the time), Otis Smith (a three-year NBA veteran at the time), Scott Skiles (a three-year NBA veteran at the time) and Reynolds (a four-year NBA veteran at the time) in the NBA expansion draft several months earlier.
``When Pat Williams put the team together, he wanted some veteran players mixed with the young guys,’’ recalled Jeff Turner, a sweet-shooting power forward on that first Magic team and currently a television color analyst for Fox Sports Florida.
``When Miami came into the league – and Charlotte, to a certain degree as well – they had a lot of young guys. Miami, in particular, was determined to play a lot of their young guys,’’ added Turner, who had two points, two rebounds and a steal in the franchise’s first victory over the Knicks. ``But Pat (Williams) had a good feel for the league and knew that we needed to be able to score and have veteran players. So, going out in the expansion draft and getting Reggie Theus, Sidney Green and Terry Catledge, that gave us some guys who were very capable of putting up good numbers right away. We weren’t going to get blown out as much. We only won 18 games, but we were pretty competitive because we had guys who had been starters for different teams before coming to Orlando.’’
That veteran toughness and savvy paid off in a big way early in that first season. After Orlando squandered a shot at a first victory two nights earlier in its NBA opener – a 111-106 loss to the New Jersey Nets that was tied at 105 with 1:13 to play – it didn’t wobble late against the Knicks. The Magic delighted the sell-out crowd of 15,077 fans at Orlando Arena with an eight-point victory behind big games from Theus (24 points), Reynolds (19 points and 12 rebounds), Catledge (19 points and 11 rebounds) and Scott Skiles (13 points, eight assists and two steals). It was enough to help the Magic overcome 29 points and eight rebounds from Ewing, the Knicks’ star who battled down low all night with Magic center Dave Corzine (12 points and nine rebounds).
``I’ll never forget that night, boy!’’ exclaimed Magic Hall of Famer Nick Anderson, who had two points in nine minutes off the bench that 1989 night in just his second NBA game. ``You could just see the looks on the Knicks faces. They were all like, `No, we didn’t just lose to an expansion team!’ We shocked them and showed them that we were a real team. It was just really cool for us because we beat a team with Patrick Ewing, one of the 50 greatest players of all time. He was young and dominant, and he was the Patrick Ewing who was a great player then. That was so cool for us as a young team.’’
That night, Orlando shot 50.5 percent and it was just one-of-two from 3-point line – almost unheard-of numbers in today’s space-and-pace NBA game. Then-head coach Matt Goukas used all 12 Magic players in that game, with Otis Smith being the only one who failed to score in the first victory in franchise history.
Anderson, who would go on to become one of Orlando’s most decorated players in his 10 seasons while playing for the Magic, also remembers the unadulterated joy shown by Magic fans following that first victory. It came about, Anderson admitted, because that first Magic team was wisely loaded with solid NBA veterans.
``It was my first year in the NBA, but for the rest of our players, they had been around the block before in the NBA,’’ Anderson remembered. ``But for the city of Orlando, getting that first win was so great for them. It showed them, `Hey, we have NBA basketball here and we have arrived.’ It was such a great feeling for all of us.’’
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